Giant Flying Spider Spreading Across the East Coast

If you have a fear of spiders, this venomous flying arachnid will send you running.

Oh, no, I got to go. No. Mm-mm.

And experts believe the Joro spider could descend on the East Coast later this year. The brightly-hued bug native to East Asia first arrived on US soil years ago. A leading theory suggests the critters were unintentionally transported here via cargo shipments and personal travel for settling in Georgia.

The climate here actually mimics their habitat in their native range, so it’s really, really similar. So, they can exist from the southeastern US all the way north into Canada.

They’ll be hard to miss.

They are quite large.

With a leg span of up to four inches and the ability to fly by releasing silk threads into the air, reminiscent of this scene from Charlotte’s Web.

Goodbye. Goodbye. [inaudible 00:00:54].

But this is not fiction.

Across the Eastern US, they’re probably here to stay for the long term.

They might look scary, but experts say they don’t pose any real risk to humans and pets, except for maybe some itching and irritation if bitten.

They are not notoriously aggressive.

They feed mostly on yellow jackets, mosquitoes, stink bugs, and that invasive species, the spotted lanternfly. While the Joro is also considered an invasive species, experts say, if you do see one, it’s okay to leave it alone.

There are a lot of native spiders that look almost identical to Joro spiders, so we definitely don’t want to encourage people to start squashing them, because they could be killing native species.

Valerie Castro, NBC News.

That is a weird looking spider. All right, we thank Valerie for that one, and we thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I’m Tom Llamas in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.

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