Joro spiders may be coming to West Virginia

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – There’s been a lot of talk about a giant parachute spider invading the east coast potentially creeping its way into West Virginia.

5′s John Blashke spoke with a WVU researcher to find out the facts about the so-called Joro spider.

While spiders making their way to our state may sound scary it may not be a bad thing… or nearly as dramatic as you might think.

Remember when murder hornets took the internet by storm?

Well, now it’s the joro spider’s turn.

Originally from Asia the joro spider has been found anywhere from Florida up to North Carolina since 2013.

It has a sister species there called the golden orb weaver that has lived in the region for hundreds of years.

But warmer temperatures may drive the joro north to seek a cooler climate — and West Virginia fits the bill.

Vicki Kondo works in the entomology department at WVU and says although they’re poisonous their pincers are really small.

“Its a very docile spider people that I know that have come from Korea and Japan have played with a joro spider as kids its not dangerously venomous so its not something to be terrible afraid of,” Kondo said.

And as for how big they can be adult joros only grow a couple inches on average — their webs on the other hand can be quite large.

“Maybe the most intimidating thing about this spider is that its web can be up to a meter or two meters in size and spread them between trees,” said Kondo.

But even this may be good news.

Kondo is hopeful their large webs will catch the invasive spotted lantern flies that are damaging crops in West Virginia.

Kondo added young spiders traveling by parachute webs is actually very common but adult joros are too large for that.

So you don’t really need to worry about them falling from the sky.

There have not been any reported sightings thus far in the state.

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