A Daddy-longlegs spider lives in my bathroom. It might be a Mommy-longlegs as she’s quite petite. My eyesight isn’t good enough to tell her gender. Even if I could I’m not sure what to look for . . .
I let her live there peacefully since we have a lot in common. She’s discrete, I’ve never seen her entertain overnight visitors and quite tidy as I’ve never found any droppings of left-overs from digested meals. She leads a very monastic existence as do I (on occasion).
A Daddy Short-Legs Spider
I’m not afraid of spiders (except those bigger than my thumb). I try to steer clear of them because when I get bitten by one I have a painful, very painful, allergic response. There is a legend that Daddy-longlegs are deadly venomous spiders which, after careful research, I found not to be true:
“Daddy-longlegs spiders (Pholcidae) – 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. . . . 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.” http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.htm
I hesitate to get too chummy or name her because one day, should she decide to venture down from her post on the window near the ceiling and try to share my counter space, I might have to kill her.
(And with that, I sound like much of the world fighting for and protecting territory. Perhaps it’s not so mysterious why we don’t have world peace?)
CURIOUS to the MAX 
Just a reminder: This will go into the Zine this month, Judith. Thanks again! xo
LikeLike
Jamie,
The Daddy Long-legs in my bathroom packed her web and moved into the bedroom . . . where she better keep her distance OR I shall have to smash her to smithereens . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Most Australians houses have a few hunstman spiders. I let them stay because they catch other bugs and they mostly stay high on the wall or on the ceiling.
LikeLike
Leggy,
Huntsman spiders – sounds like these spiders get around. They are more well-traveled than many people (except you!)
LikeLike
I try to live amicably with spiders, too. There’s one (which I recently destroyed–well, husband destroyed it) that kept spinning webs over my furniture and in my living spaces. I tore them down, but it did no good. So I tore Spider down. Sigh.
LikeLike
Jacqui,
Webs can be more of a problem than the actual spider!
LikeLike
A good observation.
LikeLike
Jamie,
So far you are one of the few who observed the observation! . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! We have to post it on The BeZine one of these times. 🙂 With your permission, of course.
LikeLike
Jamie,
Anytime you want to repost be my guest. I’d better ask the Daddy-LongLegs though since s/he might be publicity shy and I don’t want to be sued.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Judith. If you would send me the link with a note giving your permission to post, that would be helpful. Also a short up-to-date bio. Send to bardogroup@gmail.com … I’m not sure when we’d use it. We’re still mulling over themes for the next several months. In fact everyone’s input to that is welcome. https://intothebardo.wordpress.com/contributing-writers/ Thanks for all … Love to you and Daddy-Long-Legs. 🙂
LikeLike
I admire spiders in the garden (except for black widows, which I don’t admire anywhere at all.) That’s all I’m going to say. You figure out the rest.
LikeLike
Shari,
That’s all you need to say . . .
LikeLike
Monastic? Spiders DO aspire to lay eggs and generate offspring!
LikeLike
Rick,
So far I’ve not seen another spider lurking around her . . . maybe when I’m asleep she’s “fooling around”!!
LikeLike