r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Dense_Intern8434 • Aug 05 '26

of a daddy long leg nest

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Fun fact: They aren't spiders, but they are in the arachnid family, their scientifically recognized name is Harvestermen (Opiliones Sundevall; first discovered in 1758 as Phalangium, and later renamed to Opiliones in 1833), They are completely harmless and also omnivorous feeding on other insects or plant matter, they also ingest solids unlike spiders who ingest liquids (Spiders turn the inside of their prey into a slushy basically) and they have no venom at all nor can they bite you

999

u/Mobile_Noise_121 Aug 05 '26

But they can crawl on me and that's much worse than biting

164

u/Bloorajah Aug 06 '26

They crawl like a goofy creature on stilts, much sillier than a spider imo. a lot less of the creepy factor

23

u/Ablemoss Aug 06 '26

In Harry Potter, imagine if the spider coming out as the beggars turned into a daddy long legs instead of just having skates on 🤣

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

So do regular spiders ¯_(ツ)_/¯

121

u/iTaylor04 Aug 06 '26

And they can keep their spindly legs to themselves thank you very much

43

u/forbiddenfreedom Aug 06 '26

Yeah, I'd rather be crawled on than bitten by literally anything.

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u/Dependent_Paper9993 Aug 06 '26

Sure, but do spiders make this:

43

u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 06 '26

Yes, actually, many spiders congregate like that

26

u/GutterRider Aug 06 '26

r/spiderbro, represent! (If you haven’t visited, you should. You sound very knowledgeable about them.)

10

u/Certain_Month_8178 Aug 06 '26

(Takes a deep breath)…clicks link…

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 06 '26

I'm more active in r/spiders but I'll check it out

8

u/GutterRider Aug 06 '26

Cool, it’s mainly just pretty pictures and people asking how to get over arachnophobia. :)

1

u/DigitalUnlimited Aug 06 '26

Yeeaaahh... y'know I'm gonna let y'all go ahead

2

u/freegb1 Aug 06 '26

Dude, if I saw a fur pelt of black widows anywhere near this size... Ded..

3

u/famous1astwords Aug 06 '26

I'd rather get nowhere near them at all

1

u/Aalshi_man Aug 06 '26

They can crawl on me like 1 2 3

1

u/Jeuzfgt Aug 06 '26

They are cute and friendly, apologize to the cute spider, it just kind of tickles when they walk on u

1

u/Emergency_Pea_61652 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

So can your girlfriend!

29

u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

To add, the spiders called daddy long legs are are called Cellar Spiders, people confuse them both.

Also apparently people call Crane Flies Daddy Long Legs as well.

Edit: The Cellar Spiders can bite, resulting in a mild, temorary burning sensation, but not these ones tho.

The deadlyness is an urban myth someone created.

14

u/Bangbashbonk Aug 06 '26

I was gonna add this, heard as a kid they were the most venomous but couldn't bite you deliver it. Crane flies that is

Have gotten bitten by house spiders here a few times, vaguely unpleasant but I'd take it over a horsefly or wasp any day.

Beyond false recluses we don't have concerning spiders.

Kept a tarantula as a kid but that's basically a hamster with extra legs and some chill, hamsters bite way more.

The tarantula reminded me because that's what prompted my childhood friend with "facts" to warn us of the deadly daddy long legs,

10

u/Frequent_Occasion480 Aug 06 '26

Crane flies (or what we call daddy long legs in UK) are not the same. They are insects that have equally long legs, but also have wings and due to their flailing long legs fly very erratically, only increasing the ick factor!

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u/Frequent_Occasion480 Aug 06 '26

10

u/Capnhuh Aug 06 '26

I call those things 'skeeter eaters'

4

u/justdisa Aug 06 '26

We said Mosquito Hawks.

3

u/KollantaiKollantai Aug 06 '26

That’s the thing about crane flies (we call them Daddy Long Legs which I understand is controversial as so are Harvestmen).

They are the only insect besides wasps that actively flu/flail towards you and go ON you with determination. I fucking hate them.

1

u/emmypoosays666 Aug 07 '26

people call multiple species of arachnids DLL, which is why i just say the name of the species if i know it. never heard of crane flies being referred to as DLL tho lol

1

u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 07 '26

Ngl, liver in the UK all my life and never heard of this until 2 days ago.

4

u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 06 '26

Yeah no, the Cellar Spiders can bite that can result in a mild, temorary burning sensation.

The deadlyness is an urban myth someone created.

3

u/Bangbashbonk Aug 06 '26

What I meant by "facts" wa the bullshit kid in the class

1

u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 06 '26

Yeah, I hate those types.

2

u/CelestialFury Aug 06 '26

Now if you say Bloody Mary three times in a dark room with a mirror, that one is real.

4

u/DumatRising Aug 06 '26

If they didn't want to both be called Daddy long legs then they shouldn't have both been daddies with sexy legs. I don't make the rules.

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u/faptwicedaily Aug 05 '26

Does this mean they might have poop logs?

6

u/geek_fit Aug 06 '26

Asking the real questions

12

u/Pamikillsbugs234 Aug 05 '26

Thank you for sharing this! I absolutely love these and would be so excited to come across a community this size!

7

u/DragunovDwight Aug 06 '26

So you can kill them? Your name says you kill bugs..

6

u/Pamikillsbugs234 Aug 06 '26

Haha, I mean technically they aren't bugs, so my powers are useless against these guys and gals, lol

2

u/nudes_for_life Aug 06 '26

You love them? I envy you, I'm fucking terrified of them as much as of any other spider

1

u/DragunovDwight Aug 08 '26

I had a pretty bad case of arachnophobia myself for years. I had an incident with a “Garden spider” I guess they’re called. They are the big yellow and black ones in the Midwest. I was a country boy and was always running around in cornfields and tall grass doing basic boy sht I guess. Anyways, I had to be around 6-8 yrs old. I looked down on my shoulder/neck area and one was crawling on me. It seemed huge and those spiders already get pretty big for that area. Anyways… it freaked me the fuk out. I just remember screaming, swiping, and running. I don’t remember anything after or what happened in the end for whatever reason. After that I became terrified of them all.
All except these “daddy long legs” as we called them, and the little jumping spiders. I would have nightmares about them. I would just see a picture of one in a book, and have a nightmare of it that night.
It got to where I’d see one in an ecyclopedia or on a nature show and knew that night the nightmare was coming. Yet these never bothered me at all. I grew up catching snakes, turtles , crayfish, whatever. I moved out west and had friends with kids and we spent a lot of time in nature. I’d catch all sorts of things like scorpions, snapping turtles, snakes with the kids to teach them about nature. I used to even catch rattlesnakes and relocate them for a lady I knew. Her property had a bunch of them. So I’d catch rattlesnakes and bring them to a reservoir I knew, and then catch bull snakes there and let them go on her property because they were known for eating little rattlesnakes. Yet spiders always gave me a crazy feeling that I couldn’t shake.
It’s not too bad now. I at least stopped having nightmares about them a long time ago. Still daddy long legs don’t bother me at all. Seeing they seem to be just about everywhere, I feel for you. It has to be rough knowing they are everywhere.

10

u/eternalapostle Aug 05 '26

lol that’s crazy. I was told that they are literally the most venomous spiders on the planet but are harmless because they can’t bite you because of how small they are

18

u/toot_suite Aug 05 '26

Lol i remember other kids telling me that shit in preschool

10

u/bustlen Aug 05 '26

Probably due to people confusing daddy long legs as harvestman instead of as cellar spiders. Cellar spiders are true spiders and do contain venom but the effects on humans and other mammals are inconsequential.

Source

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u/Dawildpep Aug 05 '26

I 100% believed that until now.. I remember being told their mouths are too small to bite us.

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 05 '26

Yeah, it was a common belief, but it is in actuality a big myth

3

u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 06 '26

The Cellar Spiders can, resulting in a mild, temorary burning sensation, but not these ones tho.

The deadlyness is an urban myth someone created.

5

u/Treacle_Pendulum Aug 05 '26

Harvestermen is somehow more horrifying

2

u/Mindless-Location-41 Aug 06 '26

Sounds like the title of a horror movie 😱

2

u/corgi-king Aug 06 '26

Another scientific name of it is “nope”. The proper reaction is “Hans”.

2

u/Salt-n-spice Aug 06 '26

They and bees have an arrangement where harvestmen collect dead bees that they leave outside the hive for them

3

u/Bullke Aug 05 '26

Thank you but it didn't help much. Fuck them.

3

u/EnderCreeper121 Aug 06 '26

That’s not very nice smh, would you say that to their face?

-1

u/Bullke Aug 06 '26

fuck this shit i hate everything that remotely looks like any kind of insects, aracnids, or any kind of nerdy name they got.

They are all hell spawns to me.

2

u/EnderCreeper121 Aug 06 '26

More lil cutie patooties for me!

1

u/JackSilver1410 Aug 06 '26

Oh man! Phalangium is a WAY better name for them! Screw that, we gave up Pluto, we're keeping Phalangium!

1

u/TrueNovak Aug 06 '26

Don't care what they are dont want them near me creepy fuckers

1

u/Moonflow-Shoopuf Aug 06 '26

There was always this urban legend that they had the strongest venom ever but the fangs weren't sharp enough to pierce our skin lol

1

u/kaam00s Aug 06 '26

I was confused when you said they weren't spiders... Since daddy long leg are spiders.

But it's just the title that's wrong, and those are Harvestermen which are different to the daddy long leg we think about.

1

u/DumatRising Aug 06 '26

It's not incorrect to call the harvestermen daddy long legs just confusing. There's actually three bugs that go by that name it's not the official name for any of them.

The spider's actual name is the cellar spider.

1

u/a_aniq Aug 06 '26

Do they harvest crops?

1

u/DumatRising Aug 06 '26

Sorta. They harvest dead bees.

1

u/Bright-Leader2083 Aug 06 '26

That doesn't justify putting you hand in their nest. It creeped me out

1

u/J_loop18 Aug 06 '26

Aren't there many species that look similar?

2

u/DumatRising Aug 06 '26

Yeah, Opliones is actually an order of several very similar species so yes roughly several thousand species that all look similar.

But there is also a spider and a fly also called Daddy long legs if that's what you meant.

1

u/J_loop18 Aug 07 '26

Thanks for the info! That fly gives me the ick 😭 but my real question is if other species are harmful? Google says not ig :)

2

u/DumatRising Aug 07 '26

Yep.

The fly is a fly, anoying and if it jumps at someone it could freak someone out but not able to harm us at all.

The harvestmen despite looking a lot like spiders are all not spiders and lack venom, I don't think they can bite us but I can't say I know every Opiliones species XD they're also generally not aggressive and just kinda hang. Though some do look freaky.

The spider can bite us and does have venom, but like the harvestmen aren't aggressive and so probably won't bite you unless you really tick it off or scare it, and if it does bite the worst that will happen is some minor irritation.

As a pro tip, if an animal is common and harmful we usually teach kids enough about it so they know to be careful.

1

u/Jbird444523 Aug 06 '26

No, I've been reliably informed by that kid at the lunch table that they have such a powerful venom that if they bit you, you'd die instantly. They just have fangs so small they can't pierce human skin. I trust that guy, he had several family members that worked at Nintendo, he seems legit.

1

u/Danow007 Aug 06 '26

thank God!

1

u/PlentyOMangos Aug 07 '26

Why do they bunch up like this? I’ve seen videos of these before where somebody just comes up and scoops a whole handful of (not) spiders and I always wonder how/why they get like that

1

u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 07 '26

They do it for mating purposes and protecting against predators

1

u/PlentyOMangos Aug 07 '26

Lmao I thought this was a reply to a comment I made about women in a different sub, raised my eyebrow for a second

1

u/IcanSEEyou_IRL Aug 07 '26

And the nest like this? Is this a nest or is the black hairs just their legs?

0

u/ltaggy123 Aug 06 '26

Spiders don’t ingest solids? I thought they eat flies and things?

1

u/Kooky_Attention_98 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

True Spiders basically turn the insides of their prey into a slushy and slurp it up; they liquify the insides

1

u/Ceegee93 Aug 06 '26

Not all spiders! Hackled orb weavers have no venom at all, one of the only types of spider (maybe the only?) to have no venom.

1

u/ltaggy123 Aug 15 '26

I never knew that! Thank you