Expert: Floating webs in North Texas from migrating spiders

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- North Texas residents have reported an unusually high number of silky strings in the air that experts said belong to migrating spiders.

Patrick Dickinson, program coordinator for the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, said many residents of the northern part of the state have been seeking the advice of experts in recent weeks due to the high number of spider web strands seen floating in the air and attaching to trees and other objects, KTVT-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth, reported Thursday.

"Some people did not know what it was and were scared to go outside of their homes. Other people thought when they saw them in the trees like you're seeing here that there was something wrong with their trees," Dickinson said.

Dickinson said the webs are made by freshly hatched spiders on their annual migration to more fertile hunting grounds.

"There's some that produce a ball like a balloon, and there's some they call tent spiders because they create almost like a triangle," he said.

Dickinson said people have nothing to fear from the spiders.

"They're going to be feeding on the bad insects that we don't want. These are the good guys," he said.