SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — With summer around the corner, mosquitoes and other pests are out and about, but if you’re in South Jersey, biologists say you could be seeing a new giant spider that’s new to the area.
The Joro Spider is native to Asia, and is believed to have arrived in Georgia in 2014 in shipping containers.
Dr. Christopher Tipping, chair of the Department of Biology at Delaware Valley University, said the spiders’ babies are using webbing to ride wind currents north, like the end scene in “Charlotte’s Web.”
“As they were ballooning away, if you remember that scene, that’s kind of what these guys do when they’re born,” he said.
Adult female Joro Spiders can grow up to four inches, with bright yellow colors. They’re also closely related to the Golden Silk Orb-weaver, which already appears in North America.
If Joro spiders do arrive in the region this summer, it’s not expected to be in large numbers.
On its size, Tipping said it may be big, but its fangs are small and its venom isn’t toxic enough to harm humans.
“I surely would say don’t pick it up because they will bite you, even though it's not a vicious bite,” he said. “It’s best to ignore them,but if you feel that you don’t want one on your back porch, you could either kill them, apply chemistry or try to move them, but they’re not going to be a real problem in terms of a health risk. It’s more of a nuisance thing.”
If you feel the need to kill them, Tipping recommends Lysol, or trying to move them with a stick. If not, he recommends observing them from a safe distance.