High altitude ballooning

[Rayo]

I was quite amused reading that a ufologist, answering to the objection that the "mysterious" threads he talked about were simply threads of ballooning spiders, said that these spider are a urban legend and certainly no spider can reach 5000 or 7000 meters of altitude. I don't know why he talked about high altitudes (I think they found the threads on the ground) and, of course, I know ballooning spiders are NOT a urban legend but do actually exist (as well as some ballooning mites or caterpillars), but it made me curious about that: is there any case in which it was possible to verify that ballooning spiders were lifted to high altitudes and calculate the height reached by them?

[jsloan]

is there any case in which it was possible to verify that ballooning spiders were lifted to high altitudes and calculate the height reached by them?

I believe so. I recall a David Attenborough special where he went up in a high-alititude balloon with a special collector device for sucking in flying insects (he was wearing an oxygen mask, so he was high up). If I recall he found some spiders up there, too. You can probably find some more info by googling, but I'm sure that ballooning spiders have been found at high altitudes.

[Galapoheros]

I remember reading an article like that too, might have been in National Geo, can't remember. It was a long time ago, before the internet popped up everywhere. They caught spiders and a bunch of other small arthropods waaaaay up there!

[Moonkin77]

that is pretty trippy, that's why they've been here much much longer than we have :)