One SunLive reader discovered something both beautiful and a little unsettling when she went down to Gordon Spratt Reserve today.

Thousands of spiders were at work, creating a massive web that cast a shimmering veil across the field.

Tracey Maris says she's never seen anything like it before.

'The new tsunami evacuation hill was gleaming this afternoon so I went to see what it was.

'To my surprise the entire mound was covered in spider web, with thousands of baby spiders.”

She took some photos and started filming the phenomenon.

'The web started at the top of the mound which is up above the soccer fields. It went almost right down to Papamoa College, so maybe nearly 30 metres.

She said she walked inside it accidentally, and says it was ‘so sticky'.

'I read an article about the same kind of thing a few years back where a whole heap of spiders created the same effect to escape flooding – but that was way up north somewhere.”

It's likely the spiders were responding to the recent flooding in the district. National Geographic reported the same thing happening in Wagga Wagga, Australia, in 2012, after they experienced flooding.

Those little black things are spiders at work.