"Hairy Panic" Of Australian Tumbleweeds Buries Part of Town

"Hairy panic" tumbleweeds engulf the entrance
to this Australian house. 

Combine a really nasty drought and a farmer who doesn't maintain his property very well in Australia and you get something called "Hairy Panic"

According to the BBC, people in a row of homes in Wangaratta, in northeastern Victoria province in Australia, have been spending several hours each day cleaning the tumbleweeds from their homes. Sometimes the "hairy panic" reaches to roof levels

Hairy panic is one species of a grass found throughout Australia. This species has long hairs along the edges of its leaves, hence the name.

Under the drought conditions, the hairy panic dries out, forms into tumbleweeds and blows around until caught by obstructions, like houses.

Property maintenance can be a chore, but imagine having to spend several hours a day cleaning up the mess of hairy panic? And what do you do with this stuff?

A woman stands waist deep in
"hairy panic" tumbleweeds at her Australian home.

And we were I live in Vermont thought shoveling snow off the driveway can be a pain in the ass. Besides, the snow here eventually melts away. You can't say the same for hairy panic.

"It's physically draining and mentally more draining, said resident Pam Twitchett in an interview with Prime7 News in Australia.  

The local town council said it can't help because the hairy panic is not considered a fire threat. (Judging from the pictures, I beg to differ. Imagine what it would look like if you put a lighted match to this stuff?)

No word from the farmer, either, on whether his lack of property maintenance is contributing to the problem.

Here's a wild news report of the wild panic drought tumbleweed crisis:

"It's physically draining and mentally more draining," resident Pam Twitchett told Prime7 News Albury.

Also known by its Latin name Panicum effusum, it is a grass that is found in every Australian state 

It's called "hairy" because while there are a number of other Panicum species, none have long hairs along the edges of their leaves

It grows rapidly and can form tumbleweeds which are dead grass with seeds inside designed to disperse them for reproduction

It can cause a potentially fatal condition called "yellow big head" in sheep if eaten in large quantities

Wangaratta veterinary surgeon Richard Evans told the BBC the weed would lose its toxicity once it dried up.

"The important thing is it's not going to kill people's dogs and cats, it just makes a hell of a mess," he said.

Authorities are unable to help with the clean-up because the tumbleweeds do not pose a fire threat, reports say.