Spring is on the way, and spring on the way means summer on the way, and with summer on the way, that means bugs. There’s one in particular that has the internet rather riled up, too: a species of spider known as the Joro spider.
Headlines everywhere are painting this arachnid to be frightening beyond belief, but are they really as scary as we’re made to think? Let’s find out!
The internet has begun to fear an invasive species of spider.
Of course, descriptions like the one above aren’t necessarily helping.
This is called a Joro spider, and while it is true that they’re big, can rain from the sky, and while unmentioned in this particular headline, are venomous, these facts have all been greatly overexaggerated. Joro spiders are nothing to be worried about, and in fact, they even provide some good to us humans!
Let’s debunk the scary things, first.
Yes, Joro spiders are venomous, but not so much so that you’ll die if they bite you, nor will it really even hurt. In fact, their fangs aren’t usually big enough to pierce human skin anyway!
Now, are they actually as big as a child’s hand? Barely. They can only be called that big because they have a huge leg-to-body ratio, and with those legs outstretched, an adult Joro spider is about three inches wide.
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What about their method of arrival, will they really rain from above?
Sort of? ‘Ballooning’ is a tactic used by many spiders to travel distances, in which they produce a few strings of silk and let the wind carry them. They can travel for miles like this!
Joro spiders do use ballooning to get around sometimes, but we won’t be seeing them descending in droves like a scene from a horror movie. There’s no guarantee where they’ll travel, whereupon the East Coast many of them will settle, nor how many you’ll be able to catch ballooning through the air.
They’re still an invasive species though, right? Which means we should kill them on sight?
No! Not all invasive species are inherently destructive and need to be eliminated. Joro spiders, originating from Japan, don’t actually do any major damage to the American ecosystems they’ve been living in since 2013. They actually have some benefits, helping control the population of other pests like stinkbugs and mosquitos.
So, what have we learned today?
Mostly that Joro spiders are actually chill, and way less scary than people want to make them seem. Of course, some people just don’t like spiders, and that’s fine, but let’s not pretend like the Joro spider is the worst one out there when they actually do us a solid by eating up some other nasty bugs!
If you happen to see one this summer, thank a Joro spider!
h/t: lifehacker