This was a difficult shot....they call it ballooning when an insect.....

[DavefromCt]

floats around on a silk thread through the air, not attached to anything. Spiders do it all the time but today I saw floating caterpillars and took several shots manually focused at 500 mm as it was floating about 25 feet away. One came out clear. It wasn't near any trees but just floating around. I saw several more doing the same thing.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

Webb Worms down here in South Texas. They will drop down on you when you sit in the back yard. Thank goodness that we don't have them at our home. Thanks for sharing. Kelley (Texas)

 

[Nancy-IL]

Amazing. I've not seen them with their webbing like that and hope I never do.

When we use to boat on the Illinois River, there would be spiders flying with their webbing and the breeze would let them fly for miles. Some boats would be covered in them.

 

[RustyNTX]

n/t

 

[mudpuppy]

Wild cherry trees too...those 'Gypsy Moth' (tent) caterpillars got up here in Michigan back when I was a kid, late 60's, another invasive species...folks would paint a strip of a heavy axle grease around their front yard oak tree thinking the caterpillars could not crawl up past it, not knowing how these things travel...just about denuded the oaks around here until the numbers stabilized, it was a big problem I remember, everyone was freaked out about Gypsy Moths just as they are today about the Ash Borer Beetles...you can still see a black ring of where the grease was painted around most old oaks here in town, which is amazing the trees lived through that!...nobody does it anymore, since the numbers dropped or at least stabilized.....Nice shot there Dave!

Those Ash borers really wipe out Ash trees...I run my boat up the river and keep an eye out for a standing grove of beetle killed ash, easy to see, ...then I crawl up in there with my machete and make myself some paddles or oars from the beetle killed trees, although dead, they are perfectly seasoned for this application if they are still standing....if the Suns out bright and hot, a guy takes a magnifying glass and burns in a design if a fellow wishes....I made a really nice set of oars and a great push pole out of beetle killed ash for my river boat...a guy never knows when a motor is gonna take a dump, (they do and often) and a set of oars or a pushpole will get a guy home, late maybe, but home...like in the old days....I never go out on the water without that pushpole on the boat..a set of oars is nice too, or at least a decent ash paddle! (sorry for tearing off on a tangent) bugs are cool within reason..except spiders of course! Thanks for the memories one little flying caterpillar you caught on film brought up!
Mud

 

[DavefromCt]

Nice boat and great job on the oars....nice shots!

 

[DavefromCt]

Thanks Kelley, Rusty, and Nancy

 

[vito]

Great shot for shure and I believe it was difficult. But it was worth the effort.