Daddy long legs can't even bite you, and they aren't really a spider at all.
To know them is to love them. http://www.arachnology.org/ara...

Wow! A forum just for discussing daddy long legs! Interesting!

Very interesting link Lynn.

Yay daddy long legs!!! Somehow my mother knew they did not bite, and taught her kids that they also ate aphids and other unwanted insects and spiders (true) many decades ago ... so I've always been a big fan and have to wrench the broom away from hubby when he lumps them in with the other less pleasing spiders. Go daddys!

I may be mistaken, but from what I have heard about Daddy Long Legs, they are one of, if not the most poisonous insect in the world---their mouth is just too small (too inject humans). I guess not so according to that link lol

Is this a Daddy Long Legs?

Definitely looks like one, but I rely on what I've seen around here, and it does appear as one. Very long legs and a tiny body, not sure if there is another spider that can be mistaken for them.

And welcome to ATP, June

Thanks, Pat! I've lived on this side of the pond for many years (I grew up in England), but I still don't know the local names of all the critters. What my mother used to call a "Daddy Long Legs" had wings and looked like a giant mosquito!

Welcome to ATP, June! I think that is the problem with common names. I, too, was raised to call the "giant mosquito" things Daddy Long Legs and I was born in California (hmmm... maybe that is the issue??? ). It wasn't until fairly recent that I learned that other people call those large spider-like guys by the same name. So, to me, a Daddy Long Legs is a harmless, flying critter that terrifies young children (at least they always frightened my kids until we explained that they were harmless - then, they were just "icky").

Again, to ATP!

Another name applied to the Daddy Long Legs is: Harvestman. I'm not sure where the Harvestman name comes from. Some names don't make any sense to me. Those little bugs that look like tiny armadillos and roll up into a ball when touched - known as wood-lice, sow-bugs, and pill-bugs - my mother used to call "cheesy-pigs". But I digress! I looked up the Daddy Long Legs in an Ontario Bug Guidebook, and it says they're not venomous, and nobody knows how the story that they are venomous got started.

Ahhh, the old "roly-poly" - but I have not heard the term "cheesy-pigs". I will definitely have to remember that!

I have to wonder if the venomous rumor began just due to their looks as they do look rather intimidating. I can say, though, this is the reason I have taken to using proper/Latin terms for plants when I can - I guess I'll have to do the same for insects when possible. Common names vary so much by region and by age group - a Daddy Long Legs in So California definitely is not the same as a Daddy Long Legs in the Great North.

Once again, to ATP - I am so happy you have joined us!

Yep, I remember them as roly-poly's too, lol

I'm not sure about the flying ones, but as stated in an earlier post, I've always heard that the Daddy Long Legs is one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, but their mouth is too small to affect humans. Only heard this stuff, never researched it. All I know is that my brother and I were quite mean to them when we were little, lol...but now I welcome them in my garden if they kill and eat insects that mess with my plants!

We called the flying ones Mosquito Hawk, or Mosquito Lion. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/W...

To me, they are potato bugs and crane flies. Daddy Long Legs are the long legged (duh) spiderish bugs that really aren't spiders, harmless.

Bonehead said:To me, they are potato bugs and crane flies .

This must be a regional thing but here, potato bugs (aka earth babies) are Jerusalem Crickets although it is worth noting that the Jerusalem Cricket is neither from Jerusalem nor is it a cricket!