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Move over, spotted lanternfly, the Joro spider is about to make its descent to New York.
José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist in the Lockwood Lab at Rutgers University and the vice president of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods on Staten Island, told SILive.com that the giant creatures, native to East Asia, have already been spotted around Maryland, Oklahoma and Tennessee, among other locations, supposedly having first arrived into the United States back in 2013 via cargo ships headed to Georgia.
"So soon enough, possibly even next year, they should be in New Jersey and New York," said the expert. "It is a matter of when, not if."
Happy 2024, New Yorkers!
There is much to say about the black-and-yellow arachnids.
Let's start with the good: according to Ramírez-Garofalo, they like to live outdoors so don't worry about seeing them crawl around your apartment. They are also, apparently, not into the taste of humans (their fangs are too small to penetrate our skin!), preferring instead to gorge on any other thing that lands in their webs, including other spiders, bugs, mosquitos and more.
Speaking of their webs: the animals, which can grow up to eight inches in length if female and about half that size if male, apparently use their creations to quite literally balloon into spaces, specifically hitching rides on cars. So do make sure to look outside your auto window in the next few months and don't panic if you spot a three-foot silky web with a spider hanging off it.
As New Yorkers, we've learned to deal with our fair share of odd animals and there are enough things under ground to worry about. And yet, the mere thought of seeing an arachnid parachute its way into the city truly sends shivers down our spines.
Alas, it's all part of claiming New York as our home, right?