Monster spiders the size of a kid’s hand are about to swarm across America’s entire East Coast — and beyond — this spring after hitching rides on cargo ships from Asia, stunned scientists warn!
University of Georgia researchers say the venomous creepy-crawlies, which can parachute through the air 100 miles and survive freezes, are a potential menace to the nation’s ecosystem because they have few natural predators.
Study co-author Andy Davis says the threat posed by the giant arachnid, known as the Joro spider, is “pretty sobering,” especially since the critters first sank their fangs into the U.S. in 2014 and infested Georgia and other parts of the Southeast in just seven years.
Experts say their numbers have EXPLODED — and springtime is when they get frisky as a new generation hatches! Colorful females lay up to 1,500 eggs, grow to three inches long and build deadly webs ten FEET deep to capture other insects.
The jumbo Joros are a hardy species, supercharged to survive, with a superior metabolism to the humble golden silk spider as well as an astonishing ability to “fly” up to 100 miles by “ballooning” off their webs and parachuting through the air!
The Joro is named after a Japanese spider demon that disguises itself as a beautiful woman, who seduces men, binds them in silk threads and eats them!
