Australians in New South Wales have been sharing footage of swarms of spiders that are seeking shelter in their homes to escape the worst floods the area has seen in 50 years.
Nearly a metre of rain has fallen in some parts of New South Wales with more forecast to come.
But it’s not just the rising waters that the Australians have had to deal with. Residents have been sharing footage of swarms of arachnids crawling up the walls of their homes in a bid to escape the floods.
Matt Lovenfosse shared footage on Facebook of clusters of spiders emerging from Kinchela Creek.
“All the brown you can see if spiders trying to beat the flood water,” he said.
Melanie Williams from Macksville in NSW, photographed spiders carrying their egg sacks to drier areas to protect their babies.
The spiders, which were later identified as wolf spiders, also scaled the fence in her front yard.
She told ABC News: “That was enough to really freak me out, I had never seen anything like it before.
“I am an arachnophobe from way back so I hope they’ve gone back to wherever they came from. I occasionally see spiders around the place but never anything like that, it was just insane.”
Professor Dieter Hochuli from Sydney University explained that the insects are trying to find safety from the rising waters on higher grounds.
He told ABC: “What happens with the floods is all these animals that spend their lives cryptically on the ground can't live there anymore.”
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: "I don't know any time in the state's history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic.
"When you have been through three or four incidents that are life-changing on top of each other, it can make you feel like you are a breaking point."
