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...

[Pearls Before Swine]

How come they haven’t wafted over here before now?

[Qiviut]

This sort of reminds me of the parasitic wasps & their grisly takeover of living caterpillars.

[popdonnelly]

China is Joe Biden’s friend.

[sit-rep]

dust em!! maybe get a cloud of pretty colors if ya hit em right!!

[sit-rep]

ya that was indeed good!

[popdonnelly]

Anyone seeing a pattern here?

[political1]

They look like good targets for a woofal ball bat.

[willk]

“with the latter being not only a threat to crops, but a threat that currently enjoys free reign without natural predators in many parts of the US.”

Yeah, those Fentanyl users are allowed to do whatever. My wife and I refer to Fentanyl users as stinkbugs because they both walk around with their buts in the air.

[metmom]

the Jorō spider mostly preys on flies, mosquitos and stink bugs — with the latter being not only a threat to crops, but a threat that currently enjoys free reign without natural predators in many parts of the US.

I am most certainly not a fan of invasives, but I'm trying to see the downside of this one.

[metmom]

Aside from its size, that is........

[lapsus calami]

 

 

It is balloooooon!

Sound evil spirit alarm!

 

 

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Qiviut; Wasps can be our garden friends. (And some fungus can be our food!)

Trichogramma Parasitoids;

Just a tiny lil thing! Here laying their eggs on a Moth Egg.

Here on the egg of a Corn borer:

Tomato hornworm parasitized by Braconid wasp:

Then there is this:

cordyceps-mushrooms

[Alas Babylon!]

It shouldn't have to take so long for someone to post a picture of it:

The Jorō Spider

[Qiviut]

I like finding parasitized hornworms. I know the wasps will hatch & patrol my tomatoes. I also have found using a black light works well for spotting hornworms at night (plus the garden looks spooky cool!).

[CFW]

Ah yes. Foreign species are not good for a country. They will take over the native population and destroy the natural order of things. I believe that is why at the border they ask you if you are bringing in any fruits, vegetables, or plants. As long as you are carrying illegal and foreign people, then the rules do not apply. Carry on.

[Qiviut]

Cordyceps are very interesting, but I think I will stick with herbs for the time being! :-)

[linMcHlp]

Diversity Strength

Voted for It

Until the large spider descends

[dfwgator]

[Carriage Hill]

Just liker in real life...