Sorry, Boston: Now You've Got a Joro

Invasive but 'relatively harmless' Joro spider has been spotted in Massachusetts for first time
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2024 1:04 PM CDT
Updated Sep 26, 2024 7:55 AM CDT
Pennsylvania, Your Unwanted Guests Have Arrived
A Joro spider is seen in Johns Creek, Georgia, on Oct. 24, 2021.   (AP Photo/Alex Sanz, File)
UPDATE Sep 26, 2024 7:55 AM CDT

"For months, experts warned us that the invasive species was creeping north," a WBZ reporter noted on Wednesday in speaking about the Joro spider, the "flying" arachnid that's been infiltrating states along the East Coast. Now, about a week after it was spotted for the first time in Pennsylvania, Trichonephila clavata has found its way into Massachusetts, reports CBS News. A lone Joro (so far) has made its new home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. A University of Georgia researcher notes the area has a climate similar to the spider's native northern Japan.

Sep 20, 2024 1:04 PM CDT

Trichonephila clavata has made its way to the Keystone State. The invasive arachnid otherwise known as the Joro spider, which had already been spotted this season in New York and New Jersey, has been found in Pennsylvania—or, rather, a half dozen of them were, reports the Guardian. The six spiders were seen Sept. 5 in a yard in Bucks County, according to the Joro Watch tracker, and that find was confirmed later by a state entomologist.

The colorful spiders—the larger females are usually yellow with a red-tinged abdomen and blue stripes, while males are typically brown with yellow stripes on their abdomen—have legs as long as 8 inches and are said to "fly" through the air. They're not really flying, however: They're ballooning, or letting the wind carry them on their web silks.

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USA Today notes that the Joro spiders—an East Asian species first seen in the US in 2014, in Georgia, and making its way up the East Coast ever since—have arrived in Pennsylvania "just in time for Halloween" (and Election Day, if you want to get extra-superstitious). But that doesn't mean you should be scared of them. The Guardian calls them shy and "relatively harmless" to people and pets, with one researcher noting, "These spiders are really more afraid of you than the reverse." (More spiders stories.)

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