ALIEN INSECTS, PESTS AND JAPAN
Pests that originated in Japan that have caused problems around the world include: 1) tiger mosquito, thought to have entered the United States in a shipment of used tires; 2) tsugakasa aburamushi, a hemlock-killing aphid thought to have entered the United States in a shipment of hemlock wood from Japan; and 3) brown marmorated stink bugs, dime-size shield-shaped creatures that give off an unpleasant smell when squashed or irritated. The latter first arrived in the United States in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2001 and are now found in 29 states.
In 2017, fire ants were spotted in Japan for the first time at a Kobe port and the Japanese media raised the alarm. NHK reported: “Fire ants came from a container that was unloaded in Kobe. The venomous ants originally from South America can bite and cause a burn-like pain and anaphylactic shock, which may result in death. Environment ministry officials say they found ant nests in a container at a storage facility in Amagasaki City in Hyogo Prefecture. The container had been unloaded at Kobe Port after arriving from the Chinese province of Guangdong. “Experts confirmed they were fire ants. They say the ants were killed with a chemical disinfectant and no others have been found in the area. The officials believe that it is unlikely they have settled in the area and are breeding. But the ants were found only about a week after the container had been unloaded." A few days later a queen fire ant was found in Osaka and fire ants were found in Tokyo and Nagoya. In 2021, over 1,000 fire ants were found on Sakishima Island in Osaka, which is near Kobe. In 2023, fire ants were found in a cargo container at Mizushima Port, Okayama and a commercial warehouse in Koriyama, Fukushima. [Source: NHK, June 14, 2017, Google AI].
The mosquito coil was invented in 1902 in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture by Eiichiro Ueyama from a mixture of incense and pyrethrin seeds sent to him from America. Pyrethrin is a flower with insecticidal properties that was used in flea powders in the United States at the time. Pyrethrum in an incense stick was effective but the sticks didn’t burn very long, The idea of making it as a coil was provided by Ueyama’s wife Yuki who was inspired by a coiled snake, suggesting, “How about winding it,” The first mosquito coil was produced in 1902 was 75 centimeters in length when uncoiled.
Because so many indigenous bees have been killed off with pesticides pear trees are pollinated by introduced horned-face mason bees grown inside reeds with pollen pellets and mud and by women who go from flower to flower with a goose-down tipped stick. Asian honey bees rally against giant hornet invasions with an acoustic response that resembles the alarm shrieks of birds, primates and other social mammals. Alien bumblebees introduced in the 1990s to help with tomato cultivation in Japan have become wild and expanded their territory. There are concerns that in Hokkaido they may drive out native species and threaten the pollination of alpine flowers and plants.
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Toxic Hairy Caterpillars and Giant Yellow-Legged Centipedes
Many Japanese are terrified of caterpillars, especially hairy-looking ones, and a species of large black centipedes with yellow legs called mukade. Some caterpillars in Japan, including chadokuga, Taiwana orvasca, and hairy caterpillars, can have poisonous hairs that can irritate the skin. One person posted on Reddit: “The hairy looking caterpillars (Kemushi) are toxic to touch. There are often signs in parks etc saying to take care with kids/pets etc to make sure that they don’t touch them. They cause a nasty swelling/hives with severe itching and burning sensations.”
Another person posted on Reddit. Stay well away from chadokuga!! My first encounter was in our garden. They huddle together in groups on the leaves of plants. They looked so cute all snuggled up together. About half an hour later I noticed my wrists and arms itching. A few hours later it had spread to my chest, belly and neck. That night I didn't sleep a wink for fierce burning itching all over my body and a bumpy red rash. Nothing we had at home (Kinkan, Muhi, etc) made any difference. Had to go to the doctors to get something that would ease the inflammation. Nasty little buggers, those chadokuga.
The yellow-legged black mukade centipedes (Scolopendra japonica) can grow to be up to 20 centimeters (eight inches) long. According to thejapans.org. They are hunters who eat cockroaches and other small animals. They bite from the head end and can rear up like a cobra. Apparently they like to hide in cosy places such as shoes, toilets, bed linnens, etc. Or alternatively they crawl up to you in your sleep (with a preference for body cavities such as ears or noses) or sit on the ceiling and fall down on unsuspecting victims. Their bite is very painful and when being bitten by a large mukade, it is best to see a doctor. They appear to be tough critters, very hard to kill, even after being exposed to bug spray, fire and boiling water. In Japan they are often used as a symbol for evil. They are most abundant in the rainy season, which runs for a few weeks in June and July.
One person posted: We reluctantly room and board with them, or rather, they with us, in our forest home here in Japan. For years I panicked the moment I’d spot one; now I just get the scissors, and hopefully can manage to cut their heads off before they scurry off. From May to late September, it’s mukade season, although the initial surge of them is most unnerving. I have two children, have lived here for over ten years, and not one of us have been bitten. ( knocking on wood here). My feet have found them in slippers, I have shaken them off towels -at times accidently onto my leg – have lightly stepped on them (as they were manouvering their way between tiles) and, despite my enduring gut-reaction, I have come to the conclusin that they are not out to get us. Do they come to harass us while we sleep? Well, if they do, we are not awake to witness it.
Another said. I lived in Japan when I was little. In Kyushu close to Kumamoto. We saw plenty of mukade! So scary… Dad had one crawling up his leg under his pants once. He hit it (he didn’t know what it was) and it bit him. Not very pleasant. Mum found one in her face cloth. Threw it into the sink, poured hot water on it and tried to smash it with a pill box. I helped one across the road (haha). And another time there was a massive one over my bed when I was about to sleep. I think my parents vacuum cleaned it… Scary things!
Japanese Giant Hornets
Japanese giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia) are the world's largest hornet. Known in Japan as Suzume-bachi, or "sparrow-bees" because of their large size iand known elsewhere as northern giant hornets, murder hornets and Asian giant hornets, they are native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. Hornets live in nests and feed their larva on bits of meat from caterpillars, grasshoppers and other insects that they hunt. The queen doesn't just in the nest but flies off on hunting forays with the other hornets.
Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, “Hornets are big, powerful insects with viselike mandibles and smooth stingers that can deliver a heavy load of potent poison. In addition, when a hornet stings, she also splashes out a pheromone that adheres to the skin of the victim, and serves as a target marker for the rest of the hive. The first person stung thus often endures a concentrated attack. Multiple hornet stings can be highly dangerous, and in some cases even fatal. [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, July 1, 2010]
“ Among their favorite pray are caterpillars and grasshoppers, insects which if left unchecked can do great damage to crops. Japanese farmers thus traditionally recognized hornets as beneficial, and whenever possible left their nests intact. In some regions the villagers even considered hornet larva (hachinoko) a delicacy, and the abandoned nests were taken down and placed in entranceway vestibules, where they were said to protect the farmhouse against intruders.”
Japanese Giant Hornet Nests
Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, “ The outside of hornet nest is “covered with a thin paperlike sheet shaped like an upturned long-necked. Inside a small nest are about two dozen or so heaxagonal compartments. Those in the center are covered by a cap of tough white cocoon silk. This silk is woven by larva when they reach their final growth stage and are ready to metamorphose into worker hornets. After completing the transformation in the protected environment inside the cocoon, the new hornets use their powerful jaws to cut through the silk and crawl out. I had to be careful that this didn't happen while my students were examining the nest!” [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, July 1, 2010]
On a nest he observed Short wrote: “Arranged around the cocoons, one to a cell, were fat yellow larva that would soon be spinning cocoons of their own. These were constantly snapping their heads back and forth to attract the queen's attention and get fed. Further to the outside were smaller larva, and in the outer ring of cells were tiny white eggs that had not yet even hatched. From this distribution I could see that rather than build the entire nest first and then lay the eggs all at once, the queen builds the compartments a few at a time, laying the eggs as she goes. This of course, makes perfect sense. If the nest had continued according to schedule, soon the first batch of five workers would have emerged, and then helped the queen feed the remaining larva.
“Hornet queens are born and mate in autumn. With the sperm from their partners packed away in special pouches, they then hibernate during the cold winter months. The following spring they wake up, and each individual queen constructs a new nest from scratch. At first, the queen must do all the work herself. Hornets build their nests from a sort of paper. They use their jaws to scrape fibers from the bark of trees or the walls of wooden buildings, which they then chew into a pulp and mix with saliva in their mouth. Finally they spread the pulp out in thin layers. As the pulp is derived from various sources, the nest covering often sports a beautiful patchwork pattern of different shades of brown, gray and yellow.”
“The first generation nest is always small, but once the workers (all females) begin emerging, the pace of work intensifies. By autumn, when the males and next-generation queens are ready to emerge, the nest can be as big as a beachball, with thousands of workers. Only the new queens, however, survive the winter. With the coming of the cold the males and workers all die off, and the huge nest is never used again.”
Giant Japanese Hornet Attacks
By some reckonings giant Japanese hornets — sometimes called “murder hornets” — are the most dangerous wild animal in Japan, killing to 40 people a year. A 77-year-old woman was found dead in a cedar forest in Nasukarasuyama in Tochigi Prefecture, the victim of a hornet attack. She died from shock after being stung 91 times on her head and legs. Hornets in Japan are said to be particularly aggressive during their mating season in September and October and often to attack object that are black and blue. The victim had black hair and was wearing blue pants. [Source: TyB, Listverse, October 16, 2010]
Twenty people died from bee, wasp and hornet stings in Japan in 2022, according to the Japanese health ministry. According to the Asahi Shimbun: Even a wasp exterminator wearing protective clothing was stung to death. Experts contend that the rise in temperature is causing hornets to start their nesting activities earlier than usual, leading to larger nests and more aggressive worker wasps. Hornets ramp up their nest-building activities from July to October, with autumn being particularly crucial for raising the next generation of queens, said Masato Ono, an expert on hornet ecology who has the title of professor at Tamagawa University. [Source: Asahi Shimbun, October 24, 2023]
October 8, 2023, turned out to be a grim day for runners taking part in a race through mountain trails at the Hida-Kuraiyama Trails competition in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. Participants rushed into hydration stations one after another around noon, complaining of being stung. When checking the area, staff found a hole in a large tree alongside the course, where yellow hornets were buzzing around. The event continued with a quickly arranged detour. But by then, 42 people had been stung and 11 of them were taken to a hospital.Three male runners who displayed severe respiratory symptoms, including one who was stung around 10 times, were temporarily hospitalized. Staff carried out safety checks on the course in August and September but did not notice the nest, the committee said. “The vibration or noise from the runners may have provoked the hornets,” said committee head Fumio Morimoto, 77. Twenty-two high school runners were stung by hornets during practice in a separate incident on Sept. 23, which led to the cancellation of the ekiden long-distance relay race scheduled for the following day in Kokonoe, Oita Prefecture.
In Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, a pest control professional was fatally stung even though he was in protective gear. The man, who was in his 50s, was searching for an Asian giant hornet’s nest when he was stung in the ear and back. According to city officials, the man was wearing full-body protective gear and chest-high wading boots for his work in the river. Ichiro Shimizu, 64, chairman of the Tokyo Pest Control Association, to which exterminators of insects and rats belong, said protective clothing is made of white material with a specially processed surface that hornets find slippery. “It is quite rare for an exterminator wearing protective gear to die from wasp stings,” he said.
Getting Stung by a Giant Japanese Hornet
David Farnell posted on Quora.com in 2019: I witnessed a high-school girl get stung by” a giant hornet “on a subway a couple years ago. It was buzzing around and landed on her skirt. I was about to warn her when she brushed at it with her hand. She must have felt it land, but she didn’t look to see what it was. It stung her finger. She gasped and it flew up to the ceiling and climbed into the lights. I asked her if she was OK, and she said yes, but she was rapidly turning pale. Then she just fainted. I and a couple others helped keep her from falling hard, and eased her to lie down, while another person called the train conductor. A woman loosened the girl’s collar to help her breathe.
There were no convulsions or anything. I kept an eye out for the hornet, and when we stopped at the next station, I helped carry her and her bags off the train. Paramedics came down and took her into their care. The conductor told everyone to change to another car, just let the hornet have the car it was in until they could go after it with spray.
We did so, and that was all I know about it. I don’t know if the girl fainted from pain or just fear, or if she was having an allergic reaction to the venom. I don’t even know if the hornet injected venom into her—sometimes they don’t. I remember noticing that he finger did not swell or turn red, so I think she might not have received any venom.
Seiichi Nohara posted on Quora.com in 2019: I was stung once. When I was sitting at a table in a park it landed on the index finger of my left hand, I, knowing if I remain still it won’t sting, I let it stay on my finger. I happened to have a camera on the table and my right hand was free, I thought taking a picture of a hornet on my finger would be interesting. Then I picked up the camera and the instant I tried to focus the lens to it single-handed, the camera fell off my hand to the ground and at the same time, my left hand moved abruptly making the hornet sting the finger. I felt a hot iron rod or something stung in the finger and I tried to suck out the venom immediately. But in about 5 or 10 minutes the left forearm began to swell with a dull pain. Since it was a natural park it took me more than 2 hours to get to a hospital for treatment.
Eating and Hunting Giant Japanese Hornets
Ben Dooley wrote in the New York Times: In the central Chubu region, giant Japanese hornets are known for more than their aggression and excruciating sting. They are seen as a pleasant snack and an invigorating ingredient in drinks. The giant hornet, along with other varieties of wasps, has traditionally been considered a delicacy in this rugged part of the country. The grubs are often preserved in jars, pan-fried or steamed with rice to make a savory dish called hebo-gohan. The adults, which can be two inches long, are fried on skewers, stinger and all, until the carapace becomes light and crunchy. They leave a warming, tingling sensation when eaten. The hornets can also give liquor an extra kick. Live specimens are drowned in shochu, a clear distilled beverage. In their death throes, the insects release their venom into the liquid, and it is stored until it turns a dark shade of amber. [Source: Ben Dooley, New York Times, May 6, 2020]
“The real thrill, however, is not in the eating or drinking of the giant hornet, but in the hunt. Setting out in the early summer months, intrepid hunters track the insects to their huge nests, which can house as many as 1,000 hornets and their larvae, in the boles of rotting trees or underground. They lure a hornet with a streamer attached to a piece of fish, and when it grabs the morsel and takes off, the hunting party goes on a steeplechase through the woods. Upon finding the nest, the hunters stun the insects with smoke, then use chain saws and shovels to extract it.
“In other cases, the nests are rooted out by professional exterminators. Torao Suzuki, 75, said he removed 40 to 50 nests a year, getting stung as many as 30 times each season. “It hurts, it swells, and it turns red, but that’s about it,” he said about the stings. “I guess I’m immune.” He does not eat the bugs himself. “Even when I tell people, they’re going to sting you, they still eat them. They say it makes them potent,” he said. “Suzuki said he also sold the nests, which are popular trophies throughout the region. Lacquered brown hives, sometimes cut open to expose their complex lattice work, adorn vestibules and reception rooms in homes, schools and public offices.
“Historians say the insects, which range throughout Asia but are found most commonly in Japan, were once valued along with other wasps as a cheap source of protein in poverty-stricken rural areas. The cuisine is celebrated each November in Gifu prefecture at a festival, known as the Kushihara Hebo Matsuri, where prizes are handed out for the largest nests, and gourmands bid for the privilege of taking one home with them. Even at this insect jubilee, the danger posed by the giant hornet, which has killed dozens of people in Japan in recent years, is evident. A flyer for the 2018 event warned participants to be on the lookout for hornets on the loose near the fairgrounds, advising attendees to “please take ample care to avoid being stung.” Organizers, it added, “bear absolutely no responsibility” for the consequences of ignoring the warnings.
“So it may be no surprise that the practice of hunting and eating the insects, as with many traditions in aging rural Japan, is less common than it used to be. The Oomachi Wasp Appreciation Society in Nagano once achieved some measure of national fame for making rice crackers with the insects baked in. Production has since stopped, as the group’s members have died or become too old to make the snacks, said Sachiko Murayama, 70, who is on the board of a local business cooperative.
“In Japanese cities, however, there has been a small resurgence in interest in eating bugs. Some young people are attracted to the novelty and to the idea that insects are an environmentally friendly source of protein. In Tokyo, the giant hornet is on the menu at more than 30 restaurants. Shota Toguchida, who owns a Chinese restaurant in the city, said he sold shots of homemade hornet liquor for 2,000 yen, or about $19, mostly to middle-aged men. He keeps a few bottles on the bar. “It looks surprising but tastes great,” he said.
Murders Hornets in the U.S.
In 2019, Americans began freaking out about giant Japanese murder hornets when Asian giant hornet began terrorizing the honeybees of Washington state and the hornets began showing up in some other places. There was some reason for the alarm. These hornets can be aggressive and their venom is powerful, but the threat was exaggerated.
Giant Japanese hornet have killed dozens of people in Japan in recent years. “The admonitions go well beyond this single event. Every spring, government offices across the country issue advisories about the bugs, known in Japan as “giant sparrow hornets” because of their size. People venturing into the wild have learned to avoid hair spray and perfume, which can attract the frightening pests. [Source: Ben Dooley, New York Times, May 6, 2020]
“In the United States, where the first Asian giant hornets were spotted in the fall of 2019 in northwestern Washington state and scientists are urgently trying to hunt them down, no one is thinking about the insects’ culinary potential. The focus is solely on eradicating them before they can spread and wipe out bee populations. “Takatoshi Ueno, an entomologist at Kyushu University, said he was mystified by the hornet’s appearance on the American West Coast. “It’s impossible for them to fly over from Asia,” he said, adding that they most likely came over in a shipping container. Even that, though, would be extraordinarily unlikely, he said, given their extreme aggression, which would have almost certainly drawn the attention of a ship’s crew. They might not have come from Japan, Ueno said; they could have arrived from another country in the region. But regardless of how they arrived in Washington state, he added, it is critical that they be dealt with before they have a chance to establish themselves.
In December 2024, the Washington and U.S. Agriculture departments announced that the the invasive giant hornets — known as "murder hornet" — had been eradicated from the United States. This was primarily achieved by trapping and locating and wiping out their nests. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) oversaw the trapping. Residents agreed to place traps on their properties and report sightings. Researchers captured a live hornet and attached a radio tracking tag to it. They followed it through a forest to a nest.
Joro Spiders
Joro spiders (Trichonephila clavata) are large arachnids with bright yellow abdomens with gray striping and long, black and yellow striped legs. They can be as big as the palm of a person’s hand and originated in East Asia. They are golden orb-weavers, meaning they create webs with a slightly golden appearance. Like most spiders they feed on insects they catch in their webs. [Source: Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch, June 3, 2024]
Male Joro spiders are relatively small, with legs spanning less than an inch. They have light brown abdomens with dark brown stripes. The females, however, can be quite large, with one-inch-long bodies and legs that stretch up to four inches. With their legs fully extended, a female is the one about the size of the palm of your hand.
Joro spiders spiders aren't aggressive and are actually quite shy; researchers from the University of Georgia found that Joro spiders would remain immobile for over an hour when disturbed. Other spiders in the study started moving again in less than a minute. Joros are venomous but not enough to pose a risk to humans or pets. A bite from a Joro would be like a bee sting, That's if their weak fangs manage to pierce your skin, which isn't a guarantee. Paula Cushing, an arachnologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science who has studied Joro’s, said Joros are not a threat to humans or dogs and cats and won't bite them unless they are feeling very threatened. Another researcher collect them with her bare hands and reported the occasional pinch, but said the spiders never broke her skin.
According to USA TODAY: What makes the Joro spider different from other spiders is its ability to fly by using a technique called "ballooning." Ballooning involves the spider releasing silk threads into the air, which allows them to be carried by the wind, according to the release. If the wind picks them up, they can travel as far as the wind takes them in whatever direction the wind is blowing. The spiders can also walk orhitchhike a ride with humans. For example, if they are hanging out on some outdoor furniture and that furniture is picked up and taken somewhere else the spider will move with it. [Source: Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, June 5, 2024]
Joro spiders (jorogumo (in Japanese, formerly Nephila clavata) are common sights across Japan. Kevin Short wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, “The huge jorogumo we often see sitting head-down at the center of the web are all females. You have to look hard to see the males, which are only a third or a fourth as big, waiting quietly around the edge of the web. “The jorogumo's immense orb webs are common along country roads, and even in the parks, gardens and backyards of the big cities. The base lines of these webs are often five or six meters long, stretching clear across a road or from a roof top to a nearby tree. In addition to the main, densely woven central sheet, there are additional, sparser sheets in front and back. Arachnologists...believe these extra sheets help slow down larger prey, such as heavy dragonflies, before they strike the main section. Some larger species of orb-web spider have even been known to catch and eat small birds.” [Source: Kevin Short, Daily Yomiuri, December 16, 2010]
Americans Freak Out About Joro Spiders in the U.S.
Joro spiders are now firmly entrenched in southeast United States. They are thought to have arrived in the United States around 2010 and were first officially spotted in Georgia in 2014 about 28 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Atlanta. By 2021 they had reached South Carolina and were spreading across the South. Not long after that they were spotted in several other states including North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Maryland. [Source: Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch, June 3, 2024]
Associated Press reported: “Debbie Gilbert, 67, adopted a zero-tolerance policy for the spiders around her home in Norcross, Georgia, winding their webs with a stick, bringing them down and stomping them. “I don’t advocate killing anything. I live in peace with all the spiders around here and everything else,” she said. “But (Joros) just don’t belong here, that’s all.” “In metro Atlanta, Jennifer Turpin — a 50-year-old self-described arachnophobe — stopped blowing leaves in her yard after inadvertently walking into a web created by the Joro spider. She tried to set a Joro spider web on fire at her East Cobb home, but then got scared it would fall on her and fell into a hole as she quickly backpedaled. She had a neighbor remove it instead. [Source: Sudhin Thanawala, Associated Press, October 29, 2021]
How did Joro spiders come to America? According to USA TODAY: The theory behind the Joro spiders' origin in the U.S. is that they were unintentionally transported by way of cargo shipments, international trade and personal travel. The Joro spiders’ ability to adapt to various environments and reproduce rapidly led to them successfully establishing the Southeast as its initial epicenter. This spider is going to be able to inhabit most of the eastern U.S.,” David Coyle, invasive species expert at the University of Clemson, said in October 2023. “It shows that their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America... Barring some unforeseen circumstance, we expect the range of these things to continue expanding, likely to the north.José R. Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University's Lockwood Lab, told the Staten Island Advance in April that "it is a matter of when, (and) not if" the spiders make their way to New York and New Jersey. [Source: Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, June 5, 2024]
How will Joro spiders affect local ecosystems? The introduction of the Joro spiders can "disrupt the delicate balance of local ecosystems," according to the insect exterminators. When in their native habitats, which are within the borders of Southeast Asia, Joro spiders control insect populations because they act as "natural pest controllers," the pest control service said. "The Joro spider’s predatory nature may decrease native insect populations, affecting the food web and potentially causing a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem," according to the exterminators.
For humans, particularly residents and local authorities, Joro spiders could cause "fear and apprehension" due to the intimidating appearance of the insects, the pest control service said. The Joro spiders' venom is typically not deadly to humans, but when bit, it can cause discomfort and allergic reactions in some people.
“Nancy Hinkle, an entomologist at the University of Georgia, said Joros help suppress mosquitoes and biting flies and are one of the few spiders that will catch and eat brown marmorated stink bugs, which are serious pests to many crops. “This is wonderful. This is exciting. Spiders are our friends,” she said. “They are out there catching all the pests we don’t want around our home.”
Japanese Freak Out About Venomous Spiders from Australia
In 1995, poisonous Australian redback spiders were found in the Takaisho district of southern Osaka and in Yokkaichi, a western port city in Mie prefecture. The black spiders, with a red stripe on their back, are less than five centimeters (two inches) in length and and have a one centimeter (half inch) body. They produce venom equivalent to a bad bee sting that in some cases makes people sick for a couple of days. No one has died from a redback bite in Australia since the antitoxin was developed in 1956. [Source: Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan, the Washington Post]
In spite of assurances by Australians who consider the spider shy and non-threatening, the Japanese freaked out. Men in toxic-waste suit, armed with vacuums, fumigators tweezers, nets and chopsticks, searched swear and drain pipes for spiders. Schoolyards and parks were fumigated and shipments of antitoxin were airlifted from Australia. The stock of Fumakilla, Japan’s largest insecticide maker, jumped 16 percent in one day. Headlines in newspapers screamed, "Archipelago Panic!" and "Redbacks Spin Web of Wear in Osaka."
About 800 spiders were found in the drain of a public pool in Sakai in Osaka and another 100 were found 60 miles away in Yokkaichi. It is believed the spiders arrived in Japan from Australia in a cargo of fruit or vegetables in the early 1990s. In August 2005, redback widow spiders were found in the Kanto area in Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture.
Australians were highly amused by the Japan reaction. Redbacks are very common and few people have ever been seriously hurt by them. A popular schoolyard goes" "There was a redback on my toilet seat when I was there last night. I didn't see it in the dark, but boy I felt its bite.” One Australian journalist told the Washington Post, "It's impossible to live in Australia and not see them. They're fairly timid spiders...But Japan is in a panic. The whole thing is hilarious."
In September 2012, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “Authorities exterminated more than 100 poisonous redback spiders spotted near the Inagawa river the day before, police said. According to the police, a local man spotted a swarm of spiders in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture and reported it to police. Police officers rushed to the scene and found more than 100 spiders inside a drainage pipe in a river wall about five meters high located along a walkway. Officials of a local health center later confirmed the spiders to be redbacks, a species legally designated as invasive and foreign. They were exterminated by health center officials. Japan also has an increasing population of poisonous brown widow spiders. They were first spotted in Okinawa and have been seen in Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Fukuoka and are believed to be transported around Japan on ferries. They have the same kind of poison as redback spiders [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, September 7, 2012]
Train-Stopping Millipede Swarms in Japan
According to the New York Times: Early in the 20th century, a train line opened for service in mountains west of Tokyo. But in 1920, train crews found themselves stopping traffic for an unusual reason. The train tracks, which ran through thick forest, were overwhelmed by swarms of millipedes, each arthropod as white as a ghost. The creatures, which are not insects and emit cyanide when attacked by a predator, were on some errand that remained mysterious.” These "train millipedes," so-called for their famous obstructions, would appear every so often — and then disappear again for years at a time. After decades, scientists finally figured out why and reported their findings January 13, 1921 in the journal Royal Society Open Science. .
Yasemin Saplakoglu wrote in Live Science: It turns out that these millipedes (Parafontaria laminata armigera), endemic to Japan, have an unusually long, and synchronous, eight-year life cycle. Such long "periodical" life cycles — in which a population of animals moves through the phases of life at the same time — have only previously been confirmed in some species of cicadas with 13- and 17-year life cycles, as well as in bamboos and some other plants. "This millipede is the first non-insect arthropod among all periodical organisms," said senior author Jin Yoshimura, a professor emeritus in the department of mathematics and systems engineering at Shizuoka University in Japan, who has conducted research on periodical cicadas for the last two decades. [Source: Yasemin Saplakoglu, Live Science, January 15, 2021
In 1920, the train operators had to briefly stop their train as they waited for the creepy crawlers to pass over the tracks. According to various accounts, the millipedes returned every eight years or so after that, each time forming a dense blanket that was impossible to pass through. In 1977, first author Keiko Niijima, a researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, first proposed that they might have an eight-year periodical cycle. Now, Niijima, Momoka Nii, also a professor in the department of mathematical and systems engineering at Shizuoka University, and Yoshimura have confirmed the life cycle using reports of historical outbreaks and detailed surveys. Over many years, the authors collected millipedes from mountains in Honshu, Japan, and conducted research on the critters; they determined their life stages by counting the number of legs and body segments, as these are particular to the age of a millipede.
The researchers found that multiple broods of this population each have their own synchronization; in other words, one brood might be in the egg phase whereas another may be full-grown adults. Each population cycles through its entire life cycle in eight years. The brood of millipedes that periodically appear on the train tracks doesn't have an affinity for train tracks or mean to be disruptive; rather, the insects are just trying to get to feeding grounds that are sometimes on the other side of the tracks. It just so happens that the railroad is an "obstacle" in their journey to new feeding grounds, Yoshimura told Live Science. To survive, these train millipedes munch on dead or decaying leaves sandwiched between the soil and the fresh leaves on the surface, Yoshimura said.
Because they live in such large numbers, the adults and seventh nymphs — the stage before becoming adults — quickly munch up all available food where they are born; and so they begin a trek to move to a new feeding site, he said. At that second site, they eat the decaying leaves, mate with each other, lay a batch of new eggs and later die. The researchers hypothesize that their elongated life cycles could be synchronized with winter hibernation. Unlike periodical cicadas that emerge in mass numbers and thus make each individual less likely to succumb to predators, these train millipedes don’t need that added protection from predators. They already have a pretty good defense mechanism: when attacked, they release the poison cyanide, the researchers said.
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Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, Daily Yomiuri, Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.
Last updated March 2025