Spider Infested Trees Reducing Malaria
Posted by Ryan on March 24th, 2011
Remember the floods that devastated Pakistan last year? Well all of that flood water drove spiders into trees by the millions where they took over and created giant spider condos, which is pretty much one of the last things I ever want to walk under. I am not sure how concentrating millions of spiders into one location helps lower the population of the highly mobile mosquitoes, but that is what is being reported. Maybe it is teamwork.
Although slowly killing the trees, the phenomenon is seemingly helping the local population. People in Sindh have reported fewer mosquitos than they would have expected given the amount of stagnant water in the area. It is thought the mosquitoes are getting caught in the spiders’ webs, reducing their numbers and the associated risk of malaria.
Twitter this