December 11, 2024 • 12 mins
These invasive spiders are everywhere these days. But how did they get to the USA and are they harmful?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
there's Jerry there, and we're caught in a web of
greatness because this is short stuff from stuff you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh my brain got zapped for a second there.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Uh you know.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I just saw a jiro spider today eating either eating
a bee or fighting a bee. I don't know what
was going on, but it was tangling with a bee.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Could have been two different steps.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Perhaps.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I've seen a bunch of them myself. We have them
all over the house. And I had been remarking to
myself like, wow, these things are all over the place,
and you sent this and I was like, oh, well,
that's why they're an invasive species here in Georgia, South
Carolina for sure, and they're starting to move a little
bit northwestward into other southern states like Tennessee and Alabama,
(00:59):
but definitely up the eastern seaboard. And what we're talking
about is what CNN called giant, venomous juro spiders are
infiltrating parts of the US. Can you believe that?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I mean, they're venomous, they're giant, and they are invading,
but come.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
On, Yeah, So after you guys, hear the short stuff,
you will realize how just preposterous that headline from CNN is.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
So the scientific name of these beautiful, beautiful spiders are
Nephila clevada and they are from East Asia. And they
got over here like a lot of things get over here,
which is in like shipping containers and stuff. A lot
of times it's like lumber. That's how you get a
lot of insects coming in. And they came over from
(01:47):
East Asia and really made a home here in the
Southeast since I think twenty thirteen is when they first
spotted them in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, Georgia leads the way in duro spiders.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, Atlanta is the hub.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I think my house is the hub actually there.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Well, you're also seeing a lot of them now because
the adults come out and spin their webs in August September, October.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So, like you said, they're from East Asia and in
Japan they're called juro gummo. And the reason I say juro,
a lot of people say joro, which makes sense because
it's spelled jo ro. But in the Japanese spelling there's
a long symbol over the second Oh, so the first
one would not be a hard Oh, it'd be jah
(02:30):
ro Okay, that's right, and that means entangling or binding bride.
And you'll see why they call them that. In Korea,
they're called mudang gumi, which means shaman or fortune teller.
So however you slice it, these things have pretty cool names,
and aptly so, because like you said, they're just absolutely
beautiful and they are pretty good sized enough so that
(02:51):
you can see like all of them pretty clearly.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean they're big. They're orb weavers, so they're
gonna weave those big beautiful webs that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Their webs can be ten feet wide. The one I
almost walked into the other day, like face first, was
probably about four feet wide and strung between two outdoor
umbrellas that were not close to each other, So I
don't know if that part counts as the width or not.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
If that does, it was more like eight feet.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But if you've seen these things and you said, like, oh,
that's just a garden spider, we have those when I
was growing up, what are you talking about, guys?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Not the same spider. The garden spider looks a lot
like it.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But there are some differences because they're well different spiders
garden spiders. The females are bigger than the males, and
as far as the markings go, the garden spiders have
yellow and black basically only, and the drawers have yellow
and dark blue with a little bit of red on
their belly.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, they also have orange bands like around their legs.
They're just really really pretty. The males of the duro
spiders too, are smaller and they're kind of looking. So
if you ever see a gerro spider and you're like, wow,
that is a cool looking spider, it's a It's a
female every time. And then the other dead giveaway is
if it's spinning a web, it's a female, because only
(04:11):
the females spin webs for gerro spiders. And you said
you walked face first into or you almost walked face
first into a web? Correct, have you ever run into one?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I mean, I've walked through some some spider webs at
my day. Like you do that a lot when you're
like backpacking because you don't see them on the trail,
so that happens a lot. And hear that, Like I
walked through one earlier, just kind of on my arms,
but it wasn't you know the nightmare scene where it's
you realize it three inches from the spider being on
(04:45):
your face kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah. So one of the things that's characteristic of gerro
spider webs is they don't necessarily break, like it takes
a lot to just walk through them. Like you can
walk through them and you're kind of gonna bounce off
a little bit. It's not, you know, not going to
send you flying backwards, but it's not just going to
snap as you walk through it. And I saw that
they those webs are so strong. Birds can perch on them,
(05:10):
like it's not like the birds getting caught in the web,
but they can like just perch on the on the
web for a little while where they figure out where
to fly next. That's a strong spider web, that is.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Is that a good time for a break?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I think so, all right, we'll take a break and
we'll be right back after I go take a quick shower.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Just like the number the sky so much stop.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So one of the reasons that gero spiders are spreading
so quickly is because they're they're very new, Like you said,
a little over ten years since they were first spotted
in the US, which means that predators haven't I guess
spotted them yet, so they have a ready supply of
flying insects they apparently particularly like stink bugs, and little
(06:18):
competition for those insects. In part, I think because they
weave their web higher than other spiders that they would
be competing with for food, and so an ample supply
of food and no predators means that any species is
going to just boom for a while. And that's what
we're in, the golden age of juro spiders booming all
(06:41):
over the eastern United States.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And if you think, you know, how far north are
they going to get? Right now? And I read an
article I think from June twenty four that said West
Virginia is about as far north as they've gone so far,
except up for a satellite population in Baltimore. So they,
(07:05):
I guess, got on a container, went to Baltimore, and
we're like, this isn't so bad. I think one of
the things we didn't mention that, you know, since they're
so native to Georgia especially or not native, I guess,
but invaded in Georgia. First, the University of Georgia has
done a lot of studying on them, and they found
that it turns out these guys can live in a
lot colder weather than they previously thought they could.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So they'll be to you soon New Jersey, New York
and beyond.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, so a little bit more about the actual spiders
themselves and how they behave. You'll notice like there's a
couple of different webs basically right up on each other.
Gerald spiders live very close together. I guess they're not
super territorial, if at all. And again, if you see
a beautiful spider in the web, it's a female and
(07:51):
there's probably a male trying to get to her, and
he's using all sorts of cute little tricks to make
his way from one place to another toward his intended
love target.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Oh man, he almost said lover.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I would not say that. I'm so I get so
deeply disturbed by that word for some reason.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Oh me too.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I think a lot of people have that reaction. There's
something and not only that, but the phrase take a lover.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
It's just like, yes, it's so gross to me. Oh
my god. That and moist and if you put them together.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Is oh goodness me, you need some of that. Bach
Studio before a joke.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah yeah, oh goodness, how did this get so dirty
all of a sudden?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
All right, so they live close to each other. The
males are trying to get the attention. They may float
on little cobweby type things and just be like, hey,
look over here. And the reason they don't just jump
up in a web and say, let's get this thing
over with is because the female will probably kill the
male and eat it. So they're they're walking a very
fine line trying to get some attention without being eaten.
(09:01):
So the University of Georgia professor said, you know a
lot of times, like wabb of female is eating something,
they might just walk up and say, hey, you enjoying that?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What do you think of me?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
They apparently also the males will like fly float on
the air with a little bit of gossamer, like a
little parachute or a hang glider, from tree to tree
or branch to branch, making their way toward a web,
which is pretty cute if you ask me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But my friend, should people be killing these things because
they're invasive?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No, you shouldn't. For one thing, it's not entirely clear
what kind of impact they're having on the ecosystems they
move into. But there's certainly no apocalyptic impacts going on. Yeah,
because everything seems to be fine and the other spider
populations don't seem to be shrinking as the duro spiders
move in. That's a really bizarre thing if that's true.
(09:57):
If they're having like no weird impact. But again, they
expect that they're going to start being predated on. It's
harder to say than you'd think. Yeah, pretty soon, so
we don't shouldn't have much to worry about. And I
hope this isn't one of those podcasts that age is
like milk, you know. Yeah, but yes, I'm hoping that
(10:18):
all the entomologists are right where they're like, just relax, everybody.
They're poisonous or they're venomous, and they will bite you
under certain circumstances. But if you leave them alone, or
even if you walk into their web, more often than
not they're going to run away from you. So to
answer your question a very long, roundabout way, no, you
should not kill them.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I think they're basically saying, hey, there's plenty of stink bugs,
so that's fine. It's not like they're killing off the
honey bees and if they do bite you, it'll you know,
you might get a little local reaction, but it's not
the kind of venom that's going to do any kind
of harm to you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Really, No. And this article likened it to a beasting,
and I remember you me getting a bitten by one
of these, and I asked her. I was like, was
it like a beast thing? She's like, nah, it wasn't.
It wasn't nearly as bad. Yeah, So I decided that
wasn't a dramatic enough story. So I was gonna tell
everybody that her hand blew up like a cabbage patch doll.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
She got bitten by one. How how'd that happen?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
She was gardening and they are all over our yard
and they've got in like one of her rose bushes
while she was deadheading or roses, and yeah, she got
too close and it went. And that was that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I'm gonna get you me some gardening gloves.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh she's got some, but sure give her some more.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You should reach into all the heidi holes with those
things on.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, for sure, especially those heavy duty ones.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You got anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I don't think so. No, I feel like we covered everything. Chuck,
you know what that means short stuff is out.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
there's Jerry there, and we're caught in a web of
greatness because this is short stuff from stuff you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Are you sure?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh my brain got zapped for a second there.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Uh you know.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I just saw a jiro spider today eating either eating
a bee or fighting a bee. I don't know what
was going on, but it was tangling with a bee.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Could have been two different steps.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Perhaps.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I've seen a bunch of them myself. We have them
all over the house. And I had been remarking to
myself like, wow, these things are all over the place,
and you sent this and I was like, oh, well,
that's why they're an invasive species here in Georgia, South
Carolina for sure, and they're starting to move a little
bit northwestward into other southern states like Tennessee and Alabama,
(00:59):
but definitely up the eastern seaboard. And what we're talking
about is what CNN called giant, venomous juro spiders are
infiltrating parts of the US. Can you believe that?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I mean, they're venomous, they're giant, and they are invading,
but come.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
On, Yeah, So after you guys, hear the short stuff,
you will realize how just preposterous that headline from CNN is.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
So the scientific name of these beautiful, beautiful spiders are
Nephila clevada and they are from East Asia. And they
got over here like a lot of things get over here,
which is in like shipping containers and stuff. A lot
of times it's like lumber. That's how you get a
lot of insects coming in. And they came over from
(01:47):
East Asia and really made a home here in the
Southeast since I think twenty thirteen is when they first
spotted them in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, Georgia leads the way in duro spiders.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, Atlanta is the hub.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I think my house is the hub actually there.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Well, you're also seeing a lot of them now because
the adults come out and spin their webs in August September, October.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So, like you said, they're from East Asia and in
Japan they're called juro gummo. And the reason I say juro,
a lot of people say joro, which makes sense because
it's spelled jo ro. But in the Japanese spelling there's
a long symbol over the second Oh, so the first
one would not be a hard Oh, it'd be jah
(02:30):
ro Okay, that's right, and that means entangling or binding bride.
And you'll see why they call them that. In Korea,
they're called mudang gumi, which means shaman or fortune teller.
So however you slice it, these things have pretty cool names,
and aptly so, because like you said, they're just absolutely
beautiful and they are pretty good sized enough so that
(02:51):
you can see like all of them pretty clearly.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean they're big. They're orb weavers, so they're
gonna weave those big beautiful webs that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Their webs can be ten feet wide. The one I
almost walked into the other day, like face first, was
probably about four feet wide and strung between two outdoor
umbrellas that were not close to each other, So I
don't know if that part counts as the width or not.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
If that does, it was more like eight feet.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But if you've seen these things and you said, like, oh,
that's just a garden spider, we have those when I
was growing up, what are you talking about, guys?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Not the same spider. The garden spider looks a lot
like it.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But there are some differences because they're well different spiders
garden spiders. The females are bigger than the males, and
as far as the markings go, the garden spiders have
yellow and black basically only, and the drawers have yellow
and dark blue with a little bit of red on
their belly.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, they also have orange bands like around their legs.
They're just really really pretty. The males of the duro
spiders too, are smaller and they're kind of looking. So
if you ever see a gerro spider and you're like, wow,
that is a cool looking spider, it's a It's a
female every time. And then the other dead giveaway is
if it's spinning a web, it's a female, because only
(04:11):
the females spin webs for gerro spiders. And you said
you walked face first into or you almost walked face
first into a web? Correct, have you ever run into one?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I mean, I've walked through some some spider webs at
my day. Like you do that a lot when you're
like backpacking because you don't see them on the trail,
so that happens a lot. And hear that, Like I
walked through one earlier, just kind of on my arms,
but it wasn't you know the nightmare scene where it's
you realize it three inches from the spider being on
(04:45):
your face kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah. So one of the things that's characteristic of gerro
spider webs is they don't necessarily break, like it takes
a lot to just walk through them. Like you can
walk through them and you're kind of gonna bounce off
a little bit. It's not, you know, not going to
send you flying backwards, but it's not just going to
snap as you walk through it. And I saw that
they those webs are so strong. Birds can perch on them,
(05:10):
like it's not like the birds getting caught in the web,
but they can like just perch on the on the
web for a little while where they figure out where
to fly next. That's a strong spider web, that is.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Is that a good time for a break?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I think so, all right, we'll take a break and
we'll be right back after I go take a quick shower.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Just like the number the sky so much stop.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So one of the reasons that gero spiders are spreading
so quickly is because they're they're very new, Like you said,
a little over ten years since they were first spotted
in the US, which means that predators haven't I guess
spotted them yet, so they have a ready supply of
flying insects they apparently particularly like stink bugs, and little
(06:18):
competition for those insects. In part, I think because they
weave their web higher than other spiders that they would
be competing with for food, and so an ample supply
of food and no predators means that any species is
going to just boom for a while. And that's what
we're in, the golden age of juro spiders booming all
(06:41):
over the eastern United States.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And if you think, you know, how far north are
they going to get? Right now? And I read an
article I think from June twenty four that said West
Virginia is about as far north as they've gone so far,
except up for a satellite population in Baltimore. So they,
(07:05):
I guess, got on a container, went to Baltimore, and
we're like, this isn't so bad. I think one of
the things we didn't mention that, you know, since they're
so native to Georgia especially or not native, I guess,
but invaded in Georgia. First, the University of Georgia has
done a lot of studying on them, and they found
that it turns out these guys can live in a
lot colder weather than they previously thought they could.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So they'll be to you soon New Jersey, New York
and beyond.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, so a little bit more about the actual spiders
themselves and how they behave. You'll notice like there's a
couple of different webs basically right up on each other.
Gerald spiders live very close together. I guess they're not
super territorial, if at all. And again, if you see
a beautiful spider in the web, it's a female and
(07:51):
there's probably a male trying to get to her, and
he's using all sorts of cute little tricks to make
his way from one place to another toward his intended
love target.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Oh man, he almost said lover.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I would not say that. I'm so I get so
deeply disturbed by that word for some reason.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Oh me too.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I think a lot of people have that reaction. There's
something and not only that, but the phrase take a lover.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
It's just like, yes, it's so gross to me. Oh
my god. That and moist and if you put them together.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Is oh goodness me, you need some of that. Bach
Studio before a joke.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah yeah, oh goodness, how did this get so dirty
all of a sudden?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
All right, so they live close to each other. The
males are trying to get the attention. They may float
on little cobweby type things and just be like, hey,
look over here. And the reason they don't just jump
up in a web and say, let's get this thing
over with is because the female will probably kill the
male and eat it. So they're they're walking a very
fine line trying to get some attention without being eaten.
(09:01):
So the University of Georgia professor said, you know a
lot of times, like wabb of female is eating something,
they might just walk up and say, hey, you enjoying that?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What do you think of me?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
They apparently also the males will like fly float on
the air with a little bit of gossamer, like a
little parachute or a hang glider, from tree to tree
or branch to branch, making their way toward a web,
which is pretty cute if you ask me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But my friend, should people be killing these things because
they're invasive?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No, you shouldn't. For one thing, it's not entirely clear
what kind of impact they're having on the ecosystems they
move into. But there's certainly no apocalyptic impacts going on. Yeah,
because everything seems to be fine and the other spider
populations don't seem to be shrinking as the duro spiders
move in. That's a really bizarre thing if that's true.
(09:57):
If they're having like no weird impact. But again, they
expect that they're going to start being predated on. It's
harder to say than you'd think. Yeah, pretty soon, so
we don't shouldn't have much to worry about. And I
hope this isn't one of those podcasts that age is
like milk, you know. Yeah, but yes, I'm hoping that
(10:18):
all the entomologists are right where they're like, just relax, everybody.
They're poisonous or they're venomous, and they will bite you
under certain circumstances. But if you leave them alone, or
even if you walk into their web, more often than
not they're going to run away from you. So to
answer your question a very long, roundabout way, no, you
should not kill them.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I think they're basically saying, hey, there's plenty of stink bugs,
so that's fine. It's not like they're killing off the
honey bees and if they do bite you, it'll you know,
you might get a little local reaction, but it's not
the kind of venom that's going to do any kind
of harm to you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Really, No. And this article likened it to a beasting,
and I remember you me getting a bitten by one
of these, and I asked her. I was like, was
it like a beast thing? She's like, nah, it wasn't.
It wasn't nearly as bad. Yeah, So I decided that
wasn't a dramatic enough story. So I was gonna tell
everybody that her hand blew up like a cabbage patch doll.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
She got bitten by one. How how'd that happen?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
She was gardening and they are all over our yard
and they've got in like one of her rose bushes
while she was deadheading or roses, and yeah, she got
too close and it went. And that was that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I'm gonna get you me some gardening gloves.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh she's got some, but sure give her some more.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You should reach into all the heidi holes with those
things on.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, for sure, especially those heavy duty ones.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You got anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I don't think so. No, I feel like we covered everything. Chuck,
you know what that means short stuff is out.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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