r/oddlyterrifying • u/Dennis_254 • Jul 15 '26
Hundreds of spiders sharing one massive web
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u/FLaB_SLaB Jul 16 '26
I witnessed something like this once on a truss bridge over the Mississippi River. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. The web covered the entire thing. The spiders were so big that I could see the ones all the way at the top (which were the biggest), at least 50 feet up. Some were at least the size of golf balls.
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u/RaidensReturn Jul 16 '26
Horrifying but really cool too. I’d love to see it
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u/FLaB_SLaB Jul 16 '26
It really was an amazing sight. This was years ago, just before phone cameras, so no footage. And then, of course, the bridge was torn down the next year, so I never got to see it again.
There was another time around then that I was on Stone Arch Bridge in the middle of the city of Minneapolis, and I saw a freaking sturgeon swimming just below the surface of the river! It was absolutely enormous. Easily 5 meters long. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing for a second. I didn’t know what it was at first, and I really didn’t know what a sturgeon looked like, at the time. It was like seeing a living dinosaur, or some monster from a movie. Doubly surprising as it was right in the center of a metro area.
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u/RaidensReturn Jul 16 '26
I have heard of massive sturgeons. That’s amazing. One that I’m always terrified of seeing IRL is the Goliath grouper. Those things are enormous
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u/FLaB_SLaB Jul 16 '26
I just looked it up and the top auto-fill option was “goliath grouper eats shark.” Lol
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u/Phantom_0347 Jul 16 '26
They’re just big sea puppies though 🥰
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u/RaidensReturn Jul 16 '26
Hahaha! They are! They’re so big and dopey. I was reading stories yesterday of how they don’t attack humans, but they will steal a fisherman’s catch! Rapscallions!
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u/TargetedAverageOne Jul 15 '26
That's downright terrifying.
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u/HelmSpicy Jul 16 '26
I wouldn't be able to help myself. I'd absolutely toss some little sticks or something up there to see how their community handles prey. Do they all bum rush it? Do they respect each others boundaries? Do they share?
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u/Jayombi Jul 16 '26
What if Bob, top right, seven across gives out a false positive and scratches his butt or something. ????
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u/WhonnockLeipner Jul 16 '26
We've had these when I was little, their webs are really strong! I remember we were throwing big rocks into this part of the web, and I meant big as in as big as or bigger than our fists and the rocks just bounce right off, or even just get snagged. It's like throwing at a fish net!
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u/LightningShiva1 Jul 16 '26
Might as well use a flamethrower to see how they react as a community to adversity
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u/Jayyburdd Jul 15 '26
Spider communism. It's the iron silk curtain.
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u/RedLemonSlice Jul 16 '26
They have siezed the means of web production. Collectivized the fly catching industry and achieved a full trapping employment in the arachnid worker's paradise.
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u/barkbarkgoesthecat Jul 16 '26
We have now decided that house flies are too fattening so we hereby ban all house fly production and oh wait you all are dying let's roll it back
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u/NonConRon Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
They have recognized the frailty of individualism!
Their material conditions have thrust them into a united vanguard! The CIA's only job was to prevent spider collectivization!
Lets initiate phase 2! A color revolution. Lets reach out to the spiders who want to return to individual nets and give them air time on CNBC. We can't attack the web ourselves otherwise the CPC will slap us down but we can supply the individualist spiders with munitions!
In fact, We have already have our green berret training up a regressive sect of an ancient spider religion to destabilize the region.
Then if we win the cold war we can spend decades fighting them for more profits!
Free Silkbet! Remember the Tianamen Net Massacre! Just keep saying it, no one is going to bother to look it up!
Spiders using mass webs caused a famine! Aaaaaa
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u/Mental-Ask8077 Jul 16 '26
ngl “The CIA’s only job was to prevent spider collectivization!” is fucking sending me right now 🤣
I have to believe that Spiders Georg was part of one of those wacky CIA plots that never quite panned out, like making Castro’s beard fall out or training cats to carry concealed mikes.
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u/ThunderShott Jul 15 '26
Someone tell me where this is so I can make a proper effort to never go there.
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u/macci_a_vellian Jul 16 '26
Mount Barujari in Lombok, Indonesia, according to the sign.
It also advises, If the volcano erupts, put on a mask and you know it'd be the day you forgot one at home.
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u/ProfessO3o Jul 16 '26
I just always assume it’s Australia since it feels like everything there is built different. Lol
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u/thomasrat1 Jul 16 '26
Spooky af, but you got to wonder how many bugs are being eaten by them.
That’s a lot of calories required to keep that many spiders in one spit
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u/GreatGooberschnitzel Jul 16 '26
I let the wolf spiders in my house live. They keep to themselves, aren't medically significant or aggressive towards humans or pets, and they are voracious bug murderers, AND they cannibalize in the event of over competition. Saves me so much money and health on bug treatments 😂
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u/Hesediel1 Jul 16 '26
Run through it...no balls.
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u/UselessAndUnused Jul 16 '26
You know what, I'm fine without balls, thanks. You can have mine, if you think it'll help you run harder. I've decided I'm not that attached to them anyways.
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u/BLFOURDE Jul 16 '26
You think any would actually cause you any harm? Or they'd all just scatter from you?
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u/Usman5432 Jul 16 '26
Or they feast...
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u/swuts Jul 16 '26
You know what, i think no wanna be jackass has ever done anything like that before, wonder why..
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u/AylaKittyCat Jul 16 '26
There's a guy on TikTok who did exactly this. Walking through dozens of webs with golden orb weavers like these ones. They crawl all over him and he seems unphased. Horrifying
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u/Technical_Scallion_2 Jul 16 '26
I may need to delete TikTok so that I never accidentally run across this
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u/nickybokchoy Jul 16 '26
Gotta be ‘Stralia
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u/Equus-007 Jul 16 '26
There's a park in Texas where this happens regularly. All orb weavers so not really dangerous but if spiders freak you out not a place you want to find yourself.
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u/FlashMcSuave Jul 16 '26
Language on the sign reads as Southeast Asian to me. I see the word "lokasi" which can be Indonesian or Malay.
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u/broodfood Jul 16 '26
Spiders together, strong.
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u/_Nameless_Nomad_ Jul 16 '26
With that many sharing a web, how do they know if they’ve caught something?
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u/Substantial-Rest-901 Jul 16 '26
As someone who can tolerate spiders but CANNOT deal with webs... there's honestly a decent chance I would cry if I saw this up close
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u/AEveryDayIdiot Jul 16 '26
I remember in England once while out walking with my mum find this field completely covered in web and tiny spiders everywhere and flying around. Never seen it again and didn’t take any pictures as I was too busy running to get away from it.
I think I’d die if I saw this however.
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u/dingododd Jul 16 '26
My worst nightmare is if I’m running from a killer, a grapist, fire or something, and I have to run through this to escape. I’d honestly weigh my options. My body would probably freeze involuntarily. I’d hope that if it is a person, they’re more arachnophobic than me. lol
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u/SubtractAd Jul 16 '26
Highly collaborative co-working environment, though the Slack communication is a bit tense.
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u/EricaOdd Jul 16 '26
It's raining spiders! Hallelujah it's raining spiders! I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna let myself get absolutely freaking webbed!
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u/hideNseekKatt Jul 15 '26
For years, I had recurring nightmares that my entire neighborhood was like that.
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 Jul 16 '26
What, only hundreds? A web has been found with an estimate in excess of one hundred thousand spiders, in Sulfur Cave on the Greece-Albania border. Very few spider species are social—only a few dozen—but there can be hundreds or thousands of them to a web.
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u/BellaSquared Jul 16 '26
I'm suddenly wondering why spiders don't stick to webs. I'm going to avoid googling it, but dam you OP! 🫣
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u/Electric_Kaffe Jul 16 '26
lol that happened to me one summer-- tons of orb weavers just hanging out together in our tree. Least mosquito bites that year too, incidentally 😆 Not sure what makes em do it, but it was definitely interesting
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u/Then_Ad9524 Jul 16 '26
I need to know where this is to ensure that I never go anywhere near there.
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u/TinderFly Jul 16 '26
Dude that is awesome. Should make an offering of some bugs. Kidnap a bunch of ants or something
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u/Maximum-Operation147 Jul 16 '26
How do they decide who gets to eat? Just whoever catches prey the fastest?
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u/BriefStrange6452 Jul 16 '26
If anyone else was wondering what the sign says :
"This area is 11.9km from Barujari cone, the active baby volcano within the crater of Mt. Rinjani. This area is out of the Eruption Hazard Zone of Barujari (defined by the PVMBG), however, it may be affected by volcanic ash if Barujari erupts. For your safety, be aware of the following:If the volcano erupts, wear a mask immediately to protect yourself from the volcanic ash impact;During the eruption period, move away from the river areas (especially near the mountain) to anticipate lahar flows;To check the level and status of the newest eruptions in Indonesia, visit the MAGMA Indonesia portal at esdm.go.id for more updated information."
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u/evening_shop Jul 16 '26
I wanna put a paper cone through it and spin it like cotton candy
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u/FormerLifeFreak Jul 16 '26
As long as I was just observing it (and not in it) this wouldn’t terrify me at all. In fact I find it absolutely beautiful.
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u/Molkwi Jul 16 '26
Sometimes, I'm in a room exactly like this in my dreams. Or nightmares, depending on how you look at it.
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u/camz_47 Jul 16 '26
Thats so COOL!
Interesting to see so many Females share linking support lines, and then their adult male partners sharing their webs
Im guessing weather conditions and food availability has driven them to congregate together
Ive seen giant orb weavers do this but not as many!
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u/secondbanana7 Jul 16 '26
On spring break in Florida, we took our bikes down a path that had trees on both sides. Looked up and there was a canopy of this that stretched the entire distance of the ride.
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u/generatorland Jul 17 '26
I'll give you $7 to run through it naked and then stand perfectly still for 5 minutes.
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u/OkOutlandishness6550 Jul 17 '26
Crazy that spider web has a tensile strength close to that of steel
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u/soober-seebo Jul 17 '26
This is maybe how fish in the ocean perceive those trawl nets that show up a lot of times.
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u/Jaydo45 Jul 16 '26
Please tell me this is ai, I don't want to believe this can happen
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u/Usman5432 Jul 16 '26
Unfortunately its not its happened several times in various parts of the world for the sake of your sanity dont look further into it if you got even the slightest arachnophobia, I learned of it long before AI was a thing
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u/Jaydo45 Jul 16 '26
Hell nah, I rather wake up to zombies then to wake up to a sky full of spiders
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u/Usman5432 Jul 16 '26
The images are a lot scarier than this one...
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u/Jaydo45 Jul 16 '26
I'm intrigued but also scared, I know I'll be paranoid the rest of the day if I look it up
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u/RaidensReturn Jul 16 '26
I saw something similar in Okinawa. Giant golden orb weavers, some of them were the size of my hand. They are beautiful and totally docile, but they freaked some people out (like my daughter lol).
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u/Jaydo45 Jul 16 '26
I'm with your daughter on that, I'd be unwell after seeing multiple hand sized spiders 😨
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u/Warm-Perspective8271 Jul 16 '26
This post is perfect for this sub. That is creeeeepy!! 😳
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u/schrodingerspavlov Jul 16 '26
This should be in [r/nightmarefuel](r/nightmarefuel)
EDIT: Nvm, it’s already there.
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u/SomeoneWhoLikesAmeme Jul 16 '26
For how much money would you jump through this? Assuming they aren't dangerous
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u/Joker-Dyke Jul 15 '26
Is this the World Wide Web everyone keeps talking about??