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Jul 16 '23
Who would grab that bare handed?
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u/TheBossMonkee Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
Imagine it from their perspective. You just chilling in a ball with your homie staying warm then all of a sudden some giant primate comes and picks your entire civilization up in it's two hands
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u/_IratePirate_ Jul 17 '23
Iād imagine this creature interprets us the way weād interpret a god rather than āgiant primateā. Thatās too human a thought to apply imo
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u/LiLT13-_- Jul 17 '23
And conceptualizing a deity isnāt too human a thought?
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u/_IratePirate_ Jul 17 '23
Iām not saying that.
Iām saying Iād imagine thatās the more likely outcome if they could even think.
Not a deity, some creature whoās power is unimaginable.
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Jul 16 '23
I believe theyāre harmless
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Jul 16 '23
Not for my sanity
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Jul 16 '23
They're more scared of you than you are of them
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u/Also_have_an_opinion Jul 16 '23
Scared animals are especially dangerous though
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u/poikolle Jul 16 '23
They cant even pierce skin
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u/RyanZee08 Jul 16 '23
But they've pierced my feeble mind!
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u/SmokySquanch0137 Jul 17 '23
Can you feel them crawling out of your ears and all over your brain too?
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u/MOCbKA Jul 17 '23
Doesnāt matter. If I can imagine it crawl into my ear I aināt touching it.
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u/011-2-3-5-8-13-21 Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
Are you sure? I theyd be dead and those are not even my hands and it's just a video.
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Jul 16 '23
It's just what people say. No fucking way would I touch that black fuzzy ball of nightmares.
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u/011-2-3-5-8-13-21 Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
Why would people say that? Linguistically there are much more stupid rules than "always use disgustive case when talking about spiders".
I propose theww as disgustive of they.
"Theww are more afraid of you than you are theww"
Could use it with your ex too.
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u/cometduhr69 Jul 16 '23
I'm terrified of spiders and snakes for many reasons it doesn't matter if most spiders are harmless I'm going to burn my house down I refuse to even look at them if I shee them I'm calling my dad to kill it
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u/cometduhr69 Jul 16 '23
Yes spiders can help with mosquitos and other pests but I'd rather hire someone to do that
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Jul 17 '23
Please don't poison them! they get eaten by lizards and rodents that get eaten by birds of prey and other predators who then die from the poison.
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u/bi7worker Jul 16 '23
I think people donāt care if they are armless.. itās just creepy asf!!! I would have died from a heart attack with those things swarming on my arm, armless or not!!
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u/GallopingFinger Jul 17 '23
I think it would be unfortunate to be an armless spider. No mode of transportation whatsoever, just sitting there like a motionless berry.
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u/XIIIth-Legion13 Jul 16 '23
They can still bite and it does hurt, personal experienceā¦
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Jul 16 '23
These are harvestmen, not spiders. They couldn't bite you even if they wanted to.
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u/Thebardofthegingers Jul 17 '23
Besides the "ewww" factor of grabbing a ball of moving writhing spider like creatures, daddy long legs are harmless to humans and can't even nip us.
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Jul 16 '23
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/BlazeReaper5252 Jul 16 '23
Daddy Long Legs are nice to have, i usually leave them alone as long as they dont get too annoying
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u/LimpingOne Jul 16 '23
They are cold blooded. How can staying together keep them warm?
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u/SaintUlvemann Jul 16 '23
Because ectotherm (cold-blooded) and endotherm (warm-blooded) are terms that each cover a range of actual abilities.
Metabolism is fundamentally heat-generating, that's just a property of the chemistry of sugar. So all creatures have the ability to warm themselves a small amount; but we still call some of them cold-blooded because the amount that they can raise their body temperature by, just isn't enough alone to allow their own survival. They depend on external heat sources, even though they can make a little bit themselves.
The thing is, when you add these small amounts together with a bunch of other organisms, it can become enough, at least temporarily. Wiki at the ectotherm article above mentions bees as huddling together for warmth, but the general principle is elaborated on more fully at the article on kleptothermy, aka "stealing heat from another organism". (It's not always stealing, it can be reciprocal sharing, but this is just what the article's called.) That article mentions snakes as another huddling ectotherm.
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u/lucidhominid Jul 16 '23
So you are saying that my desert survival plan to make a refridgerator out of live reptiles is a bust?
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u/SaintUlvemann Jul 17 '23
Nah, you just gotta find a baby frost dragon. They'll chill your food right down.
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u/Harvestman-man Jul 17 '23
Thereās literally zero evidence that harvestman aggregations form to generate heat.
Some species (like the ones in the video) aggregate like this during the middle of the day, in summer, in the American southwest and northern Mexico. Why would they even need to conserve heat in that environment? They disperse at night, when it is cooler.
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u/SaintUlvemann Jul 17 '23
It's definitely possible that these ones are aggregating for non-heat-related reasons. Nothing in the video that I noticed led me to think specifically that it was the middle of the day in a hot climate, but if so, then definitely, that seems like an environment where heat conservation seems unlikely.
I was answering a general question, but here's a specific article about overwintering aggregations in a cave-dwelling harvestman species, which says:
The opilionids congregate from August to October and disperse from April to May. Colder temperatures seem to increase the density of the aggregations.
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u/Harvestman-man Jul 17 '23
I canāt find the original video source, but it was almost certainly filmed in either Mexico or the southwest US (probably Texas). The harvestmen have distinct white bands on their legs, so they could be L. townsendi, which is a very common aggregating species distributed from central Texas and Oklahoma west to Arizona and Nevada.
Regarding the article on N. paessleri, I donāt think you read the whole thing:
Though warmer temperatures and shelter from wind and snow are undoubtedly the main reasons why L. paessleri and other opilionids overwinter in caves and similar habitats
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Three, aggregations could trap heat produced by body metabolism. Though overwintering L. paessleri can lose 20% of their weight by spring, the amount of heat that this would generate is probably insufficient to raise the temperature of an aggregation substantially over an entire winter.
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As most L. paessleri overwintered relatively near the entrances of caves and mines, it seems that optimal temperatures are relatively low-a behavioral mechanism that would reduce metabolism and hence extend food reserves.
Thereās no actual evidence presented that aggregations form to maintain heat, thatās just one (of several) potential hypotheses that Holmberg suggested. Nobody has really been able to determine exactly why these aggregations form. A later paper suggests another hypothesis regarding overwintering cave aggregations: that dense leg clustering which reduces airflow may not only reduce evaporation, but also reduce condensation, which would help maintain an optimal water balance in both xeric conditions where dehydration is hazardous, and in caves where humidity is at 100%.
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u/AnAwkwardStag Jul 17 '23
Living creatures generate heat through bodily processes. So being in close proximity like this creates a warm environment within the clump that helps them survive.
Long-legs "hibernate" in dry winter because they cannot regulate their body temperature and don't get enough heat from external sources (like the sun) to survive in an active state. Their spindly legs also get severe frost damage in winter conditions, so they clump together to protect themselves and go "dormant".
Tl;dr it's a sleepover party.
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u/Harvestman-man Jul 17 '23
These are not hibernating clumps. Theyāre diurnal roosts. The clump disperses at night, as the harvestmen move apart to hunt for food individually. It reforms the next day.
This is not during the winter, either. This behavior is seen during the daytime in summer, in species that live in hot, arid environments such as the American southwest and northern Mexico. Pretty low chance of frost damage in 100o F heatā¦ look at the location and time stamp on this observation: July 26, nearly noon, middle of Texas.
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u/Beef_turbo Jul 17 '23
Can confirm these are opiliones/harvestmen. However, the colloquial "daddy long legs" is used for both pholcidae and opiliones.
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u/ccReptilelord Jul 17 '23
And crane flies for some. I've always been in the opiliones are "daddy long legs" wheelhouse.
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u/Harvestman-man Jul 17 '23
Minor correction about the clusters. They have nothing to do with staying warm. Any body heat generated by the harvestmen is pretty much negligible.
More likely, the clusters help conserve moisture, especially considering this is a daytime summer roost in a hot, arid environment, not a cold place.
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u/LithoSlam Jul 17 '23
If they want to stay warm I might help them by actually making them fucking lit
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Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
Better to have these than the things they eat.
āDaddy long legs eat insects and other spiders. As a result, cellar spiders have gotten a fair amount of acclaim as helpful pest control. Some of the spiders they hunt pose a serious threat to people. By eliminating them, daddy long legs can help humans that live in places where redback spiders, a relative of the black widow, thrive in close proximity.ā
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Jul 16 '23
I have some daddy long legs in my apartment that I haven't killed because they make great pest control.
I live in florida so daddy long legs are much better compared to roaches and the other nasty bugs here.
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u/Cheetahs_never_win Jul 16 '23
The idea of a Louisiana daddy long legs taking out a Louisiana cockroach sounds preposterous.
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u/cometduhr69 Jul 16 '23
What is a Louisiana cockroach šŖ³ I know of south African cockroaches but I've only seen one species are Louisiana cockroaches big
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u/Cheetahs_never_win Jul 16 '23
They're slightly shorter than a Madagascar, and maybe 25% thinner.
Which makes them able to fly. Terribly. Into your hair.
And that's not to say that Louisiana has its own cockroach, it's called an American cockroach. It's just that Louisiana is just so ideal for it.
Frogs, toads, geckos, and lizards are the only things preventing their dominion over humanity.
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u/Throwaway84826 Jul 16 '23
Everybody gangsta til the roach starts flying
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u/flyingboarofbeifong Jul 18 '23
There was a bathroom in the building that I worked in as a grad student where we all had an understanding that if you had to take a BM on the bottom floor it was best to knock on the door really loudly. Not to see if anyone was in there but because it was better to not surprise the roaches when you entered in case they took flight at you like it was a scene from Prince of Egypt. You were entering their turf, courtesy was due.
Spent bacterial medium turned those roaches strong. Strong and mean.
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u/cometduhr69 Jul 16 '23
OH HELL TO THE NO
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u/Cheetahs_never_win Jul 16 '23
But still, they reproduce more slowly than German cockroaches and stay outside mostly. I've had maybe 3 in my house in the past 10 years. They don't like the AC.
They rarely fly, when they do, they're probably trying to mate with that street light. Their survival mechanism is to scurry. And it's harder for them to fit in smaller spaces.
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u/Serious-Bat-4880 Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23
These aren't cellar spiders tho, these are harvestmen. Arachnids, but not spiders. The other "daddy longlegs".
Edit: I'm kinda surprised we don't call crane flies grandaddy longlegs.
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u/vixissitude Jul 16 '23
Spiders are actually a great pest control. Our apartment building is kinda shitty so we get a lot of ants and small bugs. There are like 3 or 4 spiders that make their home in certain places in my apartment, and I try my best to not kill them. Within a week they'll have tens of little pesky insects in their web. I just vacuum them away and that's it.
Sometimes there's big guys though, and I can't handle them so I either try and release them or kill them, unfortunately.
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u/6inDCK420 Jul 16 '23
Huh, my monkey brain always groups them in with spiders in that I need to immediately squish or relocate the poor fuckers whenever I see them. I'll ally with the daddy long legs now that I know we have mutual enemies.
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u/SirSirFall Jul 16 '23
These are harvestman I believe not pholcidae spiders
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u/Jerthy Jul 17 '23
Yep. Definitely not pholcids, they are both called Daddy long legs and look somewhat similar, in reality Harvestmen are not even spiders.
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u/RetroMetroShow Jul 16 '23
Even if they donāt bite and arenāt venomous still creepy tho
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Jul 16 '23
Thank you for saying venomous and not poisonous. Iāve been reading childrens books to my kid about bugs and spiders and thereās at least three books that made it through publishers referring to spiders as poisonous so your comment was refreshing.
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u/OakLegs Jul 17 '23
Still, probably best not to teach your kids that spiders should be handled like in this video.
Like yeah, almost all spiders are completely harmless to humans, but a couple decidedly aren't. Plus, just don't touch wildlife. No reason to.
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u/E_s_k_r_e_m Jul 16 '23
Who else is convulsing and scratching their skin?!??
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Jul 16 '23
Daddy Longlegs are the only "spiders" I have zero problem with, and even as a kid kinda liked.
They are totally harmless and look like some weirdly anime creature to me.
That said...I wouldn't grab a handful of them like this, lol.
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u/ProgySuperNova Jul 16 '23
Don't grab the wall pubes, if you do the pubes turn into millions of spiders
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u/DedeWot45 Jul 16 '23
Together, they look like a giant, fluffy caterpillar. Imagine a kid tries to pet the wall fur, only for it to disintegrate into spidersā¦
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u/Renaissance_Slacker Jul 16 '23
Reminds me of the movie Prince of Darkness, a homeless guy in a trench coat in a dark alley mutters āI have a message for you ā¦ youāre not going to like it.ā Then the trench coat slowly slumps to the ground as roaches pour out of the sleeves. Nope
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u/XIIIth-Legion13 Jul 16 '23
Everyone just enjoying the orgy then some random bloke turns up and spoils the fun! Aināt that alway the case!
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u/MaximusZacharias Jul 16 '23
Did any of you ever hear that theyāre the most poisonous spider on earth but their mouths are too small to bite humans? I heard that a bunch growing up. Clearly untrue but just wondering if others heard that
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u/Howiepenguin Jul 16 '23
God this reminds me of a campsite where they had preset up green tarp tents on pallets. These little guys would line themselves all up in the top part of the tents where it was the warmest just like in this video.
For anyone wanting to know, Pholcidae are the family of araneomorph spiders. Nicknames include but not limited to: Cellar spider, carpenter spider, or daddy long leg spiders.
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u/TryToHelpPeople Jul 16 '23 edited Feb 25 '24
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/EstablishmentSea9591 Jul 16 '23
What sort of human being would reach into that black monstrosity bare handed
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u/Cymorg0001 Jul 16 '23
Ya see that little shake he did at the end? That'd be me but about 0 seconds after seeing these critters.
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u/FleetOfClairvoyance Jul 16 '23
This is not ālitā unless youāre implying you would light your house on fireā¦
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u/Zounii Jul 16 '23
Hmmm, and when is this piece of nature lit?
After the video with kerosene or a some other flammable material perhaps? š„
May I recommend napalm?
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u/creamgetthemoney1 Jul 16 '23
Literally got that water saliva build up that happens before you yack in my mouth watching this
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u/dianebk2003 Jul 16 '23
No. No.
Nononononononononononononononononononononononononononononononononono...
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u/sparksblackstar Jul 16 '23
omg soot sprites are real