Giant Spiders from Asia Now Weaving Their Way Up the US East Coast

Giant Spiders from Asia Now Weaving Their Way Up the US East Coast

We have covered the expansion of invasive species, including murder hornets, giant snails, and lanternflies.

Now, there are reports that enormous eight-inch-long spiders from Asia are weaving their way up the US East Coast and spreading out west.

Experts say the Jorō spider can fly 50 to 100 miles at a stretch, using their webbing as a parasail to glide in the wind, and it’s now also hitching rides up east coast highways — but the creatures aren’t known to pose a threat to humans or pets.

However, the jury is still out on the impact that this giant spider, which is believed to have first arrived in the US a decade ago via shipping containers arriving in Georgia, might have on local wildlife.

One thing that is certain, according to an ecologist at Rutgers University’s Lockwood Lab in New Jersey, who spoke with DailyMail.com: ‘Soon enough, possibly even next year, they should be in New Jersey and New York.’

Because their main methods of dispersal are to either ‘balloon’ with the wind, or hitch rides on cars,’ PhD student and ecologist José R. Ramírez-Garofalo told DailyMail.com, ‘they are generally going to spread to where the wind blows, or where humans are.’

As if 2024 won’t be challenging enough, one ecologist indicates they are presently dispersing into Maryland and estimates the spiders will arrive in New York and New Jersey within the next 12 months.

“Right now, we are seeing them dispersing into Maryland, so soon enough, possibly even next year, they should be in New Jersey and New York,’’ José R. Ramírez-Garofalo an ecologist in the Lockwood Lab at Rutgers University told Staten Island Advance.

“It is a matter of when, not if.”

Researchers from Clemson described that the spider, which is “spreading like wildfire” in the Southeast currently, will also eat just about anything that gets caught in their web.

There’s some good news, however — the unwelcome invaders are far more likely to be found on the exterior of a home than inside.

Wherever you find them, there’s really no need to panic.

“Pesticides work [to kill them], but, also, they are probably overkill because it will kill everything else, and there is a cost involved; it’s just as easy to physically move them if they are on your house,” lead researcher, professor David Coyle said.

Fortunately, the spider’s appearance is worse than its bite:

The Joro spider has a venom it uses to subdue prey, usually small bugs. But this substance isn’t venomous to the majority of creatures. The Joro will bite if threatened but the only real risk from the bite is if the attacked has an allergic reaction. The bite itself poses no danger to humans or even their household pets. The Joro’s mouthparts aren’t big enough to cause a reaction greater than the symptoms of a bee sting and require little treatment.

There is also a murder hornet update to share. Apparently, its cousin, the yellow-legged hornet, has landed in Georgia and is going through the American Southeast.

Late last summer, scientists found the yellow-legged hornet—officially a Vespa velutina—near Savannah, Georgia, putting the American agricultural community on alert. It’s much the same reaction that the discovery of the northern giant hornet—the Vespa mandarinia, also called the Asian giant hornet or murder hornet—in Washington elicited in 2019.

“The yellow-legged hornet poses a threat to honeybees and other pollinators in our state,” states the Georgia Department of Agriculture in a news release. “It is imperative that these invasive pests are tracked and eradicated.”

Native to the tropical and subtropical areas of southeast Asia, the yellow-legged hornet worker is often around half the size of a murder hornet. The queen is roughly three-quarters the size of its cousin species. Named for its distinctive coloring, the legs of the hornet are partially or primarily yellow, and the colors on the bodies and heads of the hornets can vary.

The ancients used to watch wildlife for signs of the future. If that works, I am really not looking forward to 2024: Giant 8in spiders from China are set to invade the UShttps://t.co/4wXRAdpUBT

— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) December 10, 2023

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