In today's news that arachnophobe's don't want to read, our capital's Main Street bridge is infested with creepy crawly spiders. An Ohio State University professor and insect connoisseur estimates there are between 5,000 to 10,000 spiders calling the bridge's hand and guardrails home, via The Columbus Dispatch.
What kind of spiders, you ask?
It's reported that "one is an arabesque orb-weaver, which is known for its graceful weaving," and as for the other, it's something called a long-jawed orb weaver (click here if you need a mental image of that). Experts think insects are attracted to the area because of the good health of the river, there's plenty of food for the spiders to snatch in their webs.
The bad news: they aren't leaving anytime soon.
A naturalists with the Ohio Division of Wildlife told the dispatch that adult spiders can survive temperatures dropping to 20 degrees. Then he talks about spiderlings (young spiders) that can covert their blood into the likes of an antifreeze. "They can withstand temperatures to about 10-below.”
It's time to find an alternative route through town, folks.
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