Or, for that matter, anyone who doesn't think 111,000 spiders joining together in one big web in a permanently dark cave on the Albanian-Greek border is pretty cool...if you'd be in that group, yeah, not for you either, I'd think.
For the rest of us, researchers found what they describe as the world's largest spiderweb in a cave. 1140 square feet of patched-together funnelwebs.
Back when I was in the business, I ran into a similar situation with a Ford Explorer. He had even replaced the fuel pump, not an easy job on that vehicle. That spider didn't survive.
"The Almighty, He put some livin' things on this earth so a man can eat." - Festus Haggen, Gunsmoke
November 05, 2025, 07:53 AM
P250UA5
quote:
Originally posted by daikyu: That is pretty cool.
But a hard pass on a cave tour, for me.
The Enemy's gate is down.
November 05, 2025, 08:05 AM
BigCity
Where is Hershel Williams when you need him....
John
The key to enforcement is to punish the violator, not an inanimate object. The punishment of inanimate objects for the commission of a crime or carelessness is an affront to stupidity.
November 05, 2025, 08:05 AM
shovelhead
(A) no caves (B) no spiders
-------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman)
November 05, 2025, 09:54 AM
sigmonkey
quote:
...111,000 spiders joining together in one big web in a permanently dark cave...
I would have lost count at 1.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא עוד
November 05, 2025, 10:26 AM
jgerge222
Spiders are interesting creatures. Caves, a hard NO for me!
November 05, 2025, 12:09 PM
kkina
Mr. Ballen relates a story of a cave rappeller who chose his cave poorly...
The scarier thing(s) HAS to be what those 111,000 spiders are banding together for!
Retired Texas Lawman
November 05, 2025, 12:41 PM
vthoky
Or that someone took the time to estimate the quantity!
Politicians seem to have forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around. — — — — — — — — — — — — God bless America.
November 05, 2025, 12:44 PM
StarTraveler
Wow! They could bind up a lot of hobbits in all of that.
***
"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam (I will either find a way or make one)." -- Hannibal Barca
November 05, 2025, 03:05 PM
Schmelby
I used to go spelunking. Never saw anything like that. Need a flamethrower for that!
November 05, 2025, 03:10 PM
rat2306
I'm on the same page as StarTraveler; my first thoughts were of Hobbits and spiders.
November 05, 2025, 03:12 PM
Z06
Nuke. From. Outer. Space.
________________________________________________________ The trouble with trouble is; it always starts out as fun.
November 05, 2025, 03:24 PM
Dzozer
Shelob?
'veritas non verba magistri'
November 05, 2025, 03:50 PM
joel9507
There is a video at one of the links. And for the brave, watching that you'll see why the spiders set up shop there.
Looking away from the web into the stream of light you'll see an amazing amount of flying insects zooming around.
Now as to what those insects eat in that cave, or - if they don't live there - why hordes of them fly in, no idea. But those 110K spiders? They know what they're doing.
November 05, 2025, 04:44 PM
4MUL8R
How could one cave have enough spider prey for that many? How would the prey not get webbed by the outermost spiders leaving the interior spiders hungry?
------- Trying to simplify my life...
November 05, 2025, 05:01 PM
kkina
Large spider colonies can fluorish due to their ability to capture much larger prey than any individual could hope to harvest.
However, there is a limit to how much this socialist survival strategy can work. The colony can grow too large to be self-sustaining, and can undergo large-scale die-off.
There's probably some kind of socio-political lesson there someplace.
