Credit: Unsplash

Snakes and spiders are hiding in homes to escape torrential rains.

Since last week, multiple towns in southeastern Australia have been beset by torrential rains. Over the weekend, the situation reached a tipping point as a local dam overflowed, causing swelling rivers and flash floods. As of today, nearly 18,000 people have been forced to evacuate from their homes and seek higher ground. These flash floods have prompted evacuations not only in humans, but in the local wildlife.


Residents of several towns affected by the floods have posted photos showing a mass exodus of brown spiders and snakes attempting to escape the surging waters. A particular resident, Matt Lovenfosse, a farmer from Kinchela Creek, posted several videos showing massive waves of spiders crawling across his land.

“It’s still raining here and the flood water 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.”

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

Despite the unsettling image, Lovenfosse has said he has no intention of abandoning his property, having grown up around large numbers of spiders and snakes. “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.

Local authorities have been monitoring weather patterns and disaster reports in hopes of a sign of the flooding’s end, but so far, they remain unsure.

“The situation is evolving, the heavy rainfalls are going to continue and we are now seeing alerts issued for weather warnings for the Illawarra and south coast,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian 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.”