Giant 8in spiders from China are set to invade the US: Black and yellow critters seen parachuting through the air on the east coast - and will soon hit New York and New Jersey

Daily Mail ^ | 12/06/23 | Matthew Phelan

[Libloather]

A venomous eight-inch-long spider native to Asia, whose palm-sized females cannibalize their male mates, is flying up America's 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.'

Ramírez-Garofalo, who currently conducts research for Rutgers' Lockwood Lab, added that while the Jorō spider will likely be able to take advantage of warming temperatures along the northeastern seaboard, their hitchhiking and parachuting methods are sure to take them farther than some other invasives.

'Their range expansion is more complicated than the typical northward expansion that you see with a lot of species under current climate conditions,' Ramírez-Garofalo told DailyMail.com.

'Right now, we are seeing them dispersing into Maryland,' as the ecologist recently told Staten Island Advance. 'It is a matter of when, not if.'

Last month, other ecological and entomological researchers in New York, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina pooled...

[Ezekiel]

Too many drogues are coming across the border!

[martin_fierro]

The Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive Chinese species, is already plaguing my Pittsburgh.

[Olog-hai]

Weird and Gilly too.

[Repeal The 17th]

These spiders have been in northeast Georgia for several years now.
We were told they arrived from Japan in a shipping container.
They are big, build lots of webs, but harmless to humans.

[gundog]

Pellet rifles. I can hit a daddy longlegs at 30 feet. These things would be big game.

[gundog]

I saw spiders that look just like these in Florida, decades ago.

[LegendHasIt]

Has Fauci or Bill Gates managed to genetically modify them yet, to make them deadly to humans?

[ealgeone]

this isn’t news....been seeing them for about three-four years in GA.

[grey_whiskers]

OK you win the ...thread.

[BenLurkin]

A pest no doubt, but what a marvelous creation of God in that coloration.

[Lazamataz]

I have a Joro right under my porch light.

He’s not 8 inches, and he’s the biggest I’ve seen. More like 2 to 3 inches.

And they are not venomous.

[MotorCityBuck]

Always a Classic.👍

[jacknhoo]

They’re here in Woodstock, Georgia this year. Killed a few of them in my backyard.

[End Times Sentinel]

They can’t break human skin, so it’s really only of interest to insects and possibly tiny mamals?
I’m pretty sure none of them can read, so what’s the point of even writing this story?

[bk1000]

They aren’t any larger than orb weavers. We were covered up with them last year when they first showed up, dozens all over the house. The freeze got them. Not nearly so many this year. I doubt we’ll see any next year. Had a rather large one in a web outside our breakfast room window last year. She was fascinating to watch. I have no problem as long as they stay in their webs. I had heard they were from Japan and when I saw this headline I thought it was something even more horrifying. The Juro spiders we had were at most 1.25” body, about 1/4” diameter, with a leg span of about three inches. A fat grasshopper was no match for her! You could see the hapless males off to the side in the web. They have no idea.

[broken_clock]

Females cannibalizing males. I see a pattern here…

The females are called Fang Fang ;-)

[bleach]

Jamming hard.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

A venomous eight-inch-long spider native to Asia, whose palm-sized females cannibalize their male mates

These spiders will be at home in liberal east coast cities.

[Getready]

Article says venom is as toxic as a bee sting...unless the victim is allergic....but what is the percentage of people allergic? Does the victim get anaphylaxis or just a rash( as with a mosquito)?

[rhinohunter]

A venomous eight-inch-long spider native to Asia,

Well it could be worse. It could be from Australia, which always seems to have the most venomous creatures.