Spider Web Covers Field

doconnor writes "A huge spider web covering a clover field was found by biology professor Brian Thair. It was made by millions of spiders and was thick enough to hold coins. It wasn't sticky for catching insects. It's not known why the spiders did it. CBC News has an article and an interview in RealAudio."

Comments

The spiders were probably..

[Kaeru the Frog]

..tired of people throwing coins at them.

Check the World Record

[immanis]

from Guinnes Book Of World Records :

Largest Outdoor Spiders' Web In October, 1998, a cobweb that covered the entire 4.54-ha (11.2-acre) playing field at Kineton High School, Warwick, England, was discovered by Ken Thompson - the school's caretaker. It had been created by thousands of black money spiders.

I seem to remember another huge one that was ongoing, but I don;t remember where I saw it...

Re:Check the World Record

[GigsVT]

discovered by Ken Thompson

What they don't tell you is that this was the inspiration for the network centric nature of UNIX. Thompson, being a visionary, knew that there eventually would be a world wide web of UNIX systems.

Re:Check the World Record

[Sprunkys]

Can anyone please explain how you miss something like that growing?

Do these spiders do this in one night, or did the caretaker (and everyone else using the playing field) suddenly realize that grass really shouldn't be white?

Re:Check the World Record

[lommer]

Well, that should make this a new record then, and by an enormous margin as they supposedly discovered "a silky, white web stretching 60 hectares across a field."*

*emphasis added

Re:Check the World Record

[canadian_right]

I'm not totally sure about spiders that do the fluffly trampoline style webs, but orb weavers do a new web each day, and it takes them 2 to 3 hours to weave it. Most likely the giant web did in fact fact appear overnight.

Just a misunderstanding

[L. VeGas]

They heard about the World Wide Web and assumed it was their responsibility.

bwaaaa haaa haaa

What the spiders were thingking:

[Unknown Poltroon]

1. Spin big web.
2: ??????????
3: Big Profits!!!

Re:What the spiders were thingking:

[falzer]

Finally step two has been found:
2: Get people to put coins on the web.

Eight legged freaks?

[macdaddy357]

A giant web that might be strong enough to catch people! That would be really scary if the story included a picture.

Re:Eight legged freaks?

[wkitchen]

A giant web that might be strong enough to catch people! That would be really scary if the story included a picture.

I've had spiders build webs accross the frame of my front door. I can just imagine the spider thinking, "Oh man, if I can catch just one of those things, I'll never go hungry again!"

Ssshhh...

[jki]

There were "in the order of tens of millions of spiders running frantically back and forth," but they weren't interacting with each other. Since the spiders didn't seem to care if an occasional insect stumbled into their construction, Thair doesn't think it was built for trapping purposes.

Don't tell anyone, but I think I have found a secret way to control the spiders by using gnuplot...

It's obvious why the spiders did it...

[psyconaut]

...they were tired of making damn crop circles trying to get our attention!!!!

DUH! ;-)

-psy

wow

[tps12]

Sounds like a job for young Bilbo Baggins and his faithful Elven blade, Sting!

Protection...

[camelrider]

...from the Leonid meteor shower, of course.

Uh

[nosferatu-man]

Remind me to stay out of Northern British Columbia. As if the man eating grizzlies and cougars weren't enough.

'jfb

Radio Telescope

[heliocentric]

I think they are trying to receive communications from deep space and begin their plans for place travel. This is just to compete with the humans at the Arecibo radio telescope.

Re:Scientist burns penis with hot laptop

[redfiche]

It was rejected.

Oh dear god!

[Syncdata]

Brian Thair of the College of New Caledonia in Prince George said he saw a silky, white web stretching 60 hectares across a field.
This is the end, my friends. Spiders have developed civilization, and their system of measurement is Hectares. Batton down the hatches!

Worst.Journalism.Ever

[Syncdata]

Please, whatever you in the CBC online news staff do, don't tell me what species of spider it was that built this structure. Oh, and also, don't include a photo, because I'm sure noone would want to see an image of this anomoly. Do your best just to speculate about why they built the web, and make sure to include a funny joke at the end, something about aliens perhaps.

Re:Worst.Journalism.Ever

[lommer]

It's a radio show that's covering this story, so why the hell would they want pictures? The website you are looking at is the web-presence of the radio show, and isn't supposed to be anything more.

As another poster mentioned, the reason they didn't give you the species of the spider is because it hasn't been determined yet.

And, IMHO, the CBC is a damn good news reporting agency.

Well duh...

[nathanh]

It was made by millions of spiders and was thick enough to hold coins. It wasn't sticky for catching insects. It's not known why the spiders did it.

The spiders aren't trying to catch insects anymore. They're trying to catch entymologists. Far more meat on a 40 year old scientist than a 2 month old beetle.

Clusterweb?

[dacarr]

Perhaps they were trying to put together a beowulf cluster.

Species is not yet known

[shfted!]

I'm from Prince George. The story and pictures have been in the local papers for a couple weeks. The species of spider has not yet been identified, so how could they tell you what it is? Don't be so judgemental.

Re:Species is not yet known

[shfted!]

Since all the papers are lame around here (only 80,000 in the city, so they see no need for a web archive), i can't help you out.

Re:Species is not yet known

[richie2000]

they see no need for a web archive

*groan* If you did that one on purpose, I will hunt you down and give you karma. By force, if necessary!

They probably read slashdot...

[Taper]

The spiders probably saw this story and decided, heck, let's catch us a plane...

That's gotta be it

[helix400]

It was made by millions of spiders and was thick enough to hold coins. It wasn't sticky for catching insects. It's not known why the spiders did it.

They did it because they can.

Sorry, my bad

[Caractacus Potts]

Sorry, those were my genetically modified spiders. No need to be alarmed, it won't happen again.

...a Simpsons reference!

[c.emmertfoster]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just lost the picture.
But what we've seen speaks for itself.
The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, conquered if you will, by a master race of giant space ants.
It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them.
One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them the ants will soon be here.
And I for one welcome our new insect overlords.
Would like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar cave.

Re:Scientist burns penis with hot laptop

[R.Caley]

[the story] was rejected.

Clearly /. are supressing this story while they buy in a range of caffine-enhanced burn treatment products for sale on thinkgeek.

Re:I neard about this on NPR

[corbettw]

You heard it on NPR, and wonder where the pictures were.... Tell me, what color is the sky in your world?

Just a thought

[teamhasnoi]

Perhaps it was to keep insects IN the field?

OR something FAR MORE SINISTER!

Link changes

[hether]

I went back to read this and now the article links to a story about the son of a drug boss being arrested. Not near as interesting as huge spider webs. :(

Why no pictures?

[Mustang Matt]

I would have liked to have seen a picture of this.