06/11/2026
The giant spider strung across a huge golden web on your porch this fall isn't one of our natives. She's a Joro spider — bright yellow, introduced from Asia, first found in Georgia in 2014 and spreading across the Southeast and beyond.
Our native orbweavers, like the yellow garden spider, are the ones that have been here. They build classic flat wheel-shaped webs, come in a range of patterns, and turn up at modest numbers. They're harmless garden predators that quietly thin out the insects you'd rather not have.
🌿 The Joro is the showy newcomer. The female is large, with a bright yellow body banded in blue-grey and marked with red, and she spins a big layered web that catches the light gold. She's turned up in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Alabama, Virginia, Maryland, and as far as Massachusetts. Where she's established in large numbers, native orbweaver populations have declined.
🐾 The one-look diagnostic: flat wheel-shaped web with a varied native pattern — native orbweaver. Big golden layered web with a bright yellow body and blue-grey bands — Joro.
Despite the size, the Joro is not dangerous to people. She rarely bites and is essentially harmless if she does. If a web sits in a doorway, move or clear that one. No need to spray.
Two orbweavers. One long-resident, one new arrival. The golden web tells you which 🌿
