Huge venomous ‘flying’ spiders are beginning to swarm the US
Arachnophobes beware. A wave of giant bright yellow flying spiders is starting to make its presence felt across the United States.
The species, known as the Joro spider, is building in numbers ahead of another busy season. This time, its reach looks set to stretch furtheracross the states than ever before.
The Joro spider isn’t native to the US. It originally comes from parts of East Asia including Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan. Experts believe it first arrived in America more than a decade ago. The likely route was via Asian shipping containers heading into the state of Georgia.
Since then, the species has quietly expanded its territory. Each year brings fresh sightings in brand new locations. Now, another surge is on the way as a new generation prepares to hatch.
Eggs typically hatch between May and June. After that, it takes only a few months for the spiders to grow and mature.
By late summer, they’re fully formed and ready to reproduce. Peak spider season tends to run from August through to October.
By that point, they are much harder to miss. Female Joro spiders have a vivid appearance, with a bright yellow body marked by blue stripes and flashes of red.
Males look far less dramatic, smaller and more brown in colour. It is the females that tend to grab folk’s attention, for obvious reasons.
They also build large golden webs that can appear almost overnight. As populations increase, these webs are becoming something of a common sight. They’re designed to trap passing prey with real efficiency. Walk into one unexpectedly and you’ll know about it.
In some cases, ‘Trichonephila clavata’ can reach a size comparable to a human palm. Nature being nature, the females have also been known to eat their male counterparts. Down with the patriarchy.
These spiders have now been recorded across a wide stretch of the United States. Sightings include Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
They have even been spotted as far west as California. That spread is only expected to continue.
One of the reasons behind their rapid expansion is their unusual ability to travel. Joro spiders use a method called ballooning. This involves releasing strands of silk that catch the air and lift them off the ground.
Those silk strands act like tiny sails. The spiders can drift through the air for several feet at a time.
It is not quite flight in the traditional sense, but it’s close enough to the untrained eye. It also makes long distance travel surprisingly easy…
One of the side effects of this is that these spiders can hitch lifts without meaning to. A passing vehicle or gust of wind can carry them further than expected. That’s helped them move between regions at pace.
Despite how it sounds, experts say there is little reason to panic.
The spiders are technically venomous, but they’re not dangerous to people or our animals, only posing a threat to small insects.
José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist based on Staten Island, told Daily Mail: ‘There have been no documented fatalities, nor any notable medically significant bites.’
He added: ‘Taken together with their behavior (they are very reluctant to bite) and the evidence from the literature, they really pose no threat to humans or our pets.’
In fact, their behaviour is relatively calm compared to other species. They tend to avoid confrontation rather than seek it out. If anything, they would rather keep themselves to themselves and stay put at home. Like most of us.
Where they do stand out is their ability to cope with busy environments.
Unlike many other spiders, Joros seem to be pretty comfortable living near humans. Cities and built up areas don’t appear to bother them all that much.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have looked into this human-friendly phenomenon. They used tuning forks to mimic the vibrations of traffic. While other spiders would react, Joros showed very little concern at all.
Andy Davis from the University of Georgia explained: ‘These Joro webs are everywhere in the fall, including right next to busy roads, and the spiders seem to be able to make a living there.
‘For some reason, these spiders seem urban tolerant.’
Their resilience doesn’t stop there, either. Studies suggest that they can handle colder temperatures far better than you might expect. In tests where spiders were frozen, more than 75% survived without issue.
According to the journal Arthropoda, their rapid spread is linked to several biological traits. These include a high metabolism and fast heart rate. Combined with their tolerance to cold temperatures, it gives them an edge in brand new environments.
Even so, scientists are keeping a close eye on their impact. The species is considered invasive. That means it can disrupt local ecosystems and compete with native spiders.
David Coyle of Clemson University warned: ‘These are not just benign spiders coming to catch and kill bad things; these are pushing out native species and catching and killing whatever happens to get in their webs.’
For everyday residents, dealing with them is fairly straightforward. If one shows up where it is not wanted, it can usually be moved with a broom or stick. No need for dramatic heroics.
So while the idea of flying spiders might sound like premium nightmare fuel, the reality is a bit less dramatic.
They’re spreading, yes, and they are here to stay. But for now, it seems the biggest threat is to your peace of mind rather than your safety.
Still, if one drifts past your face on a summer afternoon, you might find yourself thrown into a wild panic. Understandably. Calm is easier said than done when something that size is hanging in the air giving you a menacing look.
Even if the science says you’re technically quite safe, it’s always worth listening to your instincts when it comes to giant arachnids that can fly.