Daddy Long Leg Spiders

[JBell]

I'm over-run with Daddy Long Legs! I've heard they're relatively harmless AND that they're dangerous! Which one? :? I've never had a problem with them, they just seem more "pesky" than dangerous.

Should I leave them be or try the orange oil routine?

[Robert D Bard]

I would leave them as they are beneficial.
They are very poisonous as far as spiders go but they have no way to bite people or pets so they are harmless.
Robert D. Bard

[dragonfly]

As far as daddy-long-legs go, the more the better. They are reportedly predators of small insects, many of which can be garden pests. If you have some you want to get rid of, call and I'll come and pick them up, lol. They are very welcome here, because I have lots of small insect pests they can live on. Maybe I'll put up a sign: "Free small insect buffet. All daddy-long-legs welcome".

[Billusa99]

Daddy Long Legs are not spiders and they are not poisonous and they eat insects. They are a sign of a healthy garden.

[JVHOLCOMB]

Send them to me I will take them all. I never kill any spider as they control insects and pest. I will say I do not have any Balck widows of Brown Recluse. I do have an abundance of gecko's outside as well as some inside. I feel really blessed with all these critters coming to liv ewith me. :D

[Gar]

JVHOLCOMB,
Think of them as part of your family. Would love to have lots of geckos running around my place comsuming all the pests, plus I like their green color. When I get my hedge installed, later this year, maybe I can adopt a family of geckos.

[natrlvr]

My Geckos are a bit yellow or opaque with dark spots. I do have anoles that can be bright green or change to a much darker color. Mabey you have anoles and not Gekos? :D

[nina norman]

http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg369.html Here is what A&M had to say on the subject of the daddy long legs. I dunno which species he had in his garden, but I would say that they are harmless and should be invited in. If they give you the creepies just brush them off structures with a broom or at worst case scenario use a vacuum.

Hugs,
Nina

[eyesoftexas]

Perfectly harmless and very beneficial..............ugly, true! You can hose them off structures you're around....but they eventually come back. Sure wish they ate grasshoppers!! :twisted:

[BuckEskew]

Billusa99 wrote: Daddy Long Legs are not spiders and they are not poisonous.

This is completely false. Daddy Long Legs are some of the most venemous spiders in the world. Although, they are harmless to humans and pets because their fangs are not long enough to penetrate the skin.

They are beneficial to your garden though, so no need to fear them.

[kbrew]

BuckEskew wrote:

This is completely false. Daddy Long Legs are some of the most venemous spiders in the world. Although, they are harmless to humans and pets because their fangs are not long enough to penetrate the skin.

They are beneficial to your garden though, so no need to fear them.

Actually, this is a myth. This is from the University of California Riverside website: This tale has been lurking around for years. Most folks who retell this tale have no idea that they are referring to two completely separate groups of animals: "daddy-longlegs" and "daddy-longlegs spiders". In the animal class Arachnida, there are several lower level divisions called Orders. Scorpions are in the Order Scorpiones, spiders are in the Order Araneae, ticks and mites are in the Order Acari.

The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Common names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids. They are characterized by having one basic body segment which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, at most 2 eyes and all 8 legs attach to the pill-like body segment. They are usually found under logs and rocks, prefer moist habitat although they can be found in the desert, often have long flexible legs (in the temperate Northern hemisphere but there are also short-legged daddy-longlegs) and they do not produce silk so therefore they are never found in webs unless they are being eaten by spiders. Because they are found under logs and other stuff which people most often are not turning over, most folks don't run into daddy-longlegs very often.

Another creature often called daddy-longlegs are actually spiders. These long-legged spiders are in the family Pholcidae. Previously the common name of this family was the cellar spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of "daddy-longlegs spiders" because of the confusion generated by the general public. Because these arachnids are spiders, they have 2 body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have 8 eyes most often clumped together in the front of the body, the abdomen shows no evidence of segmentation, have 8 legs all attached to the front most body part (the cephalothorax) and make webs out of silk. This is most probably the animal to which people refer when they tell the tale because these spiders are plentiful especially in cellars (hence their common name) and are commonly seen by the general public. The most common pholcid spiders found in U.S. homes are both European immigrants. Pholcus phalangioides is a uniformly grey spider with rectangular, elongate abdomen and is found throughout the U.S. Holocnemus pluchei also has a rectangular, elongate abdomen but has a brown stripe on the ventral side (the belly side - which is typically directed upwards since the spider hangs upside down in its web) which covers its sternum and is a stripe on the abdomen. These spiders are very common along the Pacific Coast. and into the southwest deserts.

Possible envenomation

Is there any truth to this oft-repeated tale?

Daddy-longlegs (Opiliones) - these arachnids make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter although are opportunist predators if they can get away with it. They do not have venom glands, fangs or any other mechanism for chemically subduing their food. Therefore, they do not have poison and, by the powers of logic, cannot be poisonous from venom. Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested. So, for these daddy-long-legs, the tale is clearly false.

Daddy-longlegs spiders (Pholcidae) - Here, the myth is incorrect at least in making claims that have no basis in known facts. There is no reference to any pholcid spider biting a human and causing any detrimental reaction. If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done. Furthermore, there are no toxicological studies testing the lethality of pholcid venom on any mammalian system (this is usually done with mice). Therefore, no information is available on the likely toxic effects of their venom in humans, so the part of the myth about their being especially poisonous is just that: a myth. There is no scientific basis for the supposition that they are deadly poisonous and there is no reason to assume that it is true.

What about their fangs being too short to penetrate human skin? Pholcids do indeed have short fangs, which in arachnological terms is called "uncate" because they have a secondary tooth which meets the fang like the way the two grabbing parts of a pair of tongs come together. Brown recluse spiders similarly have uncate fang structure and they obviously are able to bite humans. There may be a difference in the musculature that houses the fang such that recluses have stronger muscles for penetration because they are hunting spiders needing to subdue prey whereas pholcid spiders are able to wrap their prey and don't need as strong a musculature. So, again, the myth states as fact something about which there is no scientific basis.

In summary

For true daddy-long-legs, the opilionids, the myth is certainly false, and for the daddy-long-legs spiders it is certainly not based on known facts.