Daddy Long Legs most venomous spider

natas · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 04:59 PM

Growing up as a kid I always heard from people that the Daddy Long Legs were the most venomous spiders in the world, but that the fangs were so small that they couldn't bite you.

Anyone else hear this cute story people tell kids growing up?

wreckwriter · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:00 PM

Never heard that but they sure are the creepiest

MTB Mamba · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:00 PM

ALL the time, I was told..."They are the most venemous spiders but their mouths are too small to bite you."

hisba · #4 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:12 PM

I mentioned I head that saying in a spider thread here and was quick debunked! lol
Please help my with my fear.
http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

wreckwriter · #5 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:16 PM

The "opilionids" are the kind I've seen. Not true spider I guess. Interesting!

toker · #6 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:30 PM

Deadly? heck no, but I was always told that if you kill one it will rain.

blkcrochunter · #7 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:31 PM

I have heard of it also. I also heard they eat other spiders.

-=krissi=- · #8 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:56 PM

i used to be ridiculously scared of them when i was a wee one because i had heard that from many people haha

eddie · #9 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 05:59 PM

MythBusters did an episode that debunked the myths on daddy longlegs..
Both myths, one about toxicity and one about biting.

They CAN bite.. just ask Jamie as his arm was covered with them.
Jamie is also still alive and had zero negative effects from multiple bites.

Karnis · #10 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 05:05 AM

I heard it many times in my youth and it never scared me. But then again, The only thing that did scare me were needles and heights and I am all but cured of thoes two

synnottpaul · #11 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 11:51 AM

Yeah I too heard this as a child, it didn’t bother.
My girlfriends little brother likes to pull their legs off,
So I tried to scare him with the story, hoping that he would
Leave the poor things alone. Guess what? It didn’t work.

synnottpaul · #12 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toker

Deadly? heck no, but I was always told that if you kill one it will rain.

We were also told this as kids, but it rains so often here, that we assumed people were taking truck loads of them to a slaughter house!

savannah_babe · #13 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 02:46 PM

to this day i still hear people arguing that they are deadly, but just cant break the skin. never heard of killing one and then it raining though~thats interesting..

0bites · #14 (**permalink**) 08-20-2005, 12:41 AM

They are also known as the Hunter Spider and yes, they have the most potent toxin of all arachnids. It's true.

SSReptiles · #15 (**permalink**) 08-25-2005, 09:25 PM

Wait, when you step on an ant is when it rains......

TekWarren · #16 (**permalink**) 08-26-2005, 02:10 AM

i was told...growing up on a farm that if you picked on up by one of its legs...it would raise one leg and point you to where the lost cows where! oddly one leg always raised up...but alas we had no cows.

Jesustheherper · #17 (**permalink**) 08-26-2005, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by natas

Growing up as a kid I always heard from people that the Daddy Long Legs were the most venomous spiders in the world, but that the fangs were so small that they couldn't bite you.

Anyone else hear this cute story people tell kids growing up?

Urban Legend!!!!

JuliusSqueezer · #18 (**permalink**) 08-26-2005, 03:00 AM

No scientific data backs up the myth or theory or whatever it is. They do have a venom. All true spiders do. Unless someone were to milk a bunch of them and then test it on live humans though, toxicity remains theory/conjecture. The biggest misconception though comes from confusion of what a daddy longlegs of folk lore even is. Those things you see on your window screen with the football shaped body aren't even spiders. They have no fangs at all, short or otherwise nor do they have any venom and they do not make webs although we do find them quite often tangled in webs. Their only defense is a strong pungent musk. Before they took over being called "daddy longlegs" they were most commonly called harvestmen. They feed on plant matter (also not a spider thing to do). Daddy longleg spiders (aka celler Spiders) live in dark warm places. Make webs, feed mostly on other spiders, have a fang structure very similar to the brown recluse muck lack the muscle structure to provide penetration into mammalian flesh. Recluses likely evolved stronger chompers because they hunt in the open and don't make webs. True daddy longlegs spin webs and eat soft spiders so they don't need the more powerful bite.

To learn more, Do a search on "Pholcidae". Those are the real deal spiders.

Then do one on "Opiliones" aka harvestmen aka the smelly football looking things with long legs stuck in every cobweb on your porch and are often found clustered together in the corners of your windows on the screens. They ar arachnids btw but they lack the segmented body, fangs, venom, and ability to spin silk that decides if a bug is a true spider.

Ghroller · #19 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 09:13 PM

As Eddie said there was a MythBusters episode that busted the Myth. They actually went into a lab where someone milked a daddy longlegs and compared it to other spider venoms (black widow was the main one i think). It was found to be fairly mild in comparison.

Then jamie got bit a bunch of times by sticking his arm in a tube filled with them and trying to get them to bite. Was funny as #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& to watch because he's scared of spiders hehe

cornyballpython · #20 (**permalink**) 10-06-2005, 02:26 AM

heard it, its not even a spider at all cus spiders have 2 parts of there body..... i did a report on them for school

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