Millions of Palm-Sized, Flying Spiders Could Invade the East Coast

These have been very common in South Florida for as long as I can remember.

During early '00s summer camp, I remember seeing someone from afar unknowingly walk into an actual palm-sized one's web. The spider latched onto their back right as they got into their car and drove away. I can only imagine what that car ride was like.

Around '08 a couple of friends and I had taken psychedelic mushrooms and ventured into the mangrove forests in order to find hidden openings by the beach. We found a nice one, but on the way there, we had to pass through a couple trees that were covered with hundreds of these. It really scared one of my friends in the moment.

Nice to know they are harmless. Truthfully we didn't really know what these were and just called them banana spiders for as long as I can remember, probably due to their long yellow abdomen.

They are really pretty and it is quite strange to see them all over (I live in the woods) when they used to not be around at all.