Cool! Spiders have always been resourceful little buggers with their webs and interesting hunting methods. I'm just surprised that it's making news now? Haven't these spiders been around for 100's of years? And nobody noticed it before? Do we have a species name?

Nothing new here.

I forget their proper name, but here in Ga we refer to them as balloon spiders.

I've heard of this before too. Some baby spiders are so light they just have to spin one thread and throw it up into the air and they get caught by the breeze and dispersed.

Originally posted by tebyen
Nothing new here.

I forget their proper name, but here in Ga we refer to them as balloon spiders.

Exactly. The ballooning behavior has been known for a long time. Many species of spiders do this for travel.

omg didn't you see charlottes web when you were in kindergarten. All of charlottes babies fly off.

lmao

Nothing new havent you seen Charlotte's Web all her babies did this at the end of the cartoon.

I watched one show on spiders and they said spiders can reach heights that 747s fly at (30,000) by doing this

Is that angel hairing thing when you see something that looks like a cross between dust strands and a stray spider web floating, say when youre walking down the street in the middle of the day, and have it fly into your face but you try to take it off and theres nothing there or it just disappears?

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I've heard of this before too. Some baby spiders are so light they just have to spin one thread and throw it up into the air and they get caught by the breeze and dispersed.

Exactly. The only thing holding them down is gravity, so they can basically go as far as air can bring them, which means several kilometers in the air.

I saw at my backdoor in the UK a few months ago a baby spider on the end of a long single thread float by and I thought this was quite cool he went round the corner and I went to follow to see where he went.

He dissappeared, after a few seconds of deductions and I found him trapped in another spiders web being eaten!

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I've heard of this before too. Some baby spiders are so light they just have to spin one thread and throw it up into the air and they get caught by the breeze and dispersed.

yeah, when baby spiders do this it is called "ballooning". maybe that has something to do with it.

edit: i think it is just ballooning spiders.

[edit on 28-11-2005 by Hawker9]

Pretty amazing.

I think I saw a TV show once about them and how they reach amazing heights too.

Clever little things.

I forget their proper name, but here in Ga we refer to them as balloon spiders.

Just curious, where in GA? I'm in an area near Brunswick and I haven't seen 'em. Of course, I haven't lived here but a few years either. Are they popular?

Flying freakin spiders. Just another thing to creep me out next to that damnd house cenipede post.

house centipedes are completely harmless and actually pretty cool. i actually had a dream last night and there were house spiders, maybe it had something to do with my posting and viewing of that thread. sorry if that was a bit weird.

edit: did i say house spiders? i meant house centipedes.

[edit on 29-11-2005 by Hawker9]

Originally posted by IXRAZORXI321
omg didn't you see charlottes web when you were in kindergarten. All of charlottes babies fly off.

lmao

thats what I was thinking, minus the omg's and lamo