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326
327

Trees cocooned in spider webs following Pakistani floods (farm6.static.flickr.com)

submitted ago by dsato

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[–]dsato[S] 85 points86 points ago

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From the UK Department for International Development:

"An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters.

Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs. People in this part of Sindh have never seen this phenonemon before - but they also report that there are now less mosquitos than they would expect, given the amoungt of stagnant, standing water that is around.

It is thought that the mosquitos are getting caught in the spiders web thus reducing the risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for the people of Sindh, facing so many other hardships after the floods."

[–]Hello-Ginge 32 points33 points ago

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It looks cool as fuck and it serves a function - those webs accomplish more than most of my shoes.

[–]sandozguineapig 9 points10 points ago

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It can't happen here!

[–]dalgeek 9 points10 points ago

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Damn, you beat me to it! I went out there to see the webs at Tawakoni, and it was pretty awesome. By time I got there the webs were brown from the millions of mosquitoes that were captured. Walking under trees that contain thousands of spider feels a bit creepy.

http://i.imgur.com/k9es1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mJtLE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Lulhw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xU6v3.jpg

And the little guys responsible for this:

http://i.imgur.com/Bjwfw.jpg

Damn nature, you scary!

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points ago

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That is a place I do not want to be. Ever.

[–][deleted] ago

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[deleted]

[–]beamoflaser 2 points3 points ago

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Kill it with fire so that mosquitoes can kill everyone else with malaria?

[–]Three_Word_Guy 2 points3 points ago

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After the floods.

[–]spattem 2 points3 points ago

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No, first let the spiders kill the mosquitoes. THEN KILL THEM WITH FIRE!

[–]15ferret 0 points1 point ago

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after they eat all the mosquitoes they will eat each other then die of starvation.

[–]dalgeek 0 points1 point ago

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The whole time I was out there I didn't see or feel a single mosquito. The spiders did their job well!

[–]TlCKETS 1 point2 points ago

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Spider webs are fairly flammable. I bet one of those trees would go up in seconds if you held a flame to it.

[–]xenmate2 1 point2 points ago

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Oh cool, it can also happen in London?
clicks
oh...

[–]seagullsong 5 points6 points ago

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Millions of spiders. Millions of spiders. D:

[–]Pravusmentis 8 points9 points ago

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fuck everything about that (except the less mosquitos part)

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

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Okay, I must be misunderstanding something here.

How could the spiders have reduced the mosquito population? Isn't the contention of this article that these are mostly spiders who existed before the floods, but who were forced into the trees during the floods?

If so, presumably the spiders' web design (heh) was already optimized before the floods, and then was disrupted during the floods. We see a high concentration of webs in certain areas, but over-all there should actually be fewer webs than usual. I would expect the mosquito population to increase, or at least not decrease.

If the mosquito population has actually decreased as a result of spiders, this should imply that the spider population has increased, not just relocated. Unless somehow the spiders' diet has shifted to be more mosquito-heavy, in which case there is just some other bug that has benefited from the situation.

[–]Citizen_Kong 4 points5 points ago

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Hm, I think I read in an article about the social spiders (link in one of the other comments), that they catch more prey in these vast nets than in singular nets. So, that might explain it.

[–]rlanantelope 3 points4 points ago

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It's easier to catch fish with a bigger net.

[–]therewillbdownvotes 2 points3 points ago

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If you look at the first comment carefully it says "less given the amount of stagnant water". So probably not less overall mosquitoes, just less given the circumstances

[–]princess_apricot 1 point2 points ago

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They still get caught in the webbing, doesn't necessarily mean that they all get eaten.

[–]knut_is_dood 0 points1 point ago*

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What a delightful juice of information. Thanks.

[–][deleted] 93 points94 points ago

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THIS is what /r/pics is for. Interesting picture, unique...not some dumb picture of your stupid dog/cat...I love it. Thanks for the submission.

[–]tom83 6 points7 points ago

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dude, pics are so hot on the net because they are fucking fast. you only need to spend 1-4 seconds on a single pic. A video usually runs for at least 20 seconds, loads considerably longer and occupies the audio equipment. Pics are also smaller and easier to create (see image macros). Often videos even get condensed into gifs and get treated as pictures.

Users often load several pics into different tabs to cycle very fast through them or view them conviently on a single page (picdump).

So, a subreddit that accumulates pictures is in no way for 'deep content' but a fast and easy destraction which aims at creating the most chuckles per second.

[–]Allurex 8 points9 points ago

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But the dogs are SOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUTE!

[–]CostcoMuffins 19 points20 points ago*

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r/aww

You're welcome.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points ago

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if you're wondering why that link didn't work - you need to start the address with http://

[–]CostcoMuffins 2 points3 points ago

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Thanks. Fixed. The RES preview showed the link as working, oh well.

[–]amorpheus 0 points1 point ago

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Get my brother to the front page!

[–]BadgerNose 6 points7 points ago

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I thought it looked more like the work of silk worms.

[–]Hello-Ginge 11 points12 points ago

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Nah, its just spiderman - he's a dickhead when he's drunk

[–]HittingSmoke 1 point2 points ago

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So did I. Every few years in WA we get overrun by them and and up with trees coated very similar to this in the spring/summer

[–]insideoutfit 10 points11 points ago

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Absolutely terrifying.

[–]TheTwilightPrince 4 points5 points ago

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Lots of fire. From a loooooooong distance.

[–]insideoutfit 1 point2 points ago

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I could just imagine an opaque wave of little demons scurrying towards me...Jesus Christ.

[–]thebillgonadz -1 points0 points ago

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An opaque FIRE wave.

[–]Azurphax 4 points5 points ago

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I wish I had a few of these near my house, fuck mosquitoes

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

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OH GOD BURN IT ALL TO THE GROUND!!!

[–]SenselessNoise 8 points9 points ago

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Relevant

[–]rankao 4 points5 points ago

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Yeah I definitely have a mild case of Acrophobia. The more numerous they become the more terrified I become. Let me just say that the concept of a cocooned tree of spiders scares the fuck out of me.

[–]Allfurious 3 points4 points ago

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FTFY Yeah I definitely have a mild case of Arachnophobia. The more numerous they become the more terrified I become. Let me just say that the concept of a cocooned tree of spiders scares the fuck out of me.

[–]dlpwillywonka 2 points3 points ago

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Yeah I definitely have a mild case of Acrophobia. The higher up I go the more terrified I become. Let me just say that the concept of a tree really high up in the air scares the fuck out of me.

FTFY

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points ago

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Nuke that shit

[–]amorpheus 2 points3 points ago

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Take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points ago

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Tarantula's bulbousy ass in your mouth. Then you bite down on it.

I hope that image helps you sleep at night.

[–]bijibijmak 1 point2 points ago

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJRpXYs1pQA

[–]StreetMailbox 0 points1 point ago

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"...an explosion of puss in my mouth..."

ಠ_ಠ

[–]notenoughcharacters9 1 point2 points ago

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that reminded me of x-files....

[–]Ta_Da 5 points6 points ago

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Sorry, but they're a bit...

sunglasses

...Tied up at the moment.

[–]victoriaaaaaa 3 points4 points ago

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YYYYEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

[–]Halojatahoo 2 points3 points ago

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Impressive! Like a bukkake of the spiderwebs!

[–]Pravusmentis 1 point2 points ago

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get it away from me

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

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they'll probably find a body in there from the guy who climbed the tree to escape the water and got dieded by the spyders

[–]danyim 9 points10 points ago

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got dieded

Must...stop...urge...to...berate......

[–]machogun 1 point2 points ago

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Thanks for the nightmares.

[–]shouldwerun 1 point2 points ago

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Burn it with fire! Then run away!

[–]thehotmageaeris 2 points3 points ago

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This thread is full of pussies. It's sucks that such a small and useful creature is so "scary" through social conditioning.

[–]alexanderls 2 points3 points ago

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Yes definitely. Spiders are actually, IMO, better than most bugs, because they eat mosquitoes. And if there's one bug I hate, it's god damn mosquitoes. My blood is fucking delicious apparently.

[–]wordddd 0 points1 point ago

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What I really despise about mosquitoes is that they like to annoy and bug their human meal to the extent of completely ruining his/her sleep, with their incessant buzzing and what not.

God darn it, suck my blood to your heart's content but for f*ck's sake stop buzzing around my ears.

In other news, I read somewhere that an average mosquito flaps its tiny wings at 300 times/sec during flight.

[–]RatherLargeBoots 0 points1 point ago

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Would anyone else spray into that with a paintball gun?

[–]Syntaxuser 0 points1 point ago

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raises feet off the floor

[–]ebcreasoner 0 points1 point ago

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Watch your head, too.

[–]Gangringo 0 points1 point ago

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You are now aware of a spider crawling on your calf.

[–]cwstjnobbs 2 points3 points ago

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Jokes on you, I'm a shepherd.

[–]seriouschris 2 points3 points ago

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Reddit: Sheepishly afraid of spiders.

[–]Tekkiethetektite 0 points1 point ago

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We have something like that here in Alabama, but they're some kind of silkworm.

[–]seagullsong 0 points1 point ago

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This reminds me of a nightmare I had once where I was reading in bed, and then looked up to realize that the whole house was just made of spiders. And spiderwebs as well. The walls, the floor, the ceiling...just millions of spiders writhing around, but staying in their place as the creepiest building material ever.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

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Should be on r/nosleep. SCARY.

[–]Pollo_Bueno 0 points1 point ago

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This is awesome.

[–]ownworldman 0 points1 point ago

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DAE read the John Wyndham novel?

[–]estacado 0 points1 point ago

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How do the trees know where the floods are going?

[–]washer 0 points1 point ago

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It looked like an impressionist painting til I focused on the incredibly vibrant figure in the bottom left. Screw that guy, it's a painting in my head now.

[–]VegaThePunisher 0 points1 point ago

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That is one of the coolest things ever.

[–]Blufinn 0 points1 point ago

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Poke it with a stick!

[–]ninaartist 0 points1 point ago

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wow!

[–]alicapwn 0 points1 point ago

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This is evolution man.

[–]caimen 0 points1 point ago

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ill be sleeping with my flamethrower tonight.

[–]Zampan0 0 points1 point ago

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battle royale! with spiders.

[–]novembr 0 points1 point ago

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aww dude that's a cool website

[–]justbecausewhynot 0 points1 point ago

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In other news trees in Pakistan are now 40% more flammable.

[–]wordddd 0 points1 point ago

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And now we go to our Asian reporter, Trisha Takanova with more on this story.

[–]trishatakanawa 0 points1 point ago

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yes, tom well it appears these trees have spider webs in them.

[–]wordddd 0 points1 point ago

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Thanks, Trisha.

And now we go to Ali with updates on weather. Ali?

[–]oliwilliams 0 points1 point ago

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WHO WANTS THIS DOG?

[–]victoriaaaaaa 0 points1 point ago

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That gave me the creeps. So bummed out.

[–]Coug_at_heart 0 points1 point ago

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Reason #231 on why I will not be visiting Pakistan.

[–]djchoragos -1 points0 points ago

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Fire

Now.

[–]TheDoppleganger -1 points0 points ago

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Am I the only one who saw this and the first thing to pop into my mind: Flamethrower. I'm not getting anywhere near anything like that.

[–][deleted] -3 points-2 points ago

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Fuck everything about that.

[–]casc1701 -2 points-1 points ago

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That´s why the entire world must nuke Pakistan.

[–]wordddd 0 points1 point ago

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Thank goodness you or people like yourself are not in a position of authority.

[–]Hades42 -1 points0 points ago

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Nuke it from orbit.

[–]bananakonda 1 point2 points ago

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Reason #38 for carpetnuking the middle east.

[–]whatyou -1 points0 points ago

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this seems applicable

[–]crystalbluecurrents -1 points0 points ago

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shivers

[–]Funnyguy17 -4 points-3 points ago

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there is only one solution Molotov cocktails lol

[–]PointsOutObvious -2 points-1 points ago

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Tree.

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