Published: September 04, 2007 01:33 pm      

Most of giant Tawakoni spider web washed away

It is a sad day for spider-lovers.

Most of the webs that made national news are gone in Lake Tawakoni State Park — washed and blown away by the storms that hit Hunt County on Friday.

But that didn’t stop visitors from flocking to the state park Saturday to get a glimpse of the remnants of what entomologists have described as a “very rare” occurrence — thousands of spiders co-existing and building spider webs along a 200-yard stretch of the park.

Friday’s storms have displaced thousands of spiders, who appear to be frantically rebuilding their webs, said Donna Garde, park superintendent.

“They’re all (still) there,” Garde said. “They are just not in those great webs. They’re hungry. They’re building furiously.”

But, despite the initial disappointment of reaching the park and hearing that the majority of the webs have been destroyed more than 175 people from all over the area toured the site Saturday.

“I think it’s pretty cool, but I don’t like spiders, they are kind of creeping me out” said Vicki Pratt, 13, of Caddo Mills.

“I thought it would be bigger,” confided Pratt’s father Tim. “It’s still impressive. We’re looking for the words “Some Pig.”

Dallas resident Andrew Goetz drove up with his wife and six-month old daughter to get a look at the webs that have been all the buzz on the World Wide Web.

“I’m sure it was more impressive earlier,” he said. “But it’s still interesting. This entire area looks like its encased in web. That in itself was worth coming out to see.”

Arachnophobes also made the journey.

When Tom and Kathi Glicer of Burleson first saw video of the site on the news, they said it reminded them of a spider horror-flick they had seen just a week ago.

“When I saw this on Channel 4 (News), I was like ‘Oh my goodness’,” said Kathi Glicer.

Both wished they could have come a day sooner to get the full effect though.

“It’s amazing actually,” Kathi Glicer said, admitting she watched CNN just to see the segment on the webs. “I just wish we could have seen the real thing. I at least got to see them on CNN.”

Paul Foreman of Grand Prairie said he doesn’t like spiders, but just had to see webs.

“I just wanted to see the web. I didn’t want to touch any,” he said referring to spiders that were dropping low enough Saturday for visitors to touch.

Teacher Laura Marceleno of Duncanville said the site is neat, but the day overall was a washout.

“There’s not much to see,” she said. “Give it another week, maybe (the spiders) will do more.”

Garde, the park superintendent, said given two weeks of perfect weather, the park’s current celebrities may be able to rebuild the webs to their prior glory.

“I’m hoping a good two weeks of calm and they’ll be back,” she said.