An army of caterpillars spinned a giant net in Luton, UK, leaving residents fearing a giant spider.
The hungry insects have span a 20ft web over a bush to cocoon their chosen feeding plants and protect it from predators.
What is this strange moving white web on a bush in a quiet neighborhood in Luton, UK?
The spooky sighting has baffled residents after the enormous web appeared from nowhere in a residential street in Luton.
Kate Arnold, who spotted it on her way home from work, says: “When I drove past it I had to stop and have a look. Insects don’t really creep me out and I was so intrigued to see this. It’s so surreal, I have never seen anything like it before, when I got out the car I expected a 20ft spider like the one out of Harry Potter to be there. At first I thought it would be spiders, but when I went to have a look I realised that it was caterpillars.
Resident Brian Platon, 40, first spotted the giant web on Monday: “When I saw the webs it did freak me out a bit. When you look up close you realise that it is thousands of caterpillars that are crawling around in the bush.”
An ecologist identified the caterpillars as fairly common ‘Spindle Ermine’. They aren’t harmful and they will soon turn into moths and populate the district.
Several large-scale infestations have made the news in the past, including a 20ft moth web which was spotted in bushes outside Belmarsh Prison in East London in 2012.
