It seems that the flying, venomous Joro spiders are expanding their territory further north in the United States, with a recent sighting reported in New England.

A Boston local named Sally Rogers, who lives in the Beacon Hill area, shared an image of one of these large, vividly colored spiders with WBZ-TV after she spotted it.

This neighborhood is filled with Victorian brick townhouses and old-fashioned lanterns, situated just west of downtown Boston.

These invasive spiders range in size from 3 to 4 inches long. The females are mostly yellow with dark blue stripes and a red abdomen, while the males are smaller, around a quarter of an inch, and are brown with gray or black and yellow stripes.

Joro spiders possess venom, but they typically don’t bite unless threatened, as reported by YSL News previously. Their bites can lead to localized pain and swelling, akin to bee stings.

Recent Joro spider sightings in Pennsylvania

This spider was first identified in Georgia nearly ten years ago and was reported in Bucks County, Philadelphia on September 5, based on data from Joro Watch, a monitoring program created by the University of Georgia’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health.

The area where these spiders were sighted lies about 40 miles from Philadelphia, near the borders of New York and New Jersey.

As of Thursday morning, the sighting reported in Massachusetts had not yet been confirmed on the Joro Watch online map.

YSL News has contacted the University of Georgia for more information.

Understanding Joro spiders

This invasive species, originally from East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China, is thought to have reached the United States in the early 2010s.

Joro spiders are generally found outdoors since they prefer sunny environments and belong to a category of large spiders known as golden orb-weavers. According to the University of Georgia, these spiders construct “massive, multi-layered webs made of gold-colored silk.”

These spiders can travel by “ballooning,” a method where they use silk threads to catch the wind and relocate to new locations, which is why they are often referred to as “flying” spiders. Joro spiders are capable of spinning large webs, some reaching widths of up to 10 feet.

Where have Joro spiders been spotted in the U.S.?

By 2022, the Joro spider had expanded its reach in the U.S. to cover around 120,000 kilometers across states including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. There have even been reports from Alabama, Maryland, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, according to a study done by researchers at Clemson University.

The research also highlighted that this species is rapidly spreading beyond South Carolina and could potentially populate much of the eastern U.S.