Daddy Long Legs Myth

The creatures known as daddy long legs are highly misunderstood because of several often-repeated myths about them. The myths surrounding these small, spindly legged arachnids include that they are spiders and that they are poisonous--but neither of these things is true.

  1. Description

    • Daddy long legs, or as they are sometimes known, grand-daddy long legs or harvestmen, have small, pill-like bodies and eight legs. The legs for which they get their common nickname are very long, thin and flexible, although some species have short legs. Daddy long legs have only one pair of eyes, and they use three-jointed mouth organs like a claw to eat.

    Myth 1

    • Daddy long legs are frequently referred to as spiders, but although they are spiderlike, they are not actually spiders. While daddy long legs are in the Arachnid family, they belong to the order called Opiliones and are more closely related to mites than to spiders. Daddy long legs don’t have any silk glands and do not create webs. They also do not liquefy their food with venom as spiders do.

    Eathing Habits

    • Depending on the species, the eating habits of the daddy long legs varies. Most are foragers that come out at night to eat decomposing plant and animal matter using mouth organs to take in the bits of food. Sometimes daddy long legs can be carnivorous, feeding on living invertebrates, and still others eat the juices from plants.

    Myth 2

    • Many people believe that daddy long legs are extremely venomous, and fear or avoid the tiny arachnids for this reason. In fact, daddy long legs are not poisonous and this is only a myth. They do not have venom glands and do not produce venom. Another related myth states that daddy long legs are highly poisonous but their fangs are too short to bite people; however, none of the known daddy long legs species even have fangs, and they are not able to bite people at all. They are not dangerous to people and should not be feared.

    Habitat

    • Daddy long legs can most often be found in moist habitats underneath rocks or fallen logs. They do not spend much time out in the open, which means people do not see them frequently, but they are most abundant in the fall.