Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet, with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees.
Just ask the Capital One bank guy.
It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way.
He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too.
Thanks, Capital One bank guy.
What's in your wallet?
Terms apply. See capital one dot com slash bank.
Capital One, N .A. member, F .D .I .C.
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff.
I'm Josh. There's Chuck.
There's Jerry there, and we're caught in a web of greatness because this is short stuff from stuff you should know.
Are you sure? Oh, my brain got zapped for a second there.
You know, I just saw a Gero spider today eating either eating a bee or fighting a bee.
I don't know what was going on, but it was tangling with a bee.
Could have been two different steps.
Perhaps. I've seen a bunch of them myself.
We have them all over the house, and I had been remarking to myself like, wow, these things are all over the place.
And you sent this. And I was like, oh, well, that's why they're an invasive species here in Georgia, South Carolina for sure.
And they're starting to move a little bit northwest westward into other southern states like Tennessee and Alabama.
But definitely up the eastern seaboard.
And what we're talking about is what CNN called giant venomous Gero spiders are infiltrating parts of the U .S.
Can you believe that?
I mean, they're venomous.
They're giant and they are invading.
But come on. Yeah. So after you guys hear the short stuff, you will realize how just preposterous that headline from CNN.
Yeah, for sure. So the scientific name of these beautiful, beautiful spiders are Nifila clavada.
And they are from East Asia.
And they got over here like a lot of things get over here, which is in like shipping containers and stuff.
A lot of times it's like lumber.
That's how you get a lot of insects coming in.
And they came over from East Asia and really made a home here in the southeast since I think 2013 is when they spotted them in Georgia.
Yeah, Georgia leads the way in Gero spiders.
Yeah, Atlanta is the hub.
Yeah, I think my house is the hub actually.
They're well, you're also seeing a lot of them now because the adults come out and spend their webs in August, September, October.
So like you said, they're from East Asia.
And in Japan, they're called Gero gummo.
And the reason I say Gero, a lot of people say Joro, which makes sense because it's spelled J -O -R -O.
But in the Japanese spelling, there's a long symbol over the second O.
So the first one would not be a hard O.
It'd be J -row. Okay, right.
And that means entangling or binding bride.
And you'll see why they call them that.
In Korea, they're called mudang -gumi, which means shaman or fortune teller.
So however you slice it, these things have pretty cool names and aptly so because like you said, they're just absolutely beautiful.
And they are pretty good size enough so that you can see like all of them pretty clearly.
Yeah, I mean, they're big, they're orb weavers, so they're going to weave those big, beautiful webs that I mean, their webs can be 10 feet wide.
The one I almost walked into the other day, like face first was probably about four feet wide and strung between two outdoor umbrellas that were not close to each other.
So I don't know if that part counts as the width or not.
If that does, it was more like eight feet.
But if you've seen these things and you said like, oh, that's just a garden spider.
We have those when I was growing up.
What are you talking about guys?
Not the same spider.
The garden spider looks a lot like it, but there are some differences because they're well, different spiders.
Garden spiders, the females are bigger than the males.
And as far as the markings go, the garden spiders have yellow and black basically only and the giuros have yellow and dark blue with a little bit of red on their belly.
Yeah, they also have orange bands like around their legs.
They're just really, really pretty.
The males of the giuro spiders too are smaller and they're kind of drab looking.
So if you ever see a giuro spider and you're like, wow, that is a cool looking spider.
It's a female every time.
And then the other dead giveaway is if it's spinning a web, it's a female because only the females spin webs for giuro spiders.
And you said you almost walked face first into a web.
Correct. Have you ever run into one?
I mean, I've walked through some spider webs in my day.
You do that a lot when you're backpacking because you don't see them on the trail.
So that happens a lot.
And here I walked through one earlier just kind of on my arms, but it wasn't the nightmare scene where it's you realize it three inches from the spider being on your face kind of thing.
Yeah. So one of the things that's characteristic of giuro spider webs is they don't necessarily break.
Like it takes a lot to just walk through them.
Like you can walk through them and you're kind of going to bounce off a little bit.
It's not going to send you flying backwards, but it's not just going to snap as you walk through it.
And I saw that they those webs are so strong birds can perch on them.
Like it's not like the birds getting caught in the web, but they can like just perch on the on the web for a little while where they figure out where to fly next.
That's a strong spider web.
That is. Is that a good time for a break?
I think so. All right.
We'll take a break.
We'll be right back after I go take a quick shower.
Thank you. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees.
Just ask the Capital One bank guy.
It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way.
He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast to thanks Capital One bank guy.
What's in your wallet?
Terms apply. See Capital One dot com slash bank.
Capital One and a member F .D.
I. C. Every holiday season starts with the best of intentions.
Bake that homemade pie.
Get all your holiday shopping done early, but then life gets in the way.
But don't feel bad.
It happens to everyone.
And luckily, you've got DoorDash.
That's right. Like your secret holiday helper, DoorDash has you covered on gifts, groceries and dinner for tonight.
DoorDash makes it so easy.
You may even feel a little guilty, but, you know, no one needs to know your pie was really store bought or that that thoughtful gift arrived just minutes before your guests did.
Yep. And now through the 24th, DoorDash has big deals running for the holidays from Best Buy, Ulta Beauty, Wingstop, Aldi and more.
You can save money and the holidays all with DoorDash.
Whether you tell people is up to you.
DoorDash. Your door to more.
Use code STUFFJOY24 for 50 % off your first order.
Maximum $10 off orders of $15 or more.
The offer ends December 26, 2024, one promo per order, not valid for orders containing alcohol and term supply.
Just like the number of stars in the sky, there is so much stuff you should know.
So, one of the reasons that giro spiders are spreading so quickly is because they're very new.
Like you said, a little over 10 years since they were first spotted in the US, which means that predators haven't, I guess, spotted them yet.
So they have a ready supply of flying insects.
They apparently particularly like stink bugs and little competition for those insects.
In part, I think because they weave their web higher than other spiders that they would be competing with for food.
And so an ample supply of food and no predators means that any species is going to just boom for a while.
And that's what we're in.
We're in the golden age of giro spiders booming all over the eastern United States.
That's right. And if you think, you know, how far north are they going to get?
Right now, and I read an article, I think from June 24, that said West Virginia is about as far north as they've gone so far, except for a satellite population in Baltimore.
So they, I guess, got on a container, went to Baltimore, and were like, this isn't so bad.
I think one of the things we didn't mention that, you know, since they're so native to Georgia, especially, or not native, I guess, but invaded in Georgia first, the University of Georgia has done a lot of studying on them.
And they found that it turns out these guys can live in a lot colder weather than they previously thought they could.
So they'll be to you soon, New Jersey, New York and beyond.
Yeah. So a little bit more about the actual spiders themselves and how they behave.
You'll notice, like, there's a couple of different webs basically right up on each other.
Gero spiders live very close together.
I guess they're not super territorial, if at all.
And again, if you see a beautiful spider in the web, it's a female.
And there's probably a male trying to get to her.
And he's using all sorts of cute little tricks to make his way from one place to another toward his intended love target.
Oh man, you almost said lover?
I would not say that.
I get so deeply disturbed by that word for some reason.
Oh, me too. I think a lot of people have that reaction.
There's something, and not only that, but the phrase take a lover is just like, yes.
It's so gross to me.
Oh my God. That and moist.
And if you put them together, it's perfect.
Oh goodness me, you need some of that, no, never mind.
Eye bleach? Studio 54 joke.
Yeah. We need that easy clean rubber.
Oh goodness. How did this get so dirty all of a sudden?
All right. So they live close to each other.
The males are trying to get the attention.
They may float on little cobwebby type things and just be like, hey, look over here.
And the reason they don't just jump up in a web and say, let's get this thing over with is because the female will probably kill the male and eat it.
So they're walking a very fine line, trying to get some attention without being eaten.
So the University of Georgia professor said, you know, a lot of times while the female is eating something, they might just walk up and say, hey, are you enjoying that?
What do you think of me?
They apparently also the males will like fly float on the air with a little bit of gossamer, like a little parachute or a hang glider from like tree to tree or branch to branch making their way toward a web, which is pretty cute if you ask me.
But my friend, should people be killing these things because they're invasive?
No, you shouldn't. For one thing, it's not entirely clear what kind of impact they're having on the ecosystems they move into.
But there's certainly no apocalyptic impacts going on.
Because everything seems to be fine and the other spider populations don't seem to be shrinking as the duro spiders move in.
That's a really bizarre thing, if that's true, if they're having like no weird impact.
But again, they expect that they're going to start being predated on.
That's harder to say than you'd think, pretty soon.
So we shouldn't have much to worry about.
And I hope this isn't one of those podcasts that ages like milk, you know.
But yes, I'm hoping that all the entomologists are right where they're like, just relax, everybody.
They're poisonous or they're venomous and they will bite you under certain circumstances.
But if you leave them alone, or even if you walk into their web, more often than not, they're going to run away from you.
So to answer your question a very long roundabout way, no, you should not kill them.
No, I think they're basically saying, hey, there's plenty of stink bugs, so that's fine.
It's not like they're killing off the honeybees.
And if they do bite you, it'll, you know, you might get a little local reaction.
But it's not the kind of venom that's going to do any kind of harm to you, really.
No, and this article likened it to a bee sting.
And I remember Yumi getting bitten by one of these and I asked her, I was like, was it like a bee sting?
She's like, no, it wasn't nearly as bad.
So I decided that wasn't a dramatic enough story.
So I was going to tell everybody that her hand blew up like a cabbage patch doll.
She got bitten by one, huh?
How'd that happen? She was gardening and they are all over our yard and they've gotten like one of her rose bushes while she was deadheading her roses.
And yeah, she got too close and it went, and that was that.
I'm going to get Yumi some gardening gloves.
Well, she's got some, but sure, give her some more.
Reach into all the hidey holes with those things on.
Yeah, for sure. Especially those heavy duty ones.
You got anything else?
I don't think so. No, I feel like we covered everything, Chuck.
You know what that means.
Short Stuff is out.
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
