Epic Fright – Palm Sized Spiders Poised to Creep into Louisiana

Just so we have an understanding from the very beginning. I am not an anti-spider kind of person. I think spiders have just as much right on the planet as I do. I don't go out of my way to injure or harm them and I do believe they do more good than harm. I also freak the fire out anytime I walk into a spider web and I don't like being in the same room as the eight-legged creatures. So, in other words, I am like most people.

However, a story out of Georgia has gotten me really concerned. Do you remember the Murder Hornets? They came into prominence about the same time as the coronavirus pandemic. So far, the Murder Hornets have been contained to the Pacific Northwest. Which is a great place to keep them. Now we are getting word of another bug-based interloper. And this one is a lot closer to Louisiana.

Are you familiar with the Joro Spider? Well, let me send a few shivers down your back before we really start to freak out over this incredible arachnid. The Joro Spider originated in East Asia. It has arrived in the United States and is currently causing a lot of concern for residents of 25 north Georgia counties.

Did I mention that the Joro Spider is often described as palm-sized? Quick look at the palm of your hand and now imagine a spider sitting in that space. Yeah, that's the stuff of which horror movies are made. Not only are these spiders big but their webs have been reported to consume porches, mailboxes, and trees sometimes running as deep as ten feet.

The spiders are venomous but they are not a threat to humans in that sense. Certainly,  if you're allergic to the spider's venom then you'll have an issue but most people won't have anything to be concerned with other than the fact there is a spider as big as your hand hanging out by your house.

Mother Joro Spiders produce egg sacks that contain about 400 babies. The babies, when they emerge ride the warm spring winds on a strand of silk. You might remember that kind of spider flight from the book Charlotte's Web. As you might imagine, thousands of flying baby spiders every spring has certainly helped spread the Joro Spider's foot or should I say feet print(s) across the south.

Could they be coming to Louisiana? Well, entomologists suggest that the spiders will thrive in state's that have similar climates like that of Georgia. Well, crap, that's us too. But there is good news with this creepy crawly. The Joro Spider is well known for its ability to trap and kill mosquitoes, biting flies and stink bugs too.

The bad news is the spiders have no natural predators and have been known to damage some crops. Oh, and their webs can be huge, ten feet deep in some places. Notice that's "ten feet deep" not "ten feet across" but I would imagine some of the webs do reach that size and scope too.

So, just in case you had run out of things to worry about, now you can worry about spiders as big as your hand spinning webs the size of Volkswagen. Looks like I picked the wrong lifetime to give up drinking.

And speaking of things that make us uncomfortable and look foolish.