With September comes fall, falling leaves, football and falling temps and, of late, in parts of the country including Georgia – the Joro spider.
And thousands of them have already been documented in the state, including in Hall County, according to jorowatch.org. Among neighboring counties, they’ve already been spotted in Barrow, Gwinnett, Forsyth, White, and Habersham.
The arachnid, whose bite is no danger to humans, was first spotted ten years ago and has been returning each year since, in ever increasing numbers.
Face it, they’ll probably be around another six weeks or so, at least, according to the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health (CISEH) at the University of Georgia, which uses Joro Watch to keep tabs on them.
So far, the Joros are confined to north Georgia, along and north of a line from Augusta-to-Macon-to-LaGrange. To date, they’ve been reported in about two-thirds of the counties in that area.