Have Arachnophobia? Steer Clear of Aitoliko

Webs cover the trees and shrubs of the Greek town as spiders feast on flies
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 21, 2018 4:15 PM CDT
Have Arachnophobia? Steer Clear of Aitoliko
Spider webs cover bushes in Aitoliko, Greece.   (Giannis Giannakopoulos via AP)

It's not quite the World Wide Web—but the spiders of Aitoliko in Greece have made a good start. Spurred into overdrive by an explosion in the populations of insects they eat, thousands of little spiders in the western Greek town have shrouded coastal trees, bushes, and low vegetation in thick webs, the AP reports. The sticky white lines extend for a few hundred yards along the shoreline of Aitoliko, built on an artificial island in a salt lagoon near Missolonghi, 150 miles west of Athens.

Experts told local media that the numbers of lake flies, a non-biting midge, have rocketed amid humid late summer conditions. Spiders, which fancy the flies, reproduced fast to take full advantage of the feast. Residents say the extensive spider webs have another benefit: keeping down mosquitoes.

(More Greece stories.)

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