Spider population explodes on lagoon island in western Greece

The shores of an island in the Aitoliko lagoon in western Greece is literally crawling with spiders, much to the surprise of locals.

Authorities and environmentalists have assured the public the phenomenon is nothing to worry about, saying it is nature’s response to the growing number of insects in the area.

“This phenomenon occurs every three or four years,” Yiannis Selimas, director of the body that manages the lagoon, told Kathimerini. “This time the intensity is unprecedented,” he said.

According to Maria Hatzaki, an associate professor at the Democritus University of Thrace and an arachnologist, the spiders belong to the tetragnatha species. “It is a species that lives near water in areas with intense humidity and is not very common in our country,” she said.

“[The phenomenon] is nature’s balancing mechanism” she said, explaining that more spiders survive during periods when there are more mosquitoes.

“When there is less food then there are fewer spiders. Therefore it is not worrisome,” she said.