Arachnophobia comes to life at Lake Bob Sandlin
The scene is one straight out of the 1990 film “Arachnophobia,” where spider webs covered a barn and house and the spiders responsible eventually terrorized a town. Massive spider webs crafted by thousands of long-jawed orbweavers are a fleeting attraction that has to be seen to be believed at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park.
Luckily, the spiders at the state park aren't deadly or aggressive – much to the relief of park staff. Webs cover a huge area, from the tops of trees to the ground at the multi-use bathroom area between the Fort Sherman and Cherokee Trace camping areas.
Similar huge webs were spotted in 2007 at Lake Tawakoni State Park and again this summer in Rowlett, Texas. Lake Tawakoni and Rowlett are approximately 35 miles apart. Approximately 70 miles separate Tawakoni and Lake Bob Sandlin.
Mike Merchant, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service urban entomologist in Dallas said he researched the residents on the Rowlett webs and sent off his findings to arachnologists who determined they are variations of tetragnatha guatemalensis, or long-jawed orbweavers.
“I'm not an expert in spiders, so I rely on other people,” he said. “When we sent in the (Rowlett) web, they found nine different families of spiders, but there could have been 20 species or more.”
Lake Bob Sandlin State Park ranger Cliff Daily said he feels there are several different families in the park's web, as well. After the webbing obscured a security light in front of the bathroom, crews worked to remove it and found hundreds of arachnids inside.
“All different types came out of it,” Mr. Daily said. “I've never seen anything like it. When you look closely at the webs, you can see different types of spiders in it.”
Mr. Merchant said the long-jawed orbweaver is not known for being aggressive to other spiders or humans, so there's been no reason for park officials to work on removing the webs.
It's likely the communal webs are forming due to the right conditions at the right place at the right time.
“All these cases seem to be associated with bodies of water nearby, so probably what's happening is there are a high number of midges or tiny flies that are providing food for the spiders,” Mr. Merchant said. “Other spiders seem to come in and take advantage of the infrastructure the long-jawed spiders are building, then build their own. They're taking advantage of high resources of food.”
The webs at Lake Bob Sandlin will be around for as long as the spiders keep up their busy work, Mr. Daily said.
“We have decided to leave it alone and see what happens,” he said. “I think it's neat, especially at this time of year. With Halloween coming up, we're going to leave it up and see how big it gets. I don't see anything here that's going to affect any campers unless they walk into it.”
Mr. Daily jokes that unless they find a camper strung up in the web, it should be a harmless feature at the park.
“This is the only spot where we've found anything like this,” he said. “It's going to be interesting to see how big it gets and see how long it lasts. It just keeps growing. We're going to try not to mess with it. It's Mother Nature.”
So far, these massive webs seem to be an anomaly in Texas, but Mr. Merchant said they're probably more common that folks realize.
“I don't know of any real reason they're increasing in number,” he said. “I think it's more likely that these things have always been around and no one paid attention to them. Sometimes you don't know what to look for until you find it the first time.”
By Tori Lyle, news@campcountynow.com -
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