Giant Flying Joro Spider Could Invade MD, East Coast

MARYLAND — If stink bugs make you squeamish, you aren't going to like this. Flying spiders that stretch to 3 inches long could be headed for Maryland.

The arachnids swarmed Georgia by the millions last summer. New research from the University of Georgia says these ginormous insects could spread and colonize other parts of the East Coast, including the Free State.

Joro spiders use their web like a parachute to carry them via the wind to new locations, a behavior called ballooning, a researcher told WGCL, a CBS affiliate in Georgia. One made its way to Oklahoma, the news station reported.

Published in Physiological Entomology in February, a study by Georgia researchers compared the Joro spider with its relative, the golden silk spider, which first moved to the Southeast from the tropics around 160 years ago. The study found the Joro spider has about double the metabolism of its relative, has a 77 percent higher heart rate and can survive a brief freeze that kills off many of its cousins.

As a result, the Joros can likely exist beyond the borders of the Southeast, researchers said.

"It looks like the Joros could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering," Andy Davis, a corresponding author of the study and a research scientist at the Odum School of Ecology, said in an article by the University of Georgia.

It’s not just cold-hardiness that makes the Joro likely to spread beyond its current region, officials said. Humans may help spread them to other regions.

“The potential for these spiders to be spread through people’s movements is very high,” Frick said. “Anecdotally, right before we published this study, we got a report from a grad student at UGA who had accidentally transported one of these to Oklahoma.”

Native throughout parts of Asia, researchers believe the first Joros to arrive in the U.S. were likely stowaways on shipping containers.

People and pets aren't harmed by the arachnids, which are good food for birds. The creatures won’t bite unless cornered, and their fangs are often not large enough to break human skin, according to researchers at the University of Georgia.

“There’s really no reason to go around actively squishing them,” said Benjamin Frick, an undergraduate researcher. “Humans are at the root of their invasion. Don’t blame the Joro spider.”

The spiders will not reach the D.C. region until after the summer, WTOP reported, citing "Bug Guy" Mike Raupp, professor of entymology at the University of Maryland College Park. It people see them, Raupp told WTOP, they should submit a picture the state or local department that handles pests.