2023-09-25 20:02:23
What are these kinds of white threads dangling everywhere? This Monday in the middle of the followingnoon, the question comes to L’union following having animated social networks. These are residents of Burgundy who are witnessing a sudden invasion of filaments reminiscent of spider webs, but not at all arranged like them: long threads rocked by the wind, clinging to trees or grass, sometimes carried into the air before falling to the ground, sometimes forming shapeless balls.
“Yes, it happens every year,” a Burgundian woman informs us, “we call it the sons of Saint-Remi (the diocese in fact has the custom of celebrating its patron saint at the beginning of October); but we don’t know where it comes from… ” However, we have the impression that the origin is to be found in the trees: practically all those which border the departmental 274 between Reims and Burgundy have their thread, sometimes even several. People from Rémois also report having observed them in the Clairmarais district, Clemenceau sector and their presence is also reported near Fismes.
Le Rémois Alexis Bourgeois, treasurer of the association Mission spiderputs a name to this phenomenon: it is the ballooning, a means of aerial locomotion for small, fairly common species such as Linyphiidae which measure little more than three millimeters. “The first days of fall are a very active period for spiders who move around a lot. It’s mating season, the big black spiders that we see in houses are males looking for females. Furthermore, it is also the egg hatching period. The young disperse in search of food resources. »
Alexis Bourgeois describes spiders which raise their abdomen, expel a thread and use the currents of hot air which will carry this thread, sometimes for several kilometers. “This phenomenon should be observed for a few days and will stop as soon as temperatures drop. Spiders will go into hibernation mode, burrow in the ground or enter homes. » Not enough to reassure arachnophobes even if this specialist wants to be reassuring. “Of course, there is a mass effect but we must keep in mind that these spiders cannot be very heavy, nor very large, so to stay at the end of these silk threads, we are of the order of two or three millimeters. » Not sure that’s enough.
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