Alejandro Calixto
I'm Alejandro Calixto, so I serve as the director of the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. We're part of Cornell University.
Paul Treadwell
Well, thanks for joining me today, Alejandro,
Alejandro Calixto
thank you for an invitation.
Paul Treadwell
we're here today, really, because in the news, we've heard a lot about this, this invasive spider that, while it's not New York state, has certainly made headlines with it being able to fly, and it's huge. And people are sort of wondering what's going to happen when it comes to New York State, if it comes to New York State, what are the concerns we have around this spider? Is it really dangerous? It's been said it's venomous. What does that really mean? So if you could help us understand the Joro spider? Just a little bit.
Alejandro Calixto
Sure? Paul, yeah. So first of all, it's not a it doesn't pose any threat to humans. I have to start saying that every single spider has venom. So from the small spiders that you see in your kitchen to the your spiders, to tarantulas, they have venom glands, so and they use the venom to secure and paralyze the prey and as a defense. So George spiders, they do have a venom, but that venom is proportional to the prey they're trying to capture, so it won't, won't pose a race to humans. Is not a spider that is going to go and start chasing people. Is spider that it spends most of the time on a web. Females are the ones that they often build those those beautiful webs, so it doesn't really pose a risk for people I know,
Paul Treadwell
and just as I was getting ready to talk to you, I read a quick thing that said they're kind of bashful. They don't really seek out human interaction. Is that true?
Alejandro Calixto
That is correct. So, I mean, it's a their interest is find a space where they can build a web and capture different types of insects. So they like those quiet areas where they can find a lot of flying insects in particular. So, yeah, they don't interact with people. I mean, there's not a it's not a spider that you're going to see walking in the sidewalk or stuff like that. It's just a spider that spend most of the time on a web.
Paul Treadwell
Okay, and how did they end up in the United States?
Alejandro Calixto
That's a very good question. So it was introduced in the US in 2013 probably a shipment coming from Asia. Their native range goes all the way from India to Japan. Okay, so if you look at the map, it has the conditions, in terms of camp, climate conditions are similar. It got in in Georgia. At some point it got established. There's populations established in Georgia, and it has moved into another states. But it's not, it doesn't disperse as insects, some insects like spotted lanternfly, so it's really slow, so it will take a lot of time to move to another state, including New York.
Paul Treadwell
So we might not see any, any of these spiders for the next five or seven years.
Alejandro Calixto
That is hard to say. I mean, there might be some accidental introductions, but to see a population the size that we've seen in Georgia in South Carolina, it will take many years to really see the presence of that spider. So yeah, it might take a few years before we can see a spider like that here in New York,
Paul Treadwell
It does bring up the question, though, when, when a new species moves in? So when they're moving into Georgia or the next state up, they're not entering a vacuum, they're moving into territory that's already occupied. So is there, are there damages that just the simple expansion of the range of this spider can have on some of our native population or some of the population that's been nativised.
Alejandro Calixto
Yeah, that's another really good question. Paul, so yeah, invasive species, they have to go through. There is biotic antibiotic factors that basically determines the success or not or unsuccessful establishment of an invasive species. In this particular case, there were some environmental factors that allow a spider to establish. Those include the habitat, the prey availability in that area. So in theory, is probably using the space and other resources that native species are been using. So right now it's really there's a group of people working in Georgia and South Carolina looking at the environmental impact of these spiders. So in theory, it might have a negative impact, in my impact on native spiders in inside, in the southeast in particular, there is a similar spider that is native, which is the golden silk Weaver, which it has, constructs the same web, uses the similar habitat, and that's the one that. We suspect it might have some impact in those native populations.
Paul Treadwell
So I think, you know, just in listening toyou talk Alejandro, what I think one of the messages is, well, there are a couple messages. One is, don't panic if you see a spider. The second thing is, it could be a native spider that looks similar to the invasive spider. So your first action probably shouldn't be to kill it. But if you have a suspicion, if you if you have uncertainties, about the spider that you're seeing or the insect that you're seeing, what should someone do? Yeah,
Alejandro Calixto
so yeah, first of all, if the first thing that people should do is confirm that is your spider or not, we don't like people to go and start killing spiders without knowing what what they are, because they play a very important role in nature. So if they find something that they suspect is a Euro spider, a picture would be good for us to see if it resembles a Euro spider, they can send it to our email, nysipm [at] cornell.edu and then we suspect that it's a George spider. We might need to get an actual specimen, just to confirm that. We have received many pictures from many people, because this has been on the media. So we've been getting a lot of calls people saying that spiders are part of shooting, which they're not. But so once we confirm that it's not people, they get that information, and we basically tell people, just leave the spider alone. It's actually a friend of nature and to them as well. So
Paul Treadwell
you mentioned parachuting. I just want to loop back to the to the whole concept of you know, I've seen the headline about the flying spiders. So what can you tell me about JoRo spiders and their ability to fly or not fly, right?
Alejandro Calixto
So only spiders, they, as they produce venom. They have venom glands. They also have cell glands. So every single spider they they have the ability to produce cell so the cell issues for building a web or making the egg sac, etc, etc. There is a particular type of silk that is being used by some species to move from one place to another. So it's like a thread. They throw it on the air, and then it gets attached to a structure, like a tree. And then they basically they zip line. That's how they move from one place to another. But they're not, they don't have parachutes. They're not gonna, we're not gonna see spiders falling from the sky, as the media has, as claimed recently, people might see not only the other spiders, but any other spider, just doing the ballooning. That's the technical word for that, is just the way spiders dispersed. Typically in the spring, is when we see that, but also in the fall, okay, just when they started getting ready for, uh, for overwintering.
Paul Treadwell
Okay, so, so not going to be flying in through our windows and attacking our pets or anything like that.
Alejandro Calixto
Not, not at all.
Paul Treadwell
So the other the other question about these spiders and the world we're living in now is, is there any impact that that the shifting climate that we're experiencing, is that helping in the dispersal of these sorts of things? How does that impact Zoro spiders, or any other invasive that we might see here in New York State. And we'll if you could talk about the spider first, then we'll get to some of the New York State things that we're experiencing now.
Alejandro Calixto
Yeah, so temperature is a very important factor for insect and spider development, so if you start increasing those temperatures, you might allow some species to reproduce faster, probably lay more eggs, and even if they have more than one generation per year, they can add an extra generation. So yeah, climate has a significant impact on particularly on insects and spiders. Now that attached to climate change, it might not sound really important, but if you look at a pest that in the past, used to have three generations per year, now we're seeing some pests that they have up to four and five generations per year, because we have warmer falls and now a mild winter, and also the spring is warming up much earlier, so that really poses a problem. If it's a pest that has impact on a commodity, then if you don't have the tools, you might need to use a pesticide, right? So you're adding another an extra pesticide application, of course, that moves equipment. You're increasing production of carbon monoxide, and also you can create resistance because you're adding more sprays to the same pest through that season. So it is, it is very complicated for invasive species. Is actually. A very important factor for establishment and spread. So temperature not only regulates things that they use for feeding other insects or other spiders or plants, but also helps with the development. So it might ramp up, make their development much faster and be core more become more efficient at using the resources that other native species use in natural and even agricultural systems.
Paul Treadwell
So I want to be mindful of the time here. But before we wrap this up, since we've we've said Joro spiders aside, they're not a threat. They're not going to fly through our windows. What are some, what are some issues that are happening here in New York State that that are indicating people should maybe give a little attention to things? Maybe, let me try to rephrase that in a way that makes more sense. Are there? Are there insects that are coming into the state now that we should be concerned about that we didn't have five years ago?
Alejandro Calixto
Well, yeah, of course, a spotted lanternfly is one of them. And maybe one of the reasons that we've seen that quick spread and establishment is those the climate change so particularly during the winter. Last winter, it was a mild winter, we noticed it that the OV position of a sported lanternfly was extended, which is translated into more eggs that are going to hatch out, or they already hatch out in the spring. So we're starting to see high pressure in some areas that we were probably not expecting in these years. So spoiled lanternfly is one example, not an insect, but a related organism. Takes so takes, as you many have experienced that this past winter, we had days in December, January that it got really warm, and we see ticks very active. So temperature regulates the activity of these organisms. So we're going to see a lot of activity which is being transcended. They're going to be attaching to animals, including humans, and they're being dispersed more efficiently, and that is translated into increasing the numbers across the state. So we really have to be more vigilant with you know, takes in particular that's an issue for us, mosquitoes, of course, and of course, there's different pests that impact agricultural systems that in the past were possibly an issue, but now they're their impact is probably being increased due to climate change and changes in temperature and humidity and another factors.
Paul Treadwell
There's just one, one thing you said, ticks are not insects. What are ticks?
Alejandro Calixto
ticks are under their arthropods. So they're under the same kind of group as insects. They are arachnids, okay. Are closely related to spiders, okay? And so they have two body parts and 4488, legs, or four pairs of legs, and their mouth pores their core calyceral. So either a tick or a spider, they have very similar mouth bars. So versus insects, they have three body pores, and they have three pairs of legs, or six legs.
Paul Treadwell
Awesome. Well, thanks for clarifying that. So spiders are really problematic, then no spiders. Such species that are ticks, are problematic, but Alejandro, thank you very much for taking your time. Thank
Alejandro Calixto
you, Paul for an invitation. We'll
Paul Treadwell
certainly include links to New York State IPM
