I have never seen this spider till I moved to Maine. I don’t want to continue killing them if they are good ones.
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Help identify this spider
Portland ,
Hi, this is a cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides, AKA daddy long leg spider. They are cosmopolitan, the most common house spider globally.
Totally harmless to humans and pets and certainly worth having around.
I have 3 about the house now, If it is out of the way, I would just leave it undisturbed.
https://bugguide.net/node/view/9610
I totally agree. I have lots of them in my house in New Hampshire. A new generation just started their lives. Most stay in one spot, such as ceiling corners and under cabinets. They are very good for eating fruit flies that emerge from my fruit bowl. They stake out the exterior doors to catch mosquitoes too! When they get thirsty they go to my kitchen sink and drink from water droplets or they drop down to newly watered house plants to get some of the water. If the webs become dusty and unattractive you can remove the webs without… Read more »
Thank you for your quick reply. As I stated in response to the info above, I had no idea these were another form of granddaddy long legs which I played with growing up in Georgia. I wish I had known this nearly three years ago when I first moved here. I will kill no more!!
Thank you for the information. I used to play with “daddy long legs” growing up in Georgia. But I had no idea these were another form of them. The ones I’m familiar with only have a round little body. I will kill no more! Sad that I didn’t identify these earlier!
More often than not, I have herd ‘granddaddy long legs’ refer to the harvestman(opiliones) as they can get much larger than cellar spiders.
Had a harvestman live in my kitchen with a 9 inch legspan.
Yea, I played with all 3 of the daddy long legs which includes the crane flies.
All totally harmless.
You’re welcome! Now you’ve experienced a basic Star Trek lesson of ‘ understand before resorting to violence and destruction .’ That’s my personal basic message to the World. I played with the type of daddy longlegs you did as a kid. I was lucky they were safe, I was a “free range” kid. Whatever that doesn’t kill you is a toy. The kind you remember, harvestmen, as Bugman said, are arachnids, but they aren’t spiders. Family Opiliones has all of its organs in one exoskeleton segment. Spiders have two segments connected by a tube. Insects have three segments. That’s the… Read more »