They’re huge, and seemingly everywhere, but Joro spiders aren’t aggressive -- they’re shy.
Dr. Andy Davis of UGA’s Odum School of Ecology found that rather than showing aggression, the Joro spider will freeze in place when threatened for over an hour, much longer than most spiders who remain still for about a minute.
“We realize with this study that the joros have a different way of reacting to disturbance, and they also seem to have a very high tolerance of human disturbance,” Davis said.
Joros often build their webs in urban areas. Freezing for a long time may allow these spiders to better endure the stimuli and conserve energy.
Instead of relying on aggression, the researchers believe Joros have become so abundant due to their superior reproductive abilities.
“It's probably more that they’re just outbreeding everybody else,” Davis said. “Their eggs are not being picked off by predators, so they’re simply exploding in terms of numbers.”
Davis hopes that his study shows that Joros pose little threat to humans, despite their intimidating presence.
“A lot of people see these joros and they look scary and people have this innate sense of arachnophobia, but I think our study pretty much tells people that they're really not that aggressive, they’re really more shy, and they’re not out to get us at all,” Davis said.
Joros may be here to stay, but Davis says they aren’t going to harm us anytime soon.
