Joro Spiders, Does Jasper Georgia Have Them?

Welcome everybody again to another episode of the faith pest control podcast. Hey, I’m Mike Stewart, your host and today we got our pest expert Fred Talley. Who’s going to tell you all about JoRo spiders. JoRo spiders live in Jasper, Georgia, they live in Blairsville. They live in Blue Ridge, they’re in big canoe. They’re in the north Georgia mountains. You know, if you live anywhere north of Atlanta, you need to be aware of what the spiders do and what kind of problems they have. So Fred, will you tell us all about the juros spider and you know what we need to be concerned about when it comes to those guys. I will Mikey Juro spiders are actually a relatively new phenomenon in North Georgia. They are not native to Georgia. However, they have been introduced into North Central Georgia. Their predominant habitat here right now is kind of starting in north central Georgia and running roughly in a northeasterly direction, up through the northeast corner of Georgia, into Northwestern South Carolina and southwest or North Carolina. They’re JoRo spiders are fairly large spider. However, despite what others may say, they’re not hard, they’re fairly harmless people, they’re actually reluctant to buy. But if they do buy you what Venom they have is very weak and pretty much insignificant. You know, from a medical standpoint, adult female JoRo spiders are actually fairly attractive. They’re brightly colored bodies about an inch long. The wigs with a leg span of up to about four inches. So they’re a fairly large spider, the abdomen of the female Well, the abdomen of the male and male are both somewhat cylindrical, but the female has is has bright yellow bands mixed with grayish blue bands on their backs. And on the stomach side, it’s this yellow and gray pattern that has a large red mark on the stomach side. The female legs are generally abandoned with a blue black band and yellow bands. So they’re they’re actually very pretty to look at the male JoRo is this considerably smaller than the female and duller in color, their body is about a third of the length of the female. So what three eighths of an inch, roughly a quarter of an inch. And their body is a light brown with kind of dark brown stripes that run parallel with the body. The the thing I thought was kind of unique I guess about about this the male and the female spiders in the Bird Kingdom, or bird world the male is the predominantly attractive bird in the female is somewhat not ugly, but just kind of plain look and this in the spider world, the females the pretty one and the males, the kind of the plain one in the bunch. The JoRo are actually native to Asia, which includes most parts of Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and India. Funny they didn’t. The research I did never mentioned Pakistan, which I would have thought was in there. But that’s kind of doesn’t mean much. Research has shown that JoRo spiders have a short life cycle. But they can survive in colder temperatures than some of the related the species that they’re somewhat related to like the golden silk Orbweaver is pretty common in here in North Georgia. In their native habitat, the Jor el spider can be found in areas in the 25 to 32 degree range Fahrenheit range, which is
not uncommon here in Georgia, but it’s the significance of that is that it’s that temperature range is so similar to most of most parts of Pennsylvania. So the assumption is that the potential exists for them to be able to spread throughout the eastern United States as far north is as Pennsylvania from 2014 which was the first identification in north Georgia of the JoRo spider. Up till now, they the JoRo spiders have spread outwards in all directions from where they were initially found in Georgia by about 50 to 80 miles in the significance of that has that equates to about 10 miles per year that they have been spreading out. At that rate, they can potentially reach Southeastern Pennsylvania in the next 35 years. Spider spiderlings or baby spiders are capable of moving 10s to hundreds of miles via a balloon. The ballooning process known as bloating is a process where the young spiders they’ll release some silt web and then they’re picked up by the wind and so they’ll they can travel great distances because of that, a storm blowing in the in the right direction at the right time of year has to the potential to move their numbers or their that distance in fairly large numbers. As their as their population increases. The risk of human mediated transmission to new areas also increases meaning we can take them in our luggage on our bodies and our vehicles and then transplant them in locations that they might necessarily be already in Japan. The male JoRo matures in late August, and the female matures in September through early October. Where we live it’s not in North Georgia. They don’t know exactly when yet that the male and the female JoRo spiders mature. However, there have been mature females photographed here in North Georgia is as early as late August and as late as early December. The adult Jarl spotter creates huge webs, they can be 10 1215 feet wide. Their webs are typically where I typically see them are suspended between two or more trees, bushes, they’re more out in the landscape than on on the house or in the house. My grandson actually lives in battleground, and they have a general spider that they’ve been watching for almost a year now out in their front yard. So they wish we didn’t have a terrible winter last year was relatively mild. And we typically have mild winters here. But they can obviously survive all year here. Adult male juros do not spin her own web, but are found in the webs of the females, the female JoRo will lay a single egg sack when she lays her eggs and it will contain approximately four to 500 eggs. And that that that egg sack is attached normally to the bark on the tree though attached leaves on the tree. Sometimes on humans structures, you know houses, barns, sheds, that kind of thing. As I said earlier, the JoRo spider does not have really a medically significant bite the fangs of the Juro pretty small. And they actually have difficulty Pearson the human skin. The spiders themselves are actually pretty fairly reluctant to buy, it’s actually can be pretty difficult to even make them by you, even when they’re being handled by humans. But like I said they’re venomous, weak so if if a bite does occur, it’s normally less painful than a bee sting. It only produces minor localized pain in the little redness that actually goes away fairly quickly. The impact that the Douro spider potentially has on the North Georgia area is really pretty unclear at this point.
Is there a relatively relatively newly introduced species? So they’ve been here about eight years now? There are anecdotal reports of the spiders reaching high densities in north Georgia but there have been no scientific studies to corroborate that theory. Due to the size of their webs, the enormity of their webs or their general generally regarded as a is really a nuisance. It’s past when their webs are built around houses, and other places that people frequent. And that’s typically like parks and hiking trails are the biggest areas I get complaints from. The impact of the rural spotter on them in the environment and the native species here is, like I said, is not known. Like all spiders, there are predators that feed on insects, so we’ll necessarily feed on native species of insects here. Whether they will capture and consume enough native species to have a considerable impact is unclear, it remains to be seen. And it’s unclear whether they will compete with and displace native spiders, such as we talked about earlier, the golden silk orb waivers and other large web building spiders. Here at Faith pest control, we offer a free consultation, and we offer a 100% make you happy money back guarantee. If you hire fates pest control to get rid of your general spider problem. And at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free. Until you tell us you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny you spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time in trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line, I want you to be happy with the service we provide or you won’t owe us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Please call fetes pest control today is 770823920 to and asked to speak to me Fred Talley. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have. Well, thank you for it. As always, this is helpful information. Folks need to know this stuff, but they need to know faith pest control, too. We do this as a community service for everybody in the north Georgia mountains area. Blue Ridge, especially Jasper, Georgia Blairsville big canoe, you know, anywhere in the north Georgia mountains. If you live there, Faith pest control can take care of your problems. And this podcast is to make you aware of what things to do and when to call professional. And you can find this podcast in Apple, Google, Spotify, and Amazon and nearly anywhere you can subscribe to podcast. Hey, subscribe to us, like us and share us and we’ll see you next on the next time on the next episode of the faith pest control podcast.