A new type of poisonous spider is rapidly spreading across the US: what you need to know

Yoro's giant venomous spiders have made their way into the US southeast and are expected to spread rapidly, experts say. CNN.

Photo: Shutterstock

The spider in question is not small, according to Benjamin Frick, co-author of a study of the Yoro spider species published in the journal Physiological Entomology.

Yoro spiders, or Trichonephila clavata, can be up to 10 centimeters long — the size of a palm or more — and they could spread into the northeastern United States, he said.

With slender legs and a distinctive black, yellow, and gray striped abdomen, these spiders are native to Southeast Asia but have spread to the southeastern United States almost a decade ago due to the warm climate, said Frick, an undergraduate environmental science student at university.

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In his research, Frick determined that the Yoro spider could also exist in colder climates, so it could spread to the northeast.

According to Frick, Yoro's spiders are not a threat, and there is no evidence to prove that they are harmful to the environment they have moved into.

"In light of this, people should not proceed with the genocide of spiders - this is an unnecessary killing of a beautiful insect," he said.

Speed ​​Travelers

Nobody knows for sure how the spiders originally traveled half the world, but Frick suggested they probably came from a shipping container.

These arachnids have two modes of locomotion: flying and hitchhiking.

According to Frick, flights (ballooning) is when newly hatched spiders produce thin silk threads that they use as parachutes to travel with the wind.

While spiders can travel only a couple of miles this way, with humans they can go much further. They can attach themselves to a car or shipping container to move around, he said.

Last summer, a UGA graduate student accidentally moved Yoro to Oklahoma, Frick noted.

“However, the reality of the situation is that for every spider that we can see in the process of moving, there are 10 more that avoid detection,” he said.

Poisonous but not dangerous

According to Paula Cushing, senior curator of invertebrate zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Yoro spiders are venomous, meaning they can poison certain creatures such as insects.

However, spider fangs are practically incapable of damaging human skin, as Frick said.

He added that the only time they bite a person or pet is when they are actively restrained.

These spiders can be considered more of a nuisance, Cushing says, as they build three-dimensional webs in open spaces, such as some walkways or bike paths.

“The biggest danger for people is that you can become entangled in the beautiful golden silk if you walk in places where the spider has spun its web,” she said in an email.

They can stay close to "home"

Although the study has shown that spiders may travel further north, some experts are unsure if this will happen on a large scale.

“While this spider can withstand somewhat colder climates, I doubt it will be able to withstand the climate conditions in the north and west of the US,” Cushing said.

Yoro spiders can tolerate short-term freezing, but no more than that, says Anne Danielson-François, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Michigan Dearborn. She did not participate in the study.

"In my opinion, I don't think they can be found north of North Carolina or further west," she said.

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Spiders breed well, Frick said, so people in the southeast should be prepared to come into close contact with them whether they like it or not.

Frick predicted that over time, spiders will adapt to human behavior and become less of a nuisance to humans.

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