Dublin: 11 °C Sunday 23 February, 2025
Advertisement

107 million spiders were found to be living in a disused US water treatment plant

107 MILLION.

AND YOU THOUGHT you had it bad with spiders.

Back in 2010, an abandoned wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore was found to contain a 4-acre spider web network and was home to an estimated 107 million spiders, with a density of 35,176 spiders per m³.

We’ll just let that sink in for a moment.

Photos from inside the horror house have been released after they were featured in an academic paper and carried by Wired, and it’s a nightmare. 

spiderweb Source: American Entomologist

spiderweb2 Source: American Entomologist

spiderweb3 Source: American Entomologist

spiderweb4 Source: American Entomologist

The webbing was reportedly so dense and thick that it pulled light fixtures out of place.

Light fixtures.

giphy (7) Source: Reddit

Due to the volume of requests, the paper is now open access so you can read about the discovery and subsequent findings in American Entomologist here. If you’re that way inclined.

Singer Katie Melua had this spider living in her ear for an entire week >

Ireland’s ‘giant spider invasion’ is real…but here’s what you need to know >

About the author:

Amy O'Connor

Read next:

COMMENTS (48)