Kayakers stumble across 'land of the spiders' on Sunpoke Lake

Unreality washed over him as his kayak slid over the mirror-still water. 

The tall grass was bowed, held down by thick webs of spider silk. The leafless trees were adorned with it, trailing fishing-line-thick threads.

James Donald kept thinking, "It would get better, it would get better, it would get better," as he and his wife Vickie paddled down the river.

"But it didn't get better, it got worse," said Donald, who thought they were was just going for a relaxing Sunday afternoon kayak on Sunpoke Lake.

They felt transported to another world where spiders ruled. Some scurried on the water toward their kayak and tried to climb in. Others floated on balloons made of silk or walked on tightrope threads strung between two trees.

"When you're in the middle of it, and everything's covered in spider webs, it felt like you're in some kind of weird horror movie," he said.

In fact, the spiders were just doing their spider thing.

They're called dock spiders, or fishermen spiders, and they build these nests to protect their hatchlings.

They are native to North America, said Ilesha Ileperuma Arachchi, University of New Brunswick PhD student who did her master's degree in spider taxonomy. In autumn, they find a safe place with lots of wetlands and vegetation to nest. For days, they spin domes under which they can lay their eggs.

That matches up with what Donald saw.

"When you get close, you could see like baby spiders in the webs," he said.

Arachchi said these web formations are typical, and the expanse of almost a square kilometre just means the spiders thought this is a good place to be. It likely feels unusual to see this, she said, because the spiders nest in areas where humans rarely go.

She said ideally, if anyone finds themselves in this predicament, they're better off just turning back and avoiding disturbing the spiders any more than they have to.

"It's a natural habitat," she said. "It's their home."