Born in East Asia, Jorōs is one of the so-called golden weavers, named for the shiny silk they use to spin the web (which can be up to 10 meters wide, by the way). The spider was first spotted in the US by scientists in Colbert, Georgia, in 2014, although local accounts say it may have been there several years earlier. Colbert is close to a warehouse and distribution center, which causes the spider to unknowingly arrive aboard a cargo ship.
In 2020, Jorō’s population has skyrocketed. Scientists believe they disperse through a process called ballooning: The spiders rise into the air, shoot silk, and float on air currents to their destination. That’s when the spiders began to attract the attention of the media. The second story came with the discovery that, unlike the orb weavers, Jorōs can withstand cold weather. Some articles mention palm-sized spinners that can fly on the East Coast. Others painted them as good—perhaps Jorōs would eat harmful insects, such as stink bugs, and keep them at bay. But all this has not been proven to be true.
“There is a strong temptation to say that things are good or bad,” said Angela Chuang, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, who co-authored the paper. “But we don’t know enough to say.” Chuang’s previous work found that 47 percent of spider stories are inaccurate, with inaccurate pictures or factual errors of their body and venom. In addition, 43 percent of the stories have been exaggerating, exaggerating the size or hairiness of spiders and linking them with trigger words – such as terrifying, dangerousand deadly– which can cause arachnophobia.
Misinformation distorts perceptions of spiders’ risk to humans and alters public decisions about wildlife conservation. Worse, attention-grabbing accounts cost money and resources: Spider sightings have caused unnecessary school closures and led to extreme vandalism. Overuse of pesticides (which is a temporary solution, Coyle says) can cost homeowners money as well as nearby plants and animals.
On the other hand, Coyle says, too much publicity is counterproductive, because it can lull people into feeling safe before scientists can properly assess the environmental and economic implications of a new species.
The reason scientists have trouble predicting the future is that most of the time they are attacked by spiders they are not well trained. Unlike insects, they are not harmful to agriculture, so technical management is not very important from an economic point of view. Most are also harmless. “Most spiders pose no threat to humans and do a lot of good work,” says Catherine Scott, an ecologist at McGill University. They are very important animals that help to maintain harmony in the entire universe.
But most experts agree that Jorōs should be included others results, mainly because of their rapid increase. Today they range over about 46,000 square miles (120,000 km), most in northern Georgia, although a few have been seen as far north as Washington, DC, and as far west as Oklahoma. Coyle said: “There’s no way they’re going to be able to get into the environment without causing chaos. His theory, based on early research work, is that Jorōs can push smaller spiders, which can lead to increased food supply. There is also less chance that they will destroy the population of pests that are so important to a high yield if many bees and butterflies are caught in their nets.
