I spotted this spider a few years back on a trail while out on a hike. But in the last few years they seem to have expanded their range and now I am finding them all around my home and the region I live in. People seem to be quite afraid of these spiders, 
 Camera Model | Lumix GH3 |
|---|---|
 Lens | Olympus MSC ED M. 60mm Macro lens |
 Filter | none |
 Aperture | f/7.1 |
 Shutter Speed | 1/125 sec |
 Film Speed | 1600 |
 Spectrum | Visual Light |
 Wavelength | 380 through 700 nanometers |
 Location | North Georgia USA. |
They are toxic, just like most spiders. But not enough to cause an issue unless allergic to their venom. You can see a smaller male Joro spider in the web as well in the above photo.
Joro spiders are excellent web builders, I commonly find prey in their webs. The webs can be quite large too, and the strands are amazingly strong. When I go to knock down the ones in the way I am always surprised how much effort it takes to knock down their webs. And commonly they just rebuild them over night if I dont kill the spider.
Sometimes the spider blends in quite well, do you see it in the above picture?
Here is another, it made a web over my Sweet potato beds and caught many White cabbage butterflies. I am thankful for that as they were quite the problem this year. I left some of them alone when they were helping out my garden.
Lastly a photo of a large female Joro spider, a smaller male and some food wrapped up by their web. They are now on the decline with the cooler weather coming around. But I expect to see them again next year. They seem pretty invasive, but with nature you never know how the pendulum will swing in the other direction. Maybe a new bird species will show up and start eating all these large spiders. But then who knows what the consequences will be of that.
More details on this spider below: