In Case You Were Wondering About the White Stuff Falling from the Sky on Wednesday,,,

Return to Strawberries

We had some questions directed to this office on Wednesday afternoon about the weird white stuff falling from the sky. It was somewhat sticky, didn't taste sweet (um, maybe don't put stuff in your mouth that you don't recognize - appreciate the curiosity though) and burned somewhat on its own when ignited. Too, some people were getting freaked out about this since we just that morning had had a test of the national emergency warning system.

I directed the question to our UCCE entomologist Kirsten Pearsons, and within minutes she was back with the answer that these were webbing from spiders "ballooning" and were quite likely being wafted up high into the atmosphere because of the rising temperatures of the day. And then she ended up on the nightly news talking about it!

Just great working with the new team here on the Central Coast - thank you Kirsten!