‘HAIR PANIC’ IS paralysing parts of an Australian town — but it’s not quite the existential nightmare it sounds, just a fast-growing tumbleweed.

Homes in Wangaratta are being inundated with the evocatively named plant pest, with some residents having to spend hours digging out their driveways.

Townsfolk are no stranger to the native prickly menace, usually swept in by winds during the hot and dry summer months.

But this season has seen an unusual amount of hairy panic — known scientifically as Panicum effusum — with hundreds of thousands of the fuzzy, yellowish plants swamping the entrances of homes, driveways and backyards.

“It’s a fairly significant problem,” said Rod Roscholler, an administrator for Wangaratta, 250km northeast of Melbourne.

– YouTube/7 News Australia