Those damn daddy long leg spiders are back!

[Lex]

You mean they can start calling me on the phone?

I think they prefer email.

[Raineyrocks]

Holy Shit!  I was just sitting here at my desk, minding my own friggin' business and my daughter comes into the room and says, "Mom, don't move!"    So I asked why and all she said, "Daddy long leg!"  So I looked down and the damn spider was coming toward my legs, I screamed and threw my chair across the room so I could quickly get the heck out of there and the spider started coming toward me quicker!   Yes, that's right the spider was aggresively trying to get to me!  Why?  Is this normal? 

[Lloyd Danforth]

Never let them 'see' you're afraid!

[Raineyrocks]

Never let them 'see' you're afraid!

Ha, ha!   I can't help it the fear comes on so suddenly!  Do you really think that's why it was so aggressive?  That litte bastard spider now I'm getting angry after all I am bigger than the darn things that are intimidating me.   I hope I never have to live in the wilderness!

[Raineyrocks]

I don't know if any of you remember when I posted about them being all over the doors and in the house last year but here I go again!  So far Rick and Jon have carried out over 11 of them in 2 weeks!

I was just going pee and I saw one on the wall!  I always check the toilet, seat, and lid before I sit down because of them and plus those stories I've read of snakes in people's toilets.   

I'm going to freak out if one of them puts a long leg on me to climb on me, I'm so scared right now!

I can't believe this, they are back already!  I thought they came out in August/September!  I am so freaked out right now and there is a reason I quoted this post, wait until you read why!

So I wake up and I'm not expecting them to be out so I didn't check the toilet seat.  I also kind of got over the snake thing so I just sat on the toilet without a care in the world except for the fact that I got up real late and felt like a loser.    Well, I got up from the toilet seat and turned around to flush the toilet and at a quick glance I saw this long black thing that looked like a mutated pubic hair.  I said to myself, this can't be mine, it's long and the wrong color so I took a second look.   Yup, attached to this long black thing are two other black things and a head, a damn flattened daddy long leg!

He/she must have been under the rim and it must have looked like a big tornado cloud about to come down on it so I guess it tried to make it's way out of the toilet, well too late the funnel cloud called my fat ass sat on it without even knowing.  I'm am so extra, extra paranoid right now, I mean where the hell am I going to be safe?

Now for the questions:

1.  Is it normal for them to hang out in toilets?
2.  Are they suppose to be out this early?
3.  How do I exterminate them completely so I don't have to worry about any crawling out of toilets, dropping down on head from door frames, ect. ?

[dalebert]

Apologize for necro-ing, but this issue was resurrected for me recently.  I heard again about the myth that daddy longlegs are extremely poisonous.  Actually the correct word is venemous.  "Poisonous" technically means touching can cause a reaction like poisonous tree frogs, but she used that word.

When I told her about the Mythbusters episode, she held firm and said they can bite you but the venom can't penetrate your skin deeply enough which is the only reason you don't die instantly!  I promised her I would look it up and I did.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

So there is NO evidence EVER to support this made-up myth.  No one's ever suffered a bite with any consequences beyond a very tiny almost unnoticeable bump and no one's ever extracted their venom and injected it into so much as a mouse, much less a person, to see what might happen.  You can just as easily say that a lady bug is venomous and it would make as much sense as this myth.  In fact, a brown recluse has fangs just like a daddy longlegs spider and CAN inflict its venom upon people with very unpleasant consequences, so that actually makes this totally arbitrary myth not only completely without evidence but extremely unlikely.

That said, I'm very tempted to make some kind of movie where this myth is fictionally true and exploited for dramatic possibilities.   

[David]

They are not even poisonous!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones#Misconception

btw, I think they are cute, them and lady bugs are the only insects I have intentionally picked up with my hands.  I think bees are cute too, but I wouldn't intentionally try to pick one up, if they sting me they will die.  Twice, I have had bees land on my arm and set there for a minute, then fly off.  One of those times I slowly brought my arm close to my face and was able to watch it clean itself in great detail.  That was a neat experience.