are daddy long legs poisonous?

Answer 1

No one has done a study on the venom of the daddy long legs spider so little is known about their level of toxicity.

There are zero reported fatalities and zero reported hospitalizations, in the entire world, due to a daddy long legs bite. Therefore no cause to study its venom.

The brown recluse and funnel web are just two much more venomous spiders both with numerous fatalities and hundreds of hospitalizations around the world.

I had no idea the simple daddy long legs was such a hot topic. And to think, people are calling other people names and degrading them over something that just hasn't been scientifically proven, yet. Oh the love of wives tales and folk lore on YAHOO! Answers, heh.

Answer 2

no, it's a myth. It's been around for while, but it's wrong.

There are three different types of insect/arachnids that are called daddy long legs. Daddy-long-leg spider and the daddy-long-leg Opiliones are two seperate types of spiders.

Daddy-longlegs (Opiliones) - these arachnids make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter although are opportunist predators if they can get away with it. They do not have venom glands, fangs or any other mechanism for chemically subduing their food. Therefore, they do not have poison and, by the powers of logic, cannot be poisonous from venom. Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested. So, for these daddy-long-legs, the tale is clearly false.

Daddy-longlegs spiders (Pholcidae) - Here, the myth is incorrect at least in making claims that have no basis in known facts. There is no reference to any pholcid spider biting a human and causing any detrimental reaction. If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done. Furthermore, there are no toxicological studies testing the lethality of pholcid venom on any mammalian system (this is usually done with mice). Therefore, no information is available on the likely toxic effects of their venom in humans, so the part of the myth about their being especially poisonous is just that: a myth. There is no scientific basis for the supposition that they are deadly poisonous and there is no reason to assume that it is true.

What about their fangs being too short to penetrate human skin? Pholcids do indeed have short fangs, which in arachnological terms is called "uncate" because they have a secondary tooth which meets the fang like the way the two grabbing parts of a pair of tongs come together. Brown recluse spiders similarly have uncate fang structure and they obviously are able to bite humans. There may be a difference in the musculature that houses the fang such that recluses have stronger muscles for penetration because they are hunting spiders needing to subdue prey whereas pholcid spiders are able to wrap their prey and don't need as strong a musculature. So, again, the myth states as fact something about which there is no scientific basis.

Answer 3

Yes. Mythbusters did a segment on this. They found that the daddy long legs is poisonous and can bite humans, but it is a fairly weak venom and only causes a minor irritation.

Answer 4

no they are not poisonous , they have other ways of scaring off their prey.l Read below"
Pholcids are web-weaving spiders and are distributed worldwide. They hang inverted in messy, irregular, tangled webs. These webs are constructed in dark and damp recesses, in caves, under rocks and loose bark, abandoned mammal burrows and undisturbed areas in buildings and cellars, hence the common name "cellar spiders".

The web has no adhesive properties but the irregular structure traps insects, making escape difficult. The spider quickly envelops its prey with silk and then inflicts the fatal bite. The prey may be eaten immediately or stored for later. When removed from their webs, pholcids are rather clumsy, and walk with an unsteady, bobbing action.

When the spider is threatened by a touch to the web or when too large a prey becomes entangled, the spider vibrates rapidly in a gyrating motion in its web and becomes blurred, almost invisible, and for this reason pholcids have sometimes been called "vibrating spiders". Doing so might make it difficult for a predator to see exactly where the spider is, or may increase the chances of capturing insects that have just brushed their web and are still hovering nearby [1]. If the spider continues to be harassed it will retreat into a corner or drop from its web.

Answer 5

Daddy Long Legs are the most poisonous spider. However their little mouth is too small to bite humans or animals only other insects.

Answer 6

Daddy Long Legs are supposed to be very poisonous spiders. Even though they are poisonous I have heard that their mouths are too small and their teeth too weak to bite a human.

Answer 7

yes one of the most poisonous in the world but they have tiny mouths and the cant bite a human so no worries

Answer 8

Daddy Longlegs ARE poisonous! Try catching one and pulling it across your hand by the feet, gently of course, let it rest on you fingernail. It will try to bite and you can see the poison. I've done it.

Answer 9

People use the name "daddy long legs" in reference to a variety of spiders. So you would need to post a pic of the spider you are asking about.

Answer 10

yes they are poisonous but the poison is not dangerous to humans
they also have fangs, its a very short fang structure called an uncate

and also they are true spiders and