There's an incredible fuzzy tumbleweed problem terrorizing a small town in Australia

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Piles of tumbleweeds are a common nuisance in inland Australia, but one town in north east Victoria is experiencing an overflow of the weed, hilariously known as "hairy panic." In some areas of Wangarrata in northeast Victoria, the weeds are piling up to roof level.

The town has become so inundated with the weeds that residents need to clear their homes multiple times per day. Hairy panic from nearby farmland has affected the town for years, but this year Australia's exceedingly dry summer has made conditions even more ripe for the accumulating weeds.

And in more built-up areas hairy panic can accumulate against fences and houses and bury cars.

Here's what the hairy panic (species name: Panicum effusum) looks like in its living, pre-tumbleweed form. The plant is a member of the large tropical genus known as panic grasses.

Harry Rose

When the grass reaches maturity and dries out, its stalks fluff off, stick together, and become tumbleweeds. In grassy and open ecosystems, these tumbleweeds disperse seeds on the stalks of dead grass, as they are blown by the wind and roll across fields with little resistance.

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While hairy panic isn't very dangerous, keeping ahead of the growing piles of weeds has become a major inconvenience to the little Australian town of Wangarrata in northeast Victoria.

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