Althouse: "The gossamer strands, slowly overtaking a lakefront peninsula, emit a fetid odor, perhaps from the dead insects entwined in the silk."

August 31, 2007

"The gossamer strands, slowly overtaking a lakefront peninsula, emit a fetid odor, perhaps from the dead insects entwined in the silk."

"The web whines with the sound of countless mosquitoes and flies trapped in its folds."

Millions of social spiders weave an ever-expanding web. Are you horrified, or do you think it's pretty cool?

20 comments:

hdhouse said...: i read that and saw the video a few hours ago. I am still sitting in my chair with my feet off the ground, my cat is freaked out, that type of spider (looks like anyway) is all over E. long island in the fall looking for homes.; 8/31/07, 2:18 PM
Synova said...: I definitely think it is *way* cool.

It's tent caterpillars that I get all grossed out by.

Spiders are awesome.; 8/31/07, 2:32 PM
Christy said...: I'm shocked, absolutely shocked that the NYTimes would propagate gender stereotyping with "little boys pushing sisters" into the webs. Please, it's "children pushing siblings!"

I'm on the "way cool" side. The ivy under my blue spruce looks like that when the dew is on the ground and the light catches it just right.; 8/31/07, 2:44 PM
Jennifer said...: Pretty cool in a picture and nowhere near my house. A little creepy though until I got to the part of the article that explained there *are* some species of social spiders.; 8/31/07, 2:46 PM
EnigmatiCore said...: It reminds me of the netroots of the left.

I'd draw up a comparison for the one on the right, but it's too small and scattered to visualize.; 8/31/07, 2:47 PM
MadisonMan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/31/07, 2:55 PM
MadisonMan said...: That would make a *great* horror movie. You wake up one morning and the spiders have been busy busy busy at night, and all around you is a web to ensnare you when you try to leave. Who will save you?

Luckily, Fred Thompson has been cast as the local Ortho sales rep.; 8/31/07, 3:04 PM
PeterP said...: “You’d have to get a lot of spiders together and feed them a whole lot of food to make a web that big,” he said.

Naw...half a tab of acid usually does the trick on spiders.; 8/31/07, 3:06 PM
Joan said...: I immediately thought of Shelob's lair, but then I'm a complete geek.; 8/31/07, 3:08 PM
Eva said...: The web may be a combined effort of social cobweb spiders.

Spiders cooperating is not something I want to think about for any length of time. This is about 45 minutes from my house!!; 8/31/07, 3:37 PM
rhhardin said...: Here's a spider on the house

I believe it's an orb weaver. I'm more into bird songs and flowering weeds, myself.; 8/31/07, 3:55 PM
KCFleming said...: Excuse me. Has anyone seen Miss Muffett today?; 8/31/07, 3:59 PM
Anthony said...: Anything that wipes out "countless mosquitoes" is okay in my book.

I once walked out behind my house in the dark and ran smack into a spider web. I could feel the little bugger run across my face, too. Thankfully, it didn't bite.; 8/31/07, 4:04 PM
Paddy O said...: Well, it's cool until Aragog dies. Then they're dangerous.; 8/31/07, 4:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Arachnids eat flies, mosquitoes and roaches. What’s not to love, except for the few brown recluses, black widows and scorpions that hide in your boots and brick piles?

Charlotte’s Web- a good story about a good spider.; 8/31/07, 4:34 PM
XWL said...: It's the perfect metaphor for the world wide web (spiders are always so damn literal).

Bloggers and other citizen journalist are the webspinners, and all those whining blood sucking parasitic mosquitos are the legacy media and their legion of 'serious' journalist who aren't nimble enough to navigate the web, but instead get stuck in it and consumed by those social spiders.

And I guess the general populace are outside either group, annoyed (and occasionally infected by) the bloodsuckers, while helped but freaked out by the webspinners.; 8/31/07, 4:37 PM
rcocean said...: Like Spiders - don't like spiderwebs.

I'm conflicted.; 8/31/07, 4:40 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/31/07, 4:43 PM
GeorgeH said...: How come there's never a crop duster around when you need one?; 8/31/07, 4:46 PM
blake said...: MadMan,

Pretty sure you just described the ending of Kingdom of the Spiders with William Shatner and...Joan Collins?; 8/31/07, 5:16 PM