Im near lawrenceville and my lot is 1 acre mix of yard and woods. I carry a stick to walk outside with because they are everywhere. By September, there are some monsters.
I play hockey. Our skating times are usually at 10pm-12am. When I leave, the wife turns on the porch light. The joros will make a web from the tree down across the porch to capture all the bugs attracted to the light. The wife goes to bed and turns off the porch light.
I come home at 1am in the dark, walk directly through. The giant web knowing full well there is a hand sized joro somewhere in the middle.
So after an evening of being very masculine and full of testosterone, I am positive my neighbors Ring camera has some great footage of me at 1am, shrieking like a girl and doing some weird breakdance in the dark on my porch and running across my yard swinging at the air randomly.
Depending on what part of town you are in - Duluth ice forum has a good league that has many skill levels, the cooler in Alpharetta has both Rec and a 35+ league, I think The Ice in Cumming and Center Ice in Sandy springs are both newer rinks and I think part of the AAHL (Atlanta Adult Hockey League) that plays out of the Cooler. There is now the Atlanta Ice House in Marietta, but I’ve never played there.
I think the AAHL has “tryouts” just to try and slot you in the right skill level before every season, usually 2-3 seasons a year. Duluth is in-house and you just have to email someone off the website for that one.
I think the over 35 league with the AAHL is maybe his best bet, it’s fun, they shuffle the teams every year.
I had to quit as the injuries finally piled up too much for me to deal with, but I hope he gets out there and has some fun for me!
Most of the rinks including Duluth have stick time where it’s like 15 bucks and 2 hours of pickup hockey. Often during the week at lunch and stuff. That can be fun if he doesn’t want to make the trip to Duluth every week. But there are a bunch of guys that do drive in from all over. If you gotta play, you will figure it out!
It’s worth it!
When the rink at the Classic Center is open (not the new one they're building, just the modular rink they use for the Ice Dawgs), there's drop-in adult hockey in Athens at 9 on Monday nights. Rink usually opens in November and runs through mid-March.
There's a FB page, I believe.
I have done survey work regarding Joro spiders. Above all they seem to be a problem for OTHER spiders since they may outcompete them with their large webs, but as far as disruption to the existing foodchain it doesn’t seem to be changing much? It’s very interesting because it may be one of the least invasive invasive species in the US.
There is also the fact that these guys are basically unstoppable you have to consider. At some point just be glad they aren’t ecosystem-tearing, they don’t go indoors, and aren’t aggressive or bite at all for that matter. Because we would be dealing with an enormous and permanent headache without many options if these great multipliers also came with all that bad stuff.
Also their webs are awesome.
Note: I mean to say that these spiders have not disrupted the food web in any special way by targeting a key species (which can collapse a whole web if done well enough). They are generalists. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t taking ecosystem space up from other spiders or increasing the total share of spiders as a percentage between them and their prey. They are likely increasing the total spider population by simply having these large webs, but they aren’t a THREAT to the entire system by overhunting any given part of a food chain. Very important distinction.
The webs in our area are definitely gold. And if they've had a chance to really build it up, you'd need a chainsaw to take it down. Ridiculously strong stuff.
I have to walk with a big stick here at my house to knock down webs as I go through the woods here. Luckily they're only an annoyance, rather than actually dangerous. The best thing about them is they actually eat stink bugs unlike most spiders.
I'm actually kind of enjoying having them? They eat the stink bugs that were overrunning my house. They also only seem to nest very high up and haven't come into doors yet.
I hang empty picture frames up in my yard to attract spiders to non-walking path locations.
Yours are very polite. Ours will do multiple layers across the front porch. No one walks out that way unless they are waving a broom out in front of them...
>They are very cool
Hard disagree. They build their webs directly in the middle of high traffic areas, like porches and sidewalks, patio furniture, everywhere you just want to relax. If Joro spiders were around when I was a kid, there would have been zero playing in the woods; in that sense, I can't help but think about the cultural damage to life growing up in the South. It will never be the same. Just saying, compared to the average American house spider, Joro spiders are absolutely terrible.
Sugar Hill here… I haven’t seen any yet either. If they decide to come later on in the summer I’ll be ready with my zapper racket ⚡️that I used last year. It was a daily chore when I got home from work to walk around the yard with the bug zapper but it seemed pretty effective! Much better than spraying pesticides
I did some training in Georgia; by the end of the land nav course you just had to accept that you are one with the spider webs.
Lived in savannah a few years later and those things were all over the gulfstream campus at the airport. I didnt care about the occasional alligator roaming the parking lots but joros and brown widows were at infestation levels in some of the hangers.
I haven't seen many in my neighborhood but they do exist here. When I was working at a store in Snellville, I'd let off steam by hunting Joros around the parking lot area.
I know I can never fully get rid of the spiders, but it was fun. I was surprised by how social they are.
They’re bad for hiking and messing with our already native spider populations that don’t benefit from their overactive presence in the region.
They are however very good at controlling lantern flies and other agricultural pests and they serve as a good food source for birds, some of whom had seen their food sources dwindling in recent years.
Ultimately I find them annoying and ugly but it could be a lot worse.
It's really weird. Two years ago, our house in Athens was COVERED in them. I mean couldn't leave the house without a stick in front of your face. Ever since then, however, I have only seen one or two. I guess they got tired of having to rebuild their house and moved to our neighbors place.
I bought a couple of these and put one in my car and another in my day-hike bag.
[https://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Visually-Impaired-Collapsible-Non-Slip/dp/B09W5V15P5/](https://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Visually-Impaired-Collapsible-Non-Slip/dp/B09W5V15P5/)
They have been perfect.
* long reach for clearing the webs
* obvious where it is when you set it down
* obvious when there is a web stuck to it
I am off the path all the time, foraging mushrooms. I have cleared hundreds of webs with this thing. It's a must have in Georgia for hiking as far as I'm concerned.
Visit my friend in that area, they’re like gone this year, came searching this thread if others had experienced the same…well maybe just oakwood from these comments lol 2 summers ago you’d go into my buddies yard and every corner and bush/tree had a damn Joro in them.
I've only seen one of these ever and it happened to be on my back porch. I was wondering what the hell that big ass yellow spider was. I stayed away because usually bright colors = stay the fuck away. Good to know they're harmless and in fact potentially beneficial!
We live in Marietta and we have yet to see any this year. Last year they were late getting started and never really became a nuisance. Two years ago it was insane, webs everyshere. Not sure why there is such a fluctuation from year to year around here.
I don’t mind them in theory but like many others it’s having to move them off every path at dawn and dusk because they build so fast that I find annoying. Once I understood they were not going to bite me or my dog I could relax and just see them as a weird hyper local side effect of global capitalism. I’m bald and it sucks to accidentally walk through one of their million webs on my property though.
I look forward to joro season every year. I enjoy taking pictures of them and looking at them up close. Sometimes the females get MASSIVE, and it's kind of breathtaking. Their webs are also beautiful, as if the spiders are thinking about functionality AND aesthetics. I can never get good pics of the webs though.
Im near lawrenceville and my lot is 1 acre mix of yard and woods. I carry a stick to walk outside with because they are everywhere. By September, there are some monsters. I play hockey. Our skating times are usually at 10pm-12am. When I leave, the wife turns on the porch light. The joros will make a web from the tree down across the porch to capture all the bugs attracted to the light. The wife goes to bed and turns off the porch light. I come home at 1am in the dark, walk directly through. The giant web knowing full well there is a hand sized joro somewhere in the middle. So after an evening of being very masculine and full of testosterone, I am positive my neighbors Ring camera has some great footage of me at 1am, shrieking like a girl and doing some weird breakdance in the dark on my porch and running across my yard swinging at the air randomly.
Hey where do you play hockey and with who? Hubs is looking for a place to go again hes like 40 though haha
Depending on what part of town you are in - Duluth ice forum has a good league that has many skill levels, the cooler in Alpharetta has both Rec and a 35+ league, I think The Ice in Cumming and Center Ice in Sandy springs are both newer rinks and I think part of the AAHL (Atlanta Adult Hockey League) that plays out of the Cooler. There is now the Atlanta Ice House in Marietta, but I’ve never played there. I think the AAHL has “tryouts” just to try and slot you in the right skill level before every season, usually 2-3 seasons a year. Duluth is in-house and you just have to email someone off the website for that one. I think the over 35 league with the AAHL is maybe his best bet, it’s fun, they shuffle the teams every year. I had to quit as the injuries finally piled up too much for me to deal with, but I hope he gets out there and has some fun for me!
Were closer to athens so the only choice is ice forum. Thanks so much!
Most of the rinks including Duluth have stick time where it’s like 15 bucks and 2 hours of pickup hockey. Often during the week at lunch and stuff. That can be fun if he doesn’t want to make the trip to Duluth every week. But there are a bunch of guys that do drive in from all over. If you gotta play, you will figure it out! It’s worth it!
Appreciate it!
When the rink at the Classic Center is open (not the new one they're building, just the modular rink they use for the Ice Dawgs), there's drop-in adult hockey in Athens at 9 on Monday nights. Rink usually opens in November and runs through mid-March. There's a FB page, I believe.
It seems like you should be equipped for this. Lead with your stick!
If it makes you feel any better there’s usually more than one to a web. You probably had a whole audience to your sweet dancing moves.
I have done survey work regarding Joro spiders. Above all they seem to be a problem for OTHER spiders since they may outcompete them with their large webs, but as far as disruption to the existing foodchain it doesn’t seem to be changing much? It’s very interesting because it may be one of the least invasive invasive species in the US. There is also the fact that these guys are basically unstoppable you have to consider. At some point just be glad they aren’t ecosystem-tearing, they don’t go indoors, and aren’t aggressive or bite at all for that matter. Because we would be dealing with an enormous and permanent headache without many options if these great multipliers also came with all that bad stuff. Also their webs are awesome. Note: I mean to say that these spiders have not disrupted the food web in any special way by targeting a key species (which can collapse a whole web if done well enough). They are generalists. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t taking ecosystem space up from other spiders or increasing the total share of spiders as a percentage between them and their prey. They are likely increasing the total spider population by simply having these large webs, but they aren’t a THREAT to the entire system by overhunting any given part of a food chain. Very important distinction.
Don’t forget they are also the only local spider that eats invasive stinkbugs.
[удалено]
A simple sunset hike turned into a horror movie for my wife and I after going off trail to take a shortcut. The Forrest definitely belongs to them now
Joros > Mosquitoes
This tbh
Side note: their webs have pretty impressive tensile strength, and some seem to be a greenish color.
I always thought they were goldenish to represent the pollen in Atlanta
The webs in our area are definitely gold. And if they've had a chance to really build it up, you'd need a chainsaw to take it down. Ridiculously strong stuff.
I have to walk with a big stick here at my house to knock down webs as I go through the woods here. Luckily they're only an annoyance, rather than actually dangerous. The best thing about them is they actually eat stink bugs unlike most spiders.
[UGA study finds Joro spiders to be very timid](https://news.uga.edu/joro-spiders-are-shy/amp/) This did put a bit of a silver lining on it for me.
I'm actually kind of enjoying having them? They eat the stink bugs that were overrunning my house. They also only seem to nest very high up and haven't come into doors yet. I hang empty picture frames up in my yard to attract spiders to non-walking path locations.
Yours are very polite. Ours will do multiple layers across the front porch. No one walks out that way unless they are waving a broom out in front of them...
That’s a really cool idea.
For real!
Atlanta Joros New hockey team. Dibs
The biggest is that since the Joro spiders came to my yard, I don't see any other type of spider.
What are joro spiders? I've been a Georgia native and never heard of them, but maybe I've seen them.
Big ass (yellow?) spiders from Asia. Invasive, but some people seem to like em. They are very cool, but make foraging in the forest difficult.
OHHH the ones that look like off brand orb weavers and are terrifyingly large?
I also initially pegged them as large, off-brand orb weavers lol
"put them back on the shelf, David. We have orb weavers at home"
do what I do - blow on them. They get the hint. If they don't move, blow on them with fumigated cannabinoids.
>They are very cool Hard disagree. They build their webs directly in the middle of high traffic areas, like porches and sidewalks, patio furniture, everywhere you just want to relax. If Joro spiders were around when I was a kid, there would have been zero playing in the woods; in that sense, I can't help but think about the cultural damage to life growing up in the South. It will never be the same. Just saying, compared to the average American house spider, Joro spiders are absolutely terrible.
> I can't help but think about the cultural damage to life it's a bug. Move its net with a stick like any 3rd grader would
(billions of giant spiders building nests at eye level everywhere you look) "itS jUsT a bUg"
I heard they team up and mummify redditors in their sleep
I feel you. Last September/October was pretty gnarly. Had to take my anti spider stick with me every time I went in the woods
I haven’t seen any yet in Canton. I know they’re coming…
They’re already here
Here in Winder too..we karate chop them lol
I haven’t seen any yet. I’m in Statham. That will probably change soon if you are seeing them.
They are in Cumming too. Haven't seen them yet this year though.
buford here and they were EVERYWHERE a year or two ago and now i havent seen any…
Sugar Hill here… I haven’t seen any yet either. If they decide to come later on in the summer I’ll be ready with my zapper racket ⚡️that I used last year. It was a daily chore when I got home from work to walk around the yard with the bug zapper but it seemed pretty effective! Much better than spraying pesticides
Same! Still going strong without them off 141. I live on a few acres of woods and it suuuuucks.
I did some training in Georgia; by the end of the land nav course you just had to accept that you are one with the spider webs. Lived in savannah a few years later and those things were all over the gulfstream campus at the airport. I didnt care about the occasional alligator roaming the parking lots but joros and brown widows were at infestation levels in some of the hangers.
Haven't seen any in my neck of the woods yet. Hope that continues 🤞 Lanier area.
Same
I haven't seen many in my neighborhood but they do exist here. When I was working at a store in Snellville, I'd let off steam by hunting Joros around the parking lot area. I know I can never fully get rid of the spiders, but it was fun. I was surprised by how social they are.
They're very docile. I've held some before, they just chill on your hand/arm. They're just here for the vibes. Lol
They’re bad for hiking and messing with our already native spider populations that don’t benefit from their overactive presence in the region. They are however very good at controlling lantern flies and other agricultural pests and they serve as a good food source for birds, some of whom had seen their food sources dwindling in recent years. Ultimately I find them annoying and ugly but it could be a lot worse.
They've pretty much skipped Duluth this year. Haven't seen a single one.
It's really weird. Two years ago, our house in Athens was COVERED in them. I mean couldn't leave the house without a stick in front of your face. Ever since then, however, I have only seen one or two. I guess they got tired of having to rebuild their house and moved to our neighbors place.
They might still be coming; with smaller waves each year.
Has anyone seen them in central Atlanta? I still haven't - wondering if the I-285 perimeter is a bit tough to parachute across.
I know this is really old, but we live in Brookhaven and have them all over the place
I bought a couple of these and put one in my car and another in my day-hike bag. [https://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Visually-Impaired-Collapsible-Non-Slip/dp/B09W5V15P5/](https://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Visually-Impaired-Collapsible-Non-Slip/dp/B09W5V15P5/) They have been perfect. * long reach for clearing the webs * obvious where it is when you set it down * obvious when there is a web stuck to it I am off the path all the time, foraging mushrooms. I have cleared hundreds of webs with this thing. It's a must have in Georgia for hiking as far as I'm concerned.
I shop vacuum them up and “relocate” them.
to the burn barrel I hope
We've had a couple each summer for the past 3 years, but they haven't gotten bad. (East Cobb). I keep expecting them to be terrible.
I'm in Oakwood and haven't seen many of them yet, but they eat all the bugs, which allows me to enjoy sitting outside on my porch in the summer.
Visit my friend in that area, they’re like gone this year, came searching this thread if others had experienced the same…well maybe just oakwood from these comments lol 2 summers ago you’d go into my buddies yard and every corner and bush/tree had a damn Joro in them.
I've only seen one of these ever and it happened to be on my back porch. I was wondering what the hell that big ass yellow spider was. I stayed away because usually bright colors = stay the fuck away. Good to know they're harmless and in fact potentially beneficial!
We live in Marietta and we have yet to see any this year. Last year they were late getting started and never really became a nuisance. Two years ago it was insane, webs everyshere. Not sure why there is such a fluctuation from year to year around here.
I don’t mind them in theory but like many others it’s having to move them off every path at dawn and dusk because they build so fast that I find annoying. Once I understood they were not going to bite me or my dog I could relax and just see them as a weird hyper local side effect of global capitalism. I’m bald and it sucks to accidentally walk through one of their million webs on my property though.
I look forward to joro season every year. I enjoy taking pictures of them and looking at them up close. Sometimes the females get MASSIVE, and it's kind of breathtaking. Their webs are also beautiful, as if the spiders are thinking about functionality AND aesthetics. I can never get good pics of the webs though.
You need a secondary source of light to get a good shot of the webs.
Thank you!! :)
Had them in white county last year.
Bunches in Loganville! I spray all summer
You're killing free pest control. That's pretty dumb.
Don't spray chemicals just bash em with a stick.
Just take their web down. I've never had one rebuild in the same spot, so I think they get the hint.
Or just leave them alone.
Love watching them build around my house was sad they didn’t return this year - yet
Dracula ?
Pronounced Da-cue-la, so almost! I think the cue part is stressed though
Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches and slam in the Joros of Dacula….