The raining spiders of Brazil (a video, the stuff of nightmares)

2/8/2013 9:14pm by 23

From the video:

Hundreds, or maybe thousands, of spiders between two poles in the town of Santa Antonio de Plantina in Parana, Brazil. We don’t know why they’re acting like this, we’re trying to find out and will post if anyone gets back to us with an answer.

It’s hard to get a still shot that does video justice. It looks like the spiders have the house surrounded. The guy filming it just keeps saying, “it’s raining spiders!”

This is pure horror movie material. None of these still images does the video justice, you have to watch. Keep in mind that each image is only a small area compared to the total. They’re everywhere surrounding the house:

raining-spiders-2

raining-spiders-3

raining-spiders-4

And here’s the video:

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@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

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  • Tfill

    I am so phobic I cant watch the video, had trouble just looking at the pictures! Now if it was snakes I would be okay with that. Just cant do spiders, no matter the size or the species!!!

  • Tor

    I prefer when it’s raining men.

  • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

    Looks like a T-Party convention.

  • lilyannerose

    I wonder if the cause is the same as when it “rains frogs?”

    • Tor

      Let My People Go!!

  • gowian

    Someone is going to have to get out the world’s largest broomstick to clear all that webbing ;)

  • Julie

    Mosquito free zone?

  • OtterQueen

    This was completely FUCKING uncalled for. I refuse to believe this is real No way would people be laughing and chatting nonchalantly in the face of such unbridled horror and atrocity.

  • hollywoodstein

    Actually, this is indeed a colony of social spiders doing their thing making a web not raining down for the belated Mayan apocalypse.

    Many newborn and some adult smaller spiders disperse to new territory by letting out a thread of silk into the breeze and riding it like a streamer. At any given time there are many millions of spiders and other tiny travelers riding miles up in the far reaches of the atmosphere. And what goes up…,
    but most are so tiny you can barely see them. Which I guess makes their evil takeover plans all the sneakier.
    I attended one wedding where the altar and guests were pelted by dozens of the little suckers. Despite the occasional scream the Bridezilla insisted the show go on then and there. Not exactly the best omen to begin a union, but dammit she’d finally gotten her man to the altar and no act of god or nature was going to put that asunder. I guess that show of commitment is one of the reasons they are still going strong today.
    Love you Michelle, lol.

    • falula

      yeah I can see the sheet like consistancy

    • dula

      Thank You. I always wondered how a spider can shoot a thread between two objects that are quite a distance apart.

  • http://www.facebook.com/monoceros.forth Monoceros Forth

    Under ordinary conditions spiders hold no fears for me; I think a lot of them are quite pretty, actually. In this case, though, I’d probably stay safely indoors and wait for the invasion to pass. Or maybe just rely on an umbrella and look anyway, it’s fascinating.

    Asked the boyfriend, “What would you do if you went outside and this was above your head?” showing him a bit of the video. “Probably kill myself,” he said promptly. But once I unnerved him hilariously by showing him a “giant house spider” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_house_spider) I’d trapped under a glass.

    • Tor

      In the summer we have some lovely big fat spiders in our garden who spin amazing webs. They don’t bother me a bit, and I feel badly if i accidentally walk through a web.

      However, something like this would have me screaming like a little girl.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Sharon.D.Boyd Sharon Boyd

    OMG, the worst part is at 2:26 when they guy looks down on his sleeve… and then everybody starts screaming… and then the camera falls to the ground and at the end you see all the bodies wrapped in the webs!!

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      ROTFL!

  • Emily Peacock

    G1 spoke with a local biologist who identified the spider as Anelosimus eximius — a “social spider” species known for its massive colonies and “sheet webs.” He characterized the phenomenon as “normal,” which it most certainly is not.

    http://gawker.com/5982891/meanwhile-in-brazil-its-raining-spiders

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      Yeah not even close to normal.

    • Naja pallida

      Usually happens in the canopy of trees, where it isn’t so easily visible.

  • Straightnotnarrow

    Am I the only one who thinks this looks a little photoshop-y? Snopes has nothing as of yet but I’m skeptable.

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      The one thing that made me skeptical was the amazing zoom of the Individual bugs.

  • Island In The Sky

    OMG…thanks for creeping me the fuck out, John. I’m just glad it’s winter so I don’t have to imagine those things outside my door right now…

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      LOL I hate spiders. Not a big fan of the clearly-radiation-poisoned 1 inch long ants at my mom’s place in Chicago either. There’s a special place in hell for ants that big.

      • falula

        John I agree I believe those are carpenter ants they eat wood and they are that long and they live in and in wood piles etc… the walls you have to get the white powder to put in outlets they will eat it and go away forever…I agree totally like you….

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