There is a spider making a home in Southern California that\u2019s the size of your palm and soars through the air riding the wind.<\/p>\n
Although the Joro spider, an invasive species that has been spotted across the United States, including in California, isn\u2019t dangerous, its size and the web it creates can seem like props from a horror movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not medically significant,\u201d said Pat Wooden, the insect identification lab manager at Virginia Tech. \u201cThey\u2019re great big bugs, but they\u2019re not going to bite you and cause terrible damage. They\u2019re established really well, so there isn\u2019t a whole lot we can do against them. Their spider webs can get up to 10 feet.\u201d <\/p>\n
The spider has recently been found in California, with the first report in October, Wooden said. They don\u2019t have any natural predators and have a big web that is able to capture a diverse range of prey, including beetles, wasps and stink bugs. The spiders are also good at distancing themselves from each other so they aren\u2019t in competition.<\/p>\n
Wooden recommends that people try not to panic and do nothing if they happen to see one. The spiders benefit humans by acting as natural pest control, eating mosquitoes, biting flies and invasive stink bugs. Their venom isn\u2019t dangerous to people or pets and they seldom bite. <\/p>\n
The spiders disperse themselves by \u201cballooning,\u201d in which spiderlings release silk that catches in the wind, letting them travel. This falsely gives people the impression that the spiders can somehow fly. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re incredibly prevalent and people interact with them a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten past the people thinking that they flew, which was the real scary thing that came with them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The first time the spider was spotted in the U.S. was in Georgia in 2014, likely brought to the country through shipping containers from China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, Wooden said. <\/p>\n
The spiders are especially prevalent in Appalachia and have also been spotted in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio and Florida. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned that we\u2019re just going to be stuck with them,\u201d Wooden said. \u201cThey\u2019re becoming more prevalent and they\u2019re slowly making their way across the Southeast. When we recently did work in Tennessee, every single rock alcove had one in it.\u201d <\/p>\n