BLACKSBURG, Va. – You may have been hearing about Joro spiders hitting the East Coast, but don’t worry, experts tell us you have nothing to fear.
The neon-looking spider from Asia has been in the United States since 2014.
It’s yellow and black and when all eight legs are extended it’s about four inches wide.
It’s been found mostly in Georgia and the Carolinas but scientists said it will eventually move into the Northeast.
We have not had any reports of Joro spiders in Virginia just yet.
“They’re very quiet, shy spiders,” said Theresa Dellinger with the Virginia Tech Insect Identification Lab. “They like to spin these large webs and sit in the middle and basically eat whichever insects or arthropods land on them. We’re telling people you don’t need to worry about these spiders, what you really need to worry about is mosquitoes and ticks.”
She also said the baby spiders use a tactic of gliding called ballooning to get around, but you won’t see any adult spiders doing this.