Joro Spider lands in Pa, but should we be worried about them?

The Spark

The joro spider has been discovered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in September. The Joro Spider is about four inches long according to Michael Skvarla, Assistant Research Professor of Arthropod Identification at Penn State University.

"They're kind of gray and green stripes. The males look. So that's the adult females. The males look a little bit different. They're much smaller and kind of a reddish, reddish brown color. And they're all weaver. So they build a large orb web and they sit in the middle of it. There's a similar species of related species in the same genus golden orb weavers or golden silk orb weavers that live in Florida, parts of southern Georgia, if I recall correctly. And they're similar in size and shape. They have a different color pattern to them, but they kind of do the same thing. They make a big web. They sit in that web. They don't really move from it. So draw spiders are similar, but differently colored and from a different part of the world, "said Skvarla.

Joro Spiders does have venom, however, Skavarla believes it is not medically important.

"They don't leave their web. And so to get bit, you have to physically go up to the web and touch or grab them. Most people aren't going to be doing that. If you do that. They're reluctant biters because most orb weavers are like, you have to really mess with them to get them to bite you. Most orb weaving spiders, if you pick it up in their web, they're going to curl their legs up and sit in your hand if you can make it bite you. The venom is weak because it's not evolved toward causing pain in mammals. It's evolved for subduing insect prey. And because of that, it doesn't elicit much of a pain response. It's maybe on par with a bee sting. There haven't been any reports of people having allergic reactions to it that. In theory could happen. People have allergic reactions to lots of things, but as far as we can tell, there's been no reports of that in their native range. So. Theoretically somebody might have an allergic reaction if they can make it bite them. But that is the only risk and it is a small one. So are they venomous? Yes. But does it matter? Not really. Not for people, at least, "said Skvarla.

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