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Giant venomous flying spiders with 4-inch legs heading to New York area as they spread across East Coast
First came the spotted lanternflies, then the cicadas, and now, the spiders. The Northeast U.S. is bracing for an invasion of giant venomous spiders with half-inch-long legs that can parachute through the air.
Earlier this year, New Jersey Pest Control warned of the incoming spiders, saying Joro spiders will be “hard to miss” as females have a leg span of up to 4 inches and are known for their vibrant yellow and grey bodies.
“What sets them apart, however, is their ability to fly, a trait uncommon among spiders,” the company said. “While not accurate flight in the avian sense, Joro spiders utilize a technique known as ballooning, where they release silk threads into the air, allowing them to be carried by the wind.”
Dave Coyle/Clemson University
José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University’s Lockwood Lab and the president of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods on Staten Island, told SI Live that “it is a matter of when, not if” the spiders arrive in New York and New Jersey.
A peer-reviewed study published last October by invasive species expert David Coyle found that the invasive species is “here to stay.” The insects are native to Asia, but were introduced to north Georgia around 2010, the study said, and are continuing to spread.
“Anyone that doesn’t sort of like all the creepy crawly things, this has all of the characteristics that makes them squeamish,” Coyle previously told CBS News, saying a press release that “data show that this spider is going to be able to inhabit most of the eastern U.S..”
“It shows that their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America.”
People have reported seeing Joro spiders across much of the eastern U.S., including in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. New York happens to be “right in the middle of where they like to be,” University of Georgia researcher Andy Davis told The New York Times in December. He believes the spiders could pop up across New York and neighboring states this summer – aka any day now.
“They seem to be OK with living in a city,” Davis added, saying he has seen Joro spiders on street lamps and telephone polls, where “regular spiders wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
The venomous arachnids are venomous, but Coyle says that they do not pose a danger to humans. That venom, he said, is reserved for the critters that get caught up in their webs, including butterflies, wasps and cockroaches. They could also pose a threat to native spiders.
“We have no evidence that they’ve done any damage to a person or a pet,” he said.
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The U.S. will remove all its forces and equipment from a small base in Niger this weekend and fewer than 500 remaining troops will leave a critical drone base in the West African country in August, ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline set in an agreement with the new ruling junta, the American commander there said Friday.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said in an interview that a number of small teams of 10-20 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, have moved to other countries in West Africa. But the bulk of the forces will go, at least initially, to Europe.
Tech. Sgt. Christopher Dyer / AP
Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for the U.S. because it is forcing troops to abandon the critical drone base that was used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel.
Ekman and other U.S. military leaders have said other West African nations want to work with the U.S. and may be open to an expanded American presence. He did not detail the locations, but other U.S. officials have pointed to the Ivory Coast and Ghana as examples.
Ekman, who serves as the director for strategy at U.S. Africa Command, is leading the U.S. military withdrawal from the small base at the airport in Niger’s capital of Niamey and from the larger counterterrorism base in the city of Agadez. He said there will be a ceremony Sunday marking the completed pullout from the airport base, then those final 100 troops and the last C-17 transport aircraft will depart.
Speaking to reporters from The Associated Press and Reuters from the U.S. embassy in Niamey, Ekman said that while portable buildings and vehicles that are no longer useful will be left behind, a lot of larger equipment will be pulled out. For example, he said 18 4,000-pound (1,800-kilograms) generators worth more than $1 million each will be taken out of Agadez.
Unlike the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said the U.S. is not destroying equipment or facilities as it leaves.
“Our goal in the execution is, leave things in as good a state as possible,” he said. “If we went out and left it a wreck or we went out spitefully, or if we destroyed things as we went, we’d be foreclosing options” for future security relations.
AFP via Getty
Niger’s ruling junta ordered U.S. forces out of the country in the wake of last July’s ouster of the country’s democratically elected president by mutinous soldiers. French forces had also been asked to leave as the junta turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for security assistance.
Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup in October, triggering U.S. laws restricting the military support and aid.
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U.S. troops leaving Niger bases this weekend and in August after coup, officials say
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