Fleeing spiders and snakes swarm Australian homes

Around 18,000 people had been evacuated from flooding in New South Wales by Monday and emergency services feared up to 54,000 people could be displaced with heavy rain forecast to continue until Wednesday.

Record-breaking floods in southeastern Australia have caused a mass animal exodus to higher ground, with spiders in particular surging onto people’s land and into their homes.

Rains have been inundating communities since Thursday, but parts of the east coast tipped into crisis on Saturday as a major dam overflowed, adding to swollen rivers and causing flash flooding.

On Monday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that nearly 18,000 people have been evacuated from floodhit regions in the state, and locals took to social media to show that thousands of animals have been on the move, too.

Matt Lovenfosse has been posting Facebook updates from his family’s farm in Kinchela Creek, including the photo above.

“All the brown you can see is Spiders trying to beat the flood water,” he wrote.

Lovenfosse grew up on the farm and told CNN he experienced similar flooding in March 2001 and March 2013. On both occasions the floodwaters pushed spiders toward the house, which is the highest point on the property.

“It’s still raining here and the floodwater is still rising, the water is getting closer to our home,” said Lovenfosse. “In the morning it should be inside and the spiders will be all over the house.”

However, Lovenfosse plans to stay put. “My family has lived here forever, I have grown up here and we feel safe here,” he said.

Spiders aren’t the only animals seeking refuge from the water, Lovenfosse added.

“The trees are full of snakes,” he said. “If you take the boat out over the paddock they swim towards it trying to get on something dry, same with the spiders.”

That might sound like the stuff of nightmares for some, but Lovenfosse is unperturbed.

“I grew up here on the farm so I have always been around snakes, spiders and all the other animals so they don’t bother me and usually we don’t cross paths too often but when the flood comes they have to find somewhere to get dry,” he said.

Melanie Williams, from the town of Macksville, also posted a spider update on Facebook.

“So many SPIDERS from the floodwater,” she wrote, alongside a video of hundreds of arachnids crawling over what look like garage doors.

TikTok user Shenea Varley also uploaded a video showing spiders swarming on a fence as floodwaters churned below.

“They will climb up your legs to get shelter as well,” the caption reads.

The wet weather is set to continue, and Berejiklian predicts more people may be evacuated.

“The situation is evolving, the heavy rainfalls are going to continue,” she said.

“I don’t know any time in our state’s history where we had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic,” she added. “So these are challenging times for New South Wales, but I think we have also demonstrated our capacity to be resilient.”