An invasive spider species is making its way north to the New York metropolitan area, and while it is harmless, its size tends to terrify people.
The Joro spider, a native of East Asia, has spread throughout the southern United States and has even been seen in Maryland. It’s anticipated to appear in New Jersey and New York this summer.
The spider’s body is around 4 inches long, and its legs are 6 to 8 inches long, roughly the size of a human hand. Females are likewise quite colorful; they have yellow bodies with gray or dark blue stripes, a red belly, and dark blue legs with yellow stripes. Males are brown.
“I’m sure it’ll bother people just because a lot of people don’t like spiders,” said Louis Sorkin, an arachnologist who resigned from the American Museum of Natural History and now advises on arachnology and entomology. “They don’t represent a significant threat. Of course, they contain venom, but it is not hazardous.
The Joro spider attacks only when threatened, and its venom is not harmful to humans or pets.
In reality, the Joro spider can be useful to people since it consumes mosquitoes, yellowjackets, stink bugs, and even spotted lanternflies, which it traps in its golden yellow webs. Birds and animals consume joro spiders as well.
A single spider may travel up to 100 miles using wind currents.
“The spiderlings do ballooning, which is like a parachuting style of producing silk that goes out into a long strand, which is then picked up by the wind,” Sorkin said. So, if the prevailing winds are heading north at this time of year, when spiderlings are the appropriate size to move in the wind, they are likely to spread from the South to the New York metropolitan area.
However, the spider’s size and quick spread are causing significant reactions. “Beware: Wicked Venomous Flying Spiders Heading to Missouri,” said one headline.
“It’s a bigger spider than we’re used to, but it has pretty colors,” Sorkin said.
Sorkin said he did not expect the Joro spider to appear in such large numbers that it caused difficulties.
