This spider has taken residence in a corner of one of the rooms, I’m not bothered by them but the web is getting a bit too big… can I just remove part of it to keep the size in check without causing harm to the spider?
Daddy long legs aren’t spiders.
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If it looks like a spider, and acts like a spider, and freaks me out like a spider, it’s close enough
In the UK what we call a daddy longlegs has wings and flies (a crane fly I think). Obviously a very widely used name for things with a small body and a bunch of long legs haha
That doesn’t look like my friend at all lol
This one here looks very much similar to my friend (thin and long body): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
No idea why there’s multiple animals called all the same way though
Cellar spiders/ daddy long legs have become catch-all terms for any spider or pseudo spider with tiny body and long legs. Anyway, webs get disturbed all the time in nature. The spider just rebuilds. As long as you don’s bump in to them, they will just repair the web. If the web needs repair too often, then the spider will move elsewhere.
I see, kinda lazy nomenclature, but I guess with all the different kinds of spiders, at some point you run out of names ahah thanks for the info! I hope they stay because they’ve been eating good, and I appreciate the reduced amount of insects
Not true. Daddy long legs is a colloquial term that refers to several different species, including spiders.
over here (NZ) what we call daddy long legs are, I believe, known as cellar spiders in other places.
Unlike spiders, Daddy Longlegs don’t spin webs because they do not produce silk. Daddy Long Legs actually have only two eyes unlike spiders who have eight. Another difference is that Daddy Longlegs are not venomous. They do not have fangs or venom glands. - from Google.
Wait, I now have to research how they build their webs then, if not by spinning. Thanks for the trivia!
They prefer back and forth motion, shaking if you will, over a circular motion like stirring. Hence they don’t spin webs. They prefer them shaken.
No, the daddy long legs you’re talking about is a spider and of course it spins its webs. @PolyLlamaRous was talking about something completely different, the harvestman.
From their likely source:
Other Daddy Longlegs
Some of the confusion over whether the daddy longlegs is a spider comes from the fact that there are two are small creatures with that name, and one actually is a spider.
The daddy longlegs spider is the cellar spider. It is pale gray or tan and has banding or chevron markings. Crane flies, which resemble large mosquitoes, are sometimes called daddy longlegs as well.
There are many arachnids that shares the common name. Opiliones, or harvestmen, is what you are referring to. But a family of spider, phoclcidae or cellar spiders, spin webs and does whatever a spider does.
Yep the common name is regional. “Daddy longlegs” can also sometimes refer to crane flies, aka mosquito hawks/mosquito eaters
You’re a true spider bro
Spider has kept insect populations in check and I’m grateful. Plus, they’re cute
I’m in the hospital and on many medications and I thought you were asking if you could remove part of the spider without harming the spider.
Hope you get well soon!
Might also have been a poorly phrased question on my part, since English is not my first language!
I don’t think it’s an issue to remove part of the web. I’ve got spiders outside that tend to keep blocking the entryway and I have to destroy parts that get in the way of the path. They’re usually back within a day or so.
For a more solid answer, the link below describes moving spiders entirely by relocating part of the web with the spider. I think trimming the web is going to be less stressful than that.
https://askentomologists.com/2015/10/11/how-do-i-relocate-insects-and-spiders/
