Joro spiders have landed in Massachusetts
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The golden web and big ol' yellow and red booty can mean only one thing: Joro spiders. Photo: Stuart Cahill via the Boston Herald/Getty Images
Four-inch neon green invaders are popping up around Boston, startling residents and tourists alike.
Why it matters: Massachusetts is the northernmost area where the invasive Joro spider has made landfall.
The plump green bug was spotted near the State House on Beacon Hill, setting off a frenzy in the media and online.
- These suckers are creepy, crawly and sufficiently spooky.
- Plus, younger spiders can appear to float on silk threads that carry them from place to place.
- They have vibrant yellow and green coloring, with red markings.
Driving the news: Beacon Hill resident Joe Schifferdecker saw one of the spiders hanging around outside his Mt. Vernon Street home this week.
- That set off Boston's current Joro-mania.
- "It's surprising that it's in the middle of Boston on kind of a main street and yet this is supposedly the first one in all of Massachusetts that's been sighted," Schifferdecker told WCVB.
Yes, but: Despite alarming headlines, Joro spiders pose little threat to humans or the local ecosystem.
- Joros are mostly docile and aren't likely to bite unless provoked.
- Their venom is less painful than your typical bee sting and won't leave much more than pain and redness around the bite mark.
- Joros weave golden webs to catch the usual spider fare of flies, beetles and mosquitoes.
What they're saying: "It looks like the Joro could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering," Georgia's Odum School of Ecology researcher Andy Davis told Axios.
Zoom out: The arachnids are native to East Asia and started popping up in the southeast U.S. a decade ago.
Fun fact: Joros tend to consume anything that lands in their silky death traps – except monarch butterflies, which a recent study co-authored by Davis suggests they cut out of their webs.
What's next: Spider researchers expect the Joros to continue spreading farther north across the rest of the East Coast.
The bottom line: Joro spiders look freaky, but they're welcome to eat as many mosquitos as they can.