Daddy Long Legs Did You Know its most poisonous

[iGuest 3]

Daddy long leg

Daddy Long Legs

 

Replying to hbk2006 That bug is actually a Mosquito eater, they do eat "they eat mosquitos, it is not a daddy long leg, but it does have long legs, and the do live for for more than one day. Let them live though because they eat the mosquito's. The daddy long leg is the most common house spider.

 

-reply by Annoymos

[joeblogg 0]

i remember hearing that the daddy long legs was the most poisoness spider but then a few years later i heard that they actually arent. Whats the truth?

[daftpunk 0]

this picture explains it all

 

good luck

[Evolke 0]

Could you explain what you mean with "daddy long legs"...

 

For those that do not know a Daddy Long Legs is a Spider.

 

Though its not on that actually looks scary, or much like a spider at that. I did actually know it was the most poisonous spider I love them. They are so delicate. I love to pick them up and leg them crawl across my arm

[annabuzh 0]

this is soooo funny. i learnt new word! before i knew only about the book "Daddy-long-legs" by Jean Webster)) When i was a student at the University in Russia this book was the first English book i've ever read! We (students) used to make fun calling this book Daddy-long-eggs (in russian eggs and testicle sound the same). This is the story about a girl, an orphan which had a misterious guardian. Now i know that this is the name of the insect. Interesting!

[hertonsils 0]

I guess i should say,

Thanks for sharing?

 

Could you explain what you mean with "daddy long legs" because i bet some people might actually think its a daddy with legs of 2 metres....

LOL. I seriously doubt it... but you never know I guess.

 

Anyway yeah I did know that kind of strange huh.

[networker 0]

I read somewhere that in his sleep the average person will eatsomething like twenty spiders in his life time.Strange but true apparantly. Although I doubt if Tarantulas are included with this.It would take a lot ofchomping to eat one of those though it would probably be very nutriscious.

[xenador 0]

sry I haven't read through the entire thread yet...but it seems that the common name is the thing to blame in this situation for the misunderstandings. There are actually two types of things, daddy long legs and daddy long legs spiders...the difference? many. But first similarities...both have wiry legs and are part of the Arachnida class....they both resemble each other in build but that's about it. to start off daddy long legs(this is considered the true daddy long legs) belong to the Opiliones order and are actually more closely related to ticks and mites. they have two other common names besides daddy long legs: harvestmen and 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. They are unable to spin silk so if they are located on a web it is because they are someone else's dinner platter. They generally live under logs and rocks although some have been found in congregations in caves...I have seen them actually like this...kinda freaky they start to vibrate if they get scared and in a mass that size they make the walls of the cave appear to move. kinda a unique experience ya'll should try it sometime. Anyways back to the lesson...they make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter they generally don't go after anything living as they do not have fangs or venom. Although some secrete toxic substances from their bodies when they feel threatened. So they pose threats to small animals attempting to eat them.on the other hand daddy long legs spiders are actually a part of the family Pholcidae. Another common name for them is cellar spiders due to the fact that they often frequent cellars of people. they have 2 body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have 8 eyes clumped together in the front of the body, the abdomen shows no evidence of segmentation,all eight legs attach to the cephalothorax. These spiders do spin webs and this is the easiest way to distinguish them. This would be the more likely candidate for the most poisonous spider in the world, although there have been no formal studies done on animals that I am aware of...if they did in fact do this on myth busters then this was a first. Speculation is that they might not be able to penetrate the human skin...they have what is called uncate fangs, in short this means that there fangs operate like tongs. These fangs resemble brown recluse fangs. The only theory that I was able to find was that there musculature was not strong enough to penetrate the skin because the fangs are about the same size of the infamous brown recluse.So summary, I wouldn't provoke em to test it but aside from mythbusters I have seen no formal study of these species that indicates high toxicity levels. So assume myth is plausible but not probable, and for the true daddy long legs...no way in the world.

Edited December 14, 2008 by xenador (see edit history)

[Forte 0]

That may be the longest post I've ever read. Many years ago, I was told by one of my science teachers that Daddy Longlegs is indeed the most poisonous spider in the world, which freaked me out since they're the only spiders I ever thought were safe enough to play with. (She did later say that their fangs are too weak to break the thick human skin, but for things with skin less durable than ours, they could be a threat.)Personally, I don't think that most poisonous "spider" is really even applicable in this case, since the basic classification of a creature called "spider" gives it three body segments, not two. The other features match well enough to almost be an exception, but I doubt professional biologists would allow that.

[sakmac 0]

I was about to tell my sisters about this, but then I remembered how scared how they are already of daddy long legs, I thought that giving them this fact would probably make them tip over the edge lol. But I don't think that daddy long legs are the most poisonous because I have always thought that it was infact the black widow, and it seems that most people on these forums have agreed with me.

[triplebtalk 0]

Haha, all I know about Daddy Long-Leg spiders are very good at getting rid of other pests. In my house, I encourage them to live because they kill cockroaches, venomous spiders, termites and a lot of other insects. Also to the person who says that her friend was now mentally retarded because of a bite, very unlikely as the spider venom would not effect your brain, especially if humans are immune to them. If anything the venom might do something to your heart rather than your brain, so I suggest that you stop making stuff up and you might wanna get informed.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

sry I haven't read through the entire thread yet...but it seems that the common name is the thing to blame in this situation for the misunderstandings. There are actually two types of things, daddy long legs and daddy long legs spiders...the difference? many. But first similarities...both have wiry legs and are part of the Arachnida class....they both resemble each other in build but that's about it.
to start off daddy long legs(this is considered the true daddy long legs) belong to the Opiliones order and are actually more closely related to ticks and mites. they have two other common names besides daddy long legs: harvestmen and 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. They are unable to spin silk so if they are located on a web it is because they are someone else's dinner platter. They generally live under logs and rocks although some have been found in congregations in caves...I have seen them actually like this...kinda freaky they start to vibrate if they get scared and in a mass that size they make the walls of the cave appear to move. kinda a unique experience ya'll should try it sometime. Anyways back to the lesson...they make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter they generally don't go after anything living as they do not have fangs or venom. Although some secrete toxic substances from their bodies when they feel threatened. So they pose threats to small animals attempting to eat them.

on the other hand daddy long legs spiders are actually a part of the family Pholcidae. Another common name for them is cellar spiders due to the fact that they often frequent cellars of people. they have 2 body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have 8 eyes clumped together in the front of the body, the abdomen shows no evidence of segmentation,all eight legs attach to the cephalothorax. These spiders do spin webs and this is the easiest way to distinguish them. This would be the more likely candidate for the most poisonous spider in the world, although there have been no formal studies done on animals that I am aware of...if they did in fact do this on myth busters then this was a first. Speculation is that they might not be able to penetrate the human skin...they have what is called uncate fangs, in short this means that there fangs operate like tongs. These fangs resemble brown recluse fangs. The only theory that I was able to find was that there musculature was not strong enough to penetrate the skin because the fangs are about the same size of the infamous brown recluse.

So summary, I wouldn't provoke em to test it but aside from mythbusters I have seen no formal study of these species that indicates high toxicity levels. So assume myth is plausible but not probable, and for the true daddy long legs...no way in the world.

Great information in that post. I did not know that there were two different ones. I have always related "daddy long legs" to the spider that has 3 foot long legs and everyone says "Don't worry about them" and picks them up.

I would agree that they are toxic, but only if they can get the venom inside you. If people want to claim that they don't believe it and/or that it flat out isn't true, it is like saying "A loaded gun can not ever harm anyone" just because nobody is there to shoot it. But if it(the gun) had the method to fire, yes, it could be deadly. I relate the same to the spiders because although they are highly venomous, they do not have the method(shooter) to output the venom into you.

[ragav.bpl 0]

Hey guys i am really sorry to interrupt you but i would like to tell you that the creature you are mentioning in this thread is not the poisonest one. Rather Golden Poison Frog is the most poisonous creature on earth. I saw this in Discovery channel.Truthfully, the most poisonous animal to my understanding is the Daddy Longlegs spider. But their jaws aren't strong enough to break through human skin, so they are harmless to us.

Edited January 5, 2009 by ragav.bpl (see edit history)

[ZettaAIR 0]

I was a bit confused when I saw Daddy Long Legs. It made no sense but when I looked at other member's posts. I was that it is a spider. Thank God that it is "harmless (hmmmm, idk)" against humans. I would like to see it battle another spider.

[iGuest 3]

Comments and QuestionsDaddy Long Legs

I see two kinds of daaddy long leg spiders in my San Fran Apartment. One has like a circular body and the other is more elongated and rectangle like. When I moved into this ground level inlaw, it was totally infested with DLL spiders. I woke up many a day to find that I had rolled over one in my sleep and squashed it. Being a lover of all living things, I would scoop them into a dust pan and put them outside. Someday, I would throw out 10 to 15 spiders a day. It was a work of love and finally, I thought I was rid of them. However, they still came in ocassionally. Then, other spiders started to appear. I went to change the battery on my wall clock and saw a spider wedged in between the battery and the holder. I poked him with something and he jumped out onto the table. There was no mistaking the violin on his head and I knew he was a brown recluse. I ran to grab a bottle to put him in but the silly cat jumped on the table and scared him away. Now I have to live with this thing and I'm petrified as I have not seen it again. I also have house spiders and jumping spiders all over and I can't get rid of them fast enough. I did see a house spider get caught in a daddy long leg web today. I didn't know that spiders could get caught in other spiders webs. I was looking at him when I saw this stealthy creature appear from under the side table and glide up the web. It was one of those round bellied daddy long legs and a big one but he was almost invisible. He attacked the spider and bit it and it was like paralyzed. He then carried it in his fangs under the side table. Some peeps are saying the the DLL spider has no venom but I clearly saw it bit and paralyze this other spider. I can't kill a spider ever but should I feel safe with all these spiders I am living with? Is it only a matter of time whenI'll get careless and pay for it? Is there any humane way I can deter them from coming into my apartment? The place is very old and every window and door has huge gaps which are welcoming entrances for my spider friends who seem to love my place. Help please. Thanks.

-question by Khushru Wadia