We were unprepared for the sheer scale of the spider population and the extraordinary masses of both three dimensional and sheet-like webbing that blanketed much of the facility’s cavernous interior. Far greater in magnitude than any previously recorded aggregation of orb-weavers, the visual impact of the spectacle was nothing less than astonishing.

In places where the plant workers had swept aside the webbing to access equipment, the silk lay piled on the floor in rope-like clumps as thick as a fire hose.

Four acres of web found in 2009 at the Baltimore Wastewater Treatment Plant consisting of 107 million orb-weaver spiders of different species.

I am sensing a Spider-Man reboot based on this…

Photos by the Entomological Society of America.
Study authors Greene, Albert; Coddington, Jonathan A.; Breisch, Nancy L.; De Roche, Dana M.; Pagac, Benedict B. in American Entomologist, Volume 56, Number 3, Fall 2010 via ingentaconnect via Huffington Post, where you can see additional photos and information.