They're the Good Guys
Daddy long legs eat spiders, earthworms, and other insects. They'll also scavenge for dead insects, decaying plant material and insect eggs if live prey isn't available. Because they like to eat garden pests like aphids, it's beneficial to have them in your garden.
Opilionids do not possess venom glands, making them harmless to humans. Their defense mechanism is to curl up and play dead to fool predators. Also, they also have been known to secrete an unpleasant scent to ward off predators. Daddy longlegs are more scared of you than you are of them!
These arachnids are not known to bite humans and are not considered dangerous to either the health or structure of your home. Because harvestmen are considered beneficial pests, it's ok to leave them be if you find them lurking around your house.
Food sources: Daddy long legs feed on decaying plant matter and small invertebrates, so if you have a lot of dead leaves or other organic matter around your home, this can attract them. They may also be attracted to areas with a lot of insects, as these are a food source for many species.
They Can't See Very Well
Daddy longlegs have simple eyes mounted on eye turrets attached to their bodies. These eyes act as light sensors and do not appear to provide more than blurry images. Research shows that cave harvestmen are most receptive to the light emitted by the glowworms that make up their diet.
A gentle pinch is enough to trigger an internal system that discharges the leg. It's a way to stay alive in the wild if something is trying to devour the bug's limb. Whether it hurts is up for debate, but most scientists think not, given the automatic nature of the defense mechanism.
This means they can often be found in garden lawns, though they prefer more sodden grassland. The average lifespan for a daddy longlegs is between 10 and 15 days.
Why are there so many Daddy Long Legs in our house? They are attracted to the light and take shelter when the evening gets darker. They also like damp, moist spaces.
The average life span of an adult daddy long legs can vary from 223-774 days and in that time the female may produce from two to eight egg sacs containing a mix of fertilised and unfertilised eggs.
Like most spiders, the daddy long legs spider is not known to pose any threat to humans, whether in terms of spider bites or venom. On the other hand, the harvestmen are poisonous, but they too do not pose any threat to humans.
They are often very shy and mimic their surroundings as they patiently sit and wait for prey. This may also enable them to evade predators such as birds. Legs are the daddy longlegs' most important body part.
The Daddy-long-legs Spider feeds on insects and other spiders.
Daddy Long Legs
But like common household spiders, you should leave these guys alone if you spot them in your house. They aren't poisonous to humans and basically couldn't even really bite us (their mouths are too small). They prefer eating fruit and other insects, which they'll happily catch and rid your home of.
Daddy longlegs also have scent glands, located near the front of the body. In many species, the glands secrete a foul-smelling fluid through openings known as ozopores.
Some species abseil
Some spiders find the creases in your blanket a very appealing place to snuggle up. If your bed is against a wall, spiders such as Steatoda grossa (false widow) or Pholcus phalangioides (the daddy-long-legs spider) are likely to build a web down the side.
Yet despite their apparent harmlessness, Daddy-long-legs have little trouble catching, wrapping and killing much larger Huntsman spiders. They have even been known to catch Redback spiders and Funnel-web spiders, both of which are far larger and more toxic than the Daddy-long-legs. So, what's their secret?
Craneflies are usually nocturnal and are often attracted to lights. Unfortunately their legs are only weakly attached to their bodies and often break off.
Dead insects, rotting fruit, mushrooms, and animal drop- pings—these are just a few of the things that most daddy longlegs eat. Some catch small insects and other prey. Get a leg up on this amazing creature.
To deflect attacks and enhance escape, long-legged species – commonly known as daddy long-legs – from the Eupnoi suborder, use two mechanisms. One is bobbing, for which these particular individuals bounce their bodies.
To a spider, losing a leg isn't a very big deal. Heck, some even voluntarily castrate themselves. Overall, there's a slight lag in development time. Being short a leg or two (or six) is going to slow you down a bit, which makes prey harder to catch.
Leg loss is a common phenomenon in spiders, and according to the species 5% to 40% of the adults can present at least one missing leg. There is no possibility of regeneration after adult moult and the animal must manage with its missing appendages until its death.
Huge daddy longlegs: Spider cousin found in Laos with 13-inch leg span.
Crane flies
They go by many names, including daddy long legs, mosquito eaters, and mosquito hawks. But they are not mosquitoes, and they do not eat mosquitoes.