Huge spider webs engulfs Australian towns after floods
Another town in south-east Australia has found itself completely covered in spider webs after after several days of heavy rain and floods hit the area.
Victoria's Gippsland region has been swamped by vast, other worldly sheets of web as spiders climb to higher ground following the disruption of wild weather.
It's the latest plague to hit the area, after mice rampaged through parts of the state, again linked to extreme weather.
The webs were formed by sheet web spiders, and experts believe that it takes millions of these spiders to weave a blanket of webs.
Dr Ken Walker, senior insects curator at Museums Victoria, told local press the spiders use their silk like a grappling hook to hoist themselves out of the way of floodwaters.
"Ground-dwelling spiders need to get off the ground very quickly. The silk snakes up and catches onto vegetation and they can escape," he told The Age.
"It also shows the literally tens of thousands, if not millions, of spiders at ground level. Without spiders, we’d have plagues of insects."
Heavy rains and floods left more than 56,000 residents throughout Victoria without electricity over the weekend of June 11, according to the energy company AusNet.
Evacuation orders were issued by Victorian emergency authorities on June 12, for those living near Traralgon Creek, according to local reports.
Two people were reportedly killed by the floods, according to Victoria state police.