The rumble gets louder and louder, starting to make the hairs on the spider's back stand up, pressure building in its ears like a concrete saw bearing down. It can't take it anymore.

The spider mother emerges from her bark into the daylight, agitated beyond sense, lashing out at any movement, completely irrational in her actions and unable to stop herself from moving towards the vibration.

It is coming from a 4WD.

Dr Robert Raven is an arachnologist with the Queensland Museum and has not only witnessed floods of spiders running towards 4WDs, but uses it in order to study spiders in the environment.

"Vibration is a medium by which a lot of communication occurs in the animal kingdom," Dr Raven says.

"The week before the earthquake in Aceh, all of the hooved animals moved up into the hills, they could feel the vibration coming.

"We know that elephants can actually sense vibration over hundreds of kilometres. And they can detect who sent it and what it's about."