Giant flying venomous Joro spiders may spread to New Jersey this summer

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Summer is just a few weeks away, and that means we could be closer to a spider invasion.

Joro spiders, or Trichonephila clavata, is black and yellow, about the size of your palm and can grow up to four inches.

They can also parachute up to 100 miles on a balloon made from their spider silk.

“Joro spiders utilize a technique known as ballooning, where they release silk threads into the air, allowing them to be carried by the wind,” the NJ Pest Control explained.

Scientists predict the spiders will spread and reproduce in New Jersey, or even Delaware.

José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist in the Lockwood Lab at Rutgers University, told SILive.com in April that the insects will start reproducing and spreading now that we’re heading into summer.

“That’s when we begin to see juveniles disperse,” he said. “Spring through the fall is when you start to think about that dispersal.”

Ramírez-Garofalo predicted last fall that it’s a “matter of when, not if” they come to the New Jersey area.

Joro spiders were first spotted in the United States around 2013, according to a University of Georgia news release. The creatures have since spread rapidly across the southeastern states.

The spider is venomous, but its fangs are incapable of breaking human skin. So while it is advised to kill certain invasive species such as the spotted lantern fly, the Jors can be left alone, said author Andy Davis, a research scientist at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology.

CNN contributed to this report.