Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
Speaker 1: there's Jerry there, and we're caught in a web of
Speaker 1: greatness because this is short stuff from stuff you should know.
Speaker 2: Are you sure?
Speaker 1: Oh my brain got zapped for a second there.
Speaker 2: Uh you know.
Speaker 3: I just saw a jiro spider today eating either eating
Speaker 3: a bee or fighting a bee. I don't know what
Speaker 3: was going on, but it was tangling with a bee.
Speaker 1: Could have been two different steps.
Speaker 2: Perhaps.
Speaker 1: I've seen a bunch of them myself. We have them
Speaker 1: all over the house. And I had been remarking to
Speaker 1: myself like, wow, these things are all over the place,
Speaker 1: and you sent this and I was like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's why they're an invasive species here in Georgia, South
Speaker 1: Carolina for sure, and they're starting to move a little
Speaker 1: bit northwestward into other southern states like Tennessee and Alabama,
Speaker 1: but definitely up the eastern seaboard. And what we're talking
Speaker 1: about is what CNN called giant, venomous juro spiders are
Speaker 1: infiltrating parts of the US. Can you believe that?
Speaker 3: I mean, they're venomous, they're giant, and they are invading,
Speaker 3: but come.
Speaker 1: On, Yeah, So after you guys, hear the short stuff,
Speaker 1: you will realize how just preposterous that headline from CNN is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: So the scientific name of these beautiful, beautiful spiders are
Speaker 3: Nephila clevada and they are from East Asia. And they
Speaker 3: got over here like a lot of things get over here,
Speaker 3: which is in like shipping containers and stuff. A lot
Speaker 3: of times it's like lumber. That's how you get a
Speaker 3: lot of insects coming in. And they came over from
Speaker 3: East Asia and really made a home here in the
Speaker 3: Southeast since I think twenty thirteen is when they first
Speaker 3: spotted them in Georgia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Georgia leads the way in duro spiders.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Atlanta is the hub.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think my house is the hub actually there.
Speaker 3: Well, you're also seeing a lot of them now because
Speaker 3: the adults come out and spin their webs in August September, October.
Speaker 1: So, like you said, they're from East Asia and in
Speaker 1: Japan they're called juro gummo. And the reason I say juro,
Speaker 1: a lot of people say joro, which makes sense because
Speaker 1: it's spelled jo ro. But in the Japanese spelling there's
Speaker 1: a long symbol over the second Oh, so the first
Speaker 1: one would not be a hard Oh, it'd be jah
Speaker 1: ro Okay, that's right, and that means entangling or binding bride.
Speaker 1: And you'll see why they call them that. In Korea,
Speaker 1: they're called mudang gumi, which means shaman or fortune teller.
Speaker 1: So however you slice it, these things have pretty cool names,
Speaker 1: and aptly so, because like you said, they're just absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful and they are pretty good sized enough so that
Speaker 1: you can see like all of them pretty clearly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're big. They're orb weavers, so they're
Speaker 3: gonna weave those big beautiful webs that.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: Their webs can be ten feet wide. The one I
Speaker 3: almost walked into the other day, like face first, was
Speaker 3: probably about four feet wide and strung between two outdoor
Speaker 3: umbrellas that were not close to each other, So I
Speaker 3: don't know if that part counts as the width or not.
Speaker 2: If that does, it was more like eight feet.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: But if you've seen these things and you said, like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's just a garden spider, we have those when I
Speaker 3: was growing up, what are you talking about, guys?
Speaker 2: Not the same spider. The garden spider looks a lot
Speaker 2: like it.
Speaker 3: But there are some differences because they're well different spiders
Speaker 3: garden spiders. The females are bigger than the males, and
Speaker 3: as far as the markings go, the garden spiders have
Speaker 3: yellow and black basically only, and the drawers have yellow
Speaker 3: and dark blue with a little bit of red on
Speaker 3: their belly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they also have orange bands like around their legs.
Speaker 1: They're just really really pretty. The males of the duro
Speaker 1: spiders too, are smaller and they're kind of looking. So
Speaker 1: if you ever see a gerro spider and you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: that is a cool looking spider, it's a It's a
Speaker 1: female every time. And then the other dead giveaway is
Speaker 1: if it's spinning a web, it's a female, because only
Speaker 1: the females spin webs for gerro spiders. And you said
Speaker 1: you walked face first into or you almost walked face
Speaker 1: first into a web? Correct, have you ever run into one?
Speaker 3: I mean, I've walked through some some spider webs at
Speaker 3: my day. Like you do that a lot when you're
Speaker 3: like backpacking because you don't see them on the trail,
Speaker 3: so that happens a lot. And hear that, Like I
Speaker 3: walked through one earlier, just kind of on my arms,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't you know the nightmare scene where it's
Speaker 3: you realize it three inches from the spider being on
Speaker 3: your face kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So one of the things that's characteristic of gerro
Speaker 1: spider webs is they don't necessarily break, like it takes
Speaker 1: a lot to just walk through them. Like you can
Speaker 1: walk through them and you're kind of gonna bounce off
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's not, you know, not going to
Speaker 1: send you flying backwards, but it's not just going to
Speaker 1: snap as you walk through it. And I saw that
Speaker 1: they those webs are so strong. Birds can perch on them,
Speaker 1: like it's not like the birds getting caught in the web,
Speaker 1: but they can like just perch on the on the
Speaker 1: web for a little while where they figure out where
Speaker 1: to fly next. That's a strong spider web, that is.
Speaker 2: Is that a good time for a break?
Speaker 3: I think so, all right, we'll take a break and
Speaker 3: we'll be right back after I go take a quick shower.
Speaker 4: Just like the number the sky so much stop.
Speaker 1: So one of the reasons that gero spiders are spreading
Speaker 1: so quickly is because they're they're very new, Like you said,
Speaker 1: a little over ten years since they were first spotted
Speaker 1: in the US, which means that predators haven't I guess
Speaker 1: spotted them yet, so they have a ready supply of
Speaker 1: flying insects they apparently particularly like stink bugs, and little
Speaker 1: competition for those insects. In part, I think because they
Speaker 1: weave their web higher than other spiders that they would
Speaker 1: be competing with for food, and so an ample supply
Speaker 1: of food and no predators means that any species is
Speaker 1: going to just boom for a while. And that's what
Speaker 1: we're in, the golden age of juro spiders booming all
Speaker 1: over the eastern United States.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: And if you think, you know, how far north are
Speaker 3: they going to get? Right now? And I read an
Speaker 3: article I think from June twenty four that said West
Speaker 3: Virginia is about as far north as they've gone so far,
Speaker 3: except up for a satellite population in Baltimore. So they,
Speaker 3: I guess, got on a container, went to Baltimore, and
Speaker 3: we're like, this isn't so bad. I think one of
Speaker 3: the things we didn't mention that, you know, since they're
Speaker 3: so native to Georgia especially or not native, I guess,
Speaker 3: but invaded in Georgia. First, the University of Georgia has
Speaker 3: done a lot of studying on them, and they found
Speaker 3: that it turns out these guys can live in a
Speaker 3: lot colder weather than they previously thought they could.
Speaker 2: So they'll be to you soon New Jersey, New York
Speaker 2: and beyond.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so a little bit more about the actual spiders
Speaker 1: themselves and how they behave. You'll notice like there's a
Speaker 1: couple of different webs basically right up on each other.
Speaker 1: Gerald spiders live very close together. I guess they're not
Speaker 1: super territorial, if at all. And again, if you see
Speaker 1: a beautiful spider in the web, it's a female and
Speaker 1: there's probably a male trying to get to her, and
Speaker 1: he's using all sorts of cute little tricks to make
Speaker 1: his way from one place to another toward his intended
Speaker 1: love target.
Speaker 2: Oh man, he almost said lover.
Speaker 1: I would not say that. I'm so I get so
Speaker 1: deeply disturbed by that word for some reason.
Speaker 2: Oh me too.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people have that reaction. There's
Speaker 3: something and not only that, but the phrase take a lover.
Speaker 1: It's just like, yes, it's so gross to me. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. That and moist and if you put them together.
Speaker 3: Is oh goodness me, you need some of that. Bach
Speaker 3: Studio before a joke.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, oh goodness, how did this get so dirty
Speaker 1: all of a sudden?
Speaker 3: All right, so they live close to each other. The
Speaker 3: males are trying to get the attention. They may float
Speaker 3: on little cobweby type things and just be like, hey,
Speaker 3: look over here. And the reason they don't just jump
Speaker 3: up in a web and say, let's get this thing
Speaker 3: over with is because the female will probably kill the
Speaker 3: male and eat it. So they're they're walking a very
Speaker 3: fine line trying to get some attention without being eaten.
Speaker 3: So the University of Georgia professor said, you know a
Speaker 3: lot of times, like wabb of female is eating something,
Speaker 3: they might just walk up and say, hey, you enjoying that?
Speaker 2: What do you think of me?
Speaker 1: They apparently also the males will like fly float on
Speaker 1: the air with a little bit of gossamer, like a
Speaker 1: little parachute or a hang glider, from tree to tree
Speaker 1: or branch to branch, making their way toward a web,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cute if you ask me.
Speaker 2: But my friend, should people be killing these things because
Speaker 2: they're invasive?
Speaker 1: No, you shouldn't. For one thing, it's not entirely clear
Speaker 1: what kind of impact they're having on the ecosystems they
Speaker 1: move into. But there's certainly no apocalyptic impacts going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because everything seems to be fine and the other spider
Speaker 1: populations don't seem to be shrinking as the duro spiders
Speaker 1: move in. That's a really bizarre thing if that's true.
Speaker 1: If they're having like no weird impact. But again, they
Speaker 1: expect that they're going to start being predated on. It's
Speaker 1: harder to say than you'd think. Yeah, pretty soon, so
Speaker 1: we don't shouldn't have much to worry about. And I
Speaker 1: hope this isn't one of those podcasts that age is
Speaker 1: like milk, you know. Yeah, but yes, I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: all the entomologists are right where they're like, just relax, everybody.
Speaker 1: They're poisonous or they're venomous, and they will bite you
Speaker 1: under certain circumstances. But if you leave them alone, or
Speaker 1: even if you walk into their web, more often than
Speaker 1: not they're going to run away from you. So to
Speaker 1: answer your question a very long, roundabout way, no, you
Speaker 1: should not kill them.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: I think they're basically saying, hey, there's plenty of stink bugs,
Speaker 3: so that's fine. It's not like they're killing off the
Speaker 3: honey bees and if they do bite you, it'll you know,
Speaker 3: you might get a little local reaction, but it's not
Speaker 3: the kind of venom that's going to do any kind
Speaker 3: of harm to you.
Speaker 1: Really, No. And this article likened it to a beasting,
Speaker 1: and I remember you me getting a bitten by one
Speaker 1: of these, and I asked her. I was like, was
Speaker 1: it like a beast thing? She's like, nah, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't nearly as bad. Yeah, So I decided that
Speaker 1: wasn't a dramatic enough story. So I was gonna tell
Speaker 1: everybody that her hand blew up like a cabbage patch doll.
Speaker 2: She got bitten by one. How how'd that happen?
Speaker 1: She was gardening and they are all over our yard
Speaker 1: and they've got in like one of her rose bushes
Speaker 1: while she was deadheading or roses, and yeah, she got
Speaker 1: too close and it went. And that was that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get you me some gardening gloves.
Speaker 1: Oh she's got some, but sure give her some more.
Speaker 2: You should reach into all the heidi holes with those
Speaker 2: things on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, especially those heavy duty ones.
Speaker 2: You got anything else?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. No, I feel like we covered everything. Chuck,
Speaker 1: you know what that means short stuff is out.
Speaker 4: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
Speaker 4: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.