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The Joro spin, the East Asian native insect, is a recently discovered creature. They are widespread in Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan. It is an invasive family of golden orb-webbed spiders that have somehow found their way into Georgia in 2014. Since then they have swarmed west across North Georgia south carolina. It is believed that the Joro spider got here via a shipping container.
related to a banana spider, the palm-sized Joro spider is recognizable by its bright blue, red, and yellow colors. (But this coloring is especially true for the female.) The Joro spider also has a unique webbing. While the typical spider web is a nice dull white, that of the Joro spider is usually golden.
Let’s take a closer look at the Jorospin, including answering a question that has plagued many an arachnophobe: Is a Jorospin bite venomous and what, if any, are the symptoms?
Are Joro Spiders a Poisonous Threat?
Arachnophobes and a few non-arachnophobes might not like seeing a Joro dangling from their ceiling. The spider’s bright color schemes only emphasize their size. With fully extended legs, these spiders are almost 10 cm in diameter! That’s a noticeable difference from the average house spider which comes in somewhere between 3/16th and 5/16th inch.
The Joro spider has a venom that it uses to subdue prey, usually small critters. But this substance is not poisonous to most creatures. The Joro will bite if threatened, but the only real risk from the bite is if the attacker has an allergic reaction. The bite itself poses no danger to people or even their pets. The Joro’s mouthparts are not large enough to cause a response greater than the symptoms of a Bee sting and require little treatment.
Problems that the Joro Spider can cause
The Jorospin is more of an invasive nuisance to our ecosystems than a toxic hazard. Since coming to the States, they are huge and multiplied quickly. Females are capable of dropping bags of 400 to 1500 eggs into shrubs or trees. The fry hatch in the spring and hitchhike and disperse, often upwind on a strand of silk web.
An advantage of the invasive Joro spider is he eating? a variety of other creatures we’d rather not have around, including biting flies, stink bugs, and mosquitoes. Note that the Joro spider does not necessarily need to be labeled in the same category of pest invasions that include the zebra mussel or deadly algae. Entomologists cite the Joro spider as a beauty animal that offers free pest control.
Features of the Joro Spider
Here are some definitive physical characteristics for recognizing the Joro spider.
Colour
The female spider legs have deep blue and yellow bands. The abdomen is a network of yellow, red and black asymmetrical patterns. Males have a simple, solid brown body.
Observations
In Georgia, the invasive Joro spiders are mainly seen in October and September. Georgia residents report seeing webs up to 3 meters deep on their property.
Measure
The invasive Jorospin has exceptionally long legs and a large abdomen. You will find that the body of male spiders is generally 0.27 to 0.39 inches in length. Females come in at about 0.66 to 0.98 inches. Adding to the intimidation factor is that the Joro spider has leg widths ranging from three to four inches.
Lifespan
The Joro lives about twelve months, which is the typical lifespan for a spider.
Keep the Joro spider out
We can talk about all the benefits of Joro spiders eating insects that no one wants to see, but the fact is that no one wants to see a 3 inch spider crawling around the house. Although they are not poisonous, the sight of these animals is nothing short of intimidating to most people.
The best treatment to ensure you never see a Juro in your home is prevention. Preventive measures eliminate contact with all types of unwanted intruders. Precautions can reduce the costs you have to pay if you have an invasion. Prevention can also have benefits. Measures such as sealing cracks and crevices will minimize invasion and can also make the property more energy efficient.
Here are a few ways to keep the invasive Joro spider away:
- Keep your environment tidy.
- Avoid food that attracts insects. Store food in well-designed containers or refrigerators. These foods can be the draw for insects that a Joro feeds on.
- Vacuum cobwebs regularly.
- As mentioned, find and seal off all entry points, including cracks and holes that spiders can use to get in common house spider, wolf spiders, to fly and other unwelcome guests generally enter through gaps in siding, holes in doors and window screens, unscreened vents, and gaps around power lines. Once inside, the pests tend to reproduce.
- Maintain your landscaping. And another treatment is not to grow vegetation and plants directly against the house.
- Store waste properly and neatly inside and outside. All kinds of common insects usually start their journey indoors by hovering around the garbage cans.
Joro spider population is growing fast
Due to their seasonal hatching and migratory aggression, it is believed that the invasive Joro will eventually spread to other parts of the country. The eggs can withstand c
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d temperatures and the spiders love to hitch a ride. They travel on wind (between 50 and 100 miles in a single trip). They will also jump on a freight container or car bumper and stick around for the long haul. After all, it is believed that the Joro spider came from the East via a transport crate.
De Joro uses ballooning for a large part of his travels. There the spider spins a silk thread and catches a breeze in the wind. They use wind energy to transport themselves as far as possible, sometimes as far as 100 miles. The predominant wind direction in northern Georgia is southwest to northeast. That leaves open the possibility that these creatures get as far as Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland if they can adapt to the cooler climates.
Joro spiders hatch in the spring. They reach maturity at the end of summer and begin to travel by the thousands, leaving pouches in trees and on patio furniture. The females share webs with smaller mates. By the time the adults die during the first frost of the winter season, it is late November. But the bags left behind are ready to grow the next, larger generation in the spring.
Should we kill Joro Spiders?
Sure, because they are spiders, their size and creepy, crawling legs can be disturbing to humans. But the Joro spider is not dangerous or poisonous and does not deserve to be killed outright. Experts say hiring a professional exterminator isn’t the answer either. The population is multiplying too fast, so any treatment won’t help.
Instead, try to manage the symptoms that bring in the Jorospin. Try to keep the house clean of insects that the Jorospin hunts. They prey on biting flies, mosquitoes and the stink bug. These are unpleasant creatures that other spiders want nothing to do with. Do what you can to close off access roads that these spiders (and other unwanted insects) use to get onto your property and then into your home. Get rid of any tissue that pops up. Controlling the symptoms will go a long way in eliminating invasions.
The scientific community is hopeful that the Joro spider, despite being invasive, will gradually make a dent in these other unwanted pests. They are a gift from Mother Nature to humans for pest control.
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