(NewsNation) — Joro spiders: They’re big. They fly. They’re venomous, and they may be invading the East Coast.
The arachnid was first spotted in Georgia about 14 years ago, but they’re native to East Asia. The yellow-and-blue striped spiders can grow up to 4 inches, lay up to 1,500 eggs per year, and they can fly — kind of.
The Joro spider is prepared to make a landing in the Northeast this summer, making it the latest bug to take the United States by storm.
Already, regions throughout the U.S. have seen waves of cicadas and Mormon crickets.
Michael Raupp, professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Maryland, joined “NewsNation Now” to teach you what you need to know about everything creepy and crawly you may encounter this summer.
“We predict these spiders will find abundant habitats all the way up the East Coast and parts of western states, as well,” Raupp said. “They have a proclivity to disperse, as all spiders do.”
That dispersal appears to be in a more northward direction, he added.
“In 2023, we had about 12 identifications of Joro spiders right here in Maryland about 10 miles from my home — I promise I did not bring them here,” Raupp joked. “But they seem to be poised to spread further up the Eastern Seaboard.”
Do they fly? Not necessarily. It’s called “ballooning,” and like many spiders, they’ll let out a strand of silk as storm fronts approach, getting swept up into the air current. From there, they’ll ride the jet streams for hundreds of miles until they finally drop and look for a mate, Raupp said.
“I think the other way they’re spreading right now is probably with a human assist,” he added. “They’re good hitchhikers, and if we have an impregnated female in a car or in an RV, or an egg case … it travels from Georgia up here to Maryland where they escape and then — boom. You’ve got an infestation.”
There’s no need to worry, however. Joro spiders’ mouths are too small to pierce human skin. The risk of one biting a person or a pet is minimal, Raupp said.
“These (spiders) are very docile,” he said. “They’re passive. They’re not interested in attacking, jumping, biting. All they want to do is catch prey and eat those prey.”