Along came a spider: 25,000 of them in fact, all in the same Australian town

With summer here, spiders are back to instil fear in every arachnophobe who leaves the back door open during the day. But one Australian town is having a particular problem with the eight-legged critters - in fact, they’ve got about 25,000 problems. Residents of Maningrida are having to put up with an invasion of a new species of tarantulas, which are capable of a nasty bite. Locals spotted the spiders across a six-mile floodplain - something not seen before.

One of the traditional owners was bitten in eastern Australia and had six to eight hours of vomiting. These are not shallow bites. Long fangs can potentially do damage by ripping tissue.

Arachnologist Dr Robert Raven

Describing the spider army as “so far off the scale”, arachnologist Dr Robert Raven said 25,000 of them was not normal. He said: “Normally, I find two or three hundred spiders in one spot… Presumably, something is missing that would hammer them or there is something good [like a food source].” These tarantulas are known as ‘diving spiders’ because they can form protective air bubbles to stop them from drowning.

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