Harvestmen/daddy longlegs

[ellroy]

Hi,

I know we had the whole daddy-longlegs debate with craneflies.....has anyone fed harvestmen (the spiderlike daddy long legs) to mantids? There are tons of them in my front garden and would be a ready food source if they are ok.

Thanks

Alan

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

i have heard they're poisonous but they cant inject poison.

 

[Geckospot]

Yeah. Thats what I heard. They're poisionous but their fangs are too small to bite and inject venom.

www.Geckospot.com

 

[ellroy]

Too small to bite through human skin or too small to bite through anything?? Seems bite strange to evolve venom without a means of using it?!

 

[Geckospot]

They are too small to bite through human skin and probably wont be able to bite a larger animal. Im sure they can bite/invenomate small fruitflies and other small insect prey.

www.Geckospot.com

 

[Lee2k4]

I wouldn't risk it tbh

 

[Jwonni]

funny i'm sure my little bro said daddy klonglegs (the flyers) were on of the most poisounous things around but could not use the poison

 

[PseudoDave]

The flyers (craneflys) are not poisonous in any way, they are insects as well, nothing to do with the spider version, the spiders are venomous just like any spider (apart from only two species in the world), it's not the most deadly poison in the spider kingdom like some people say, and they CAN bite Their venom is very weak to humans, but I wouldnt risk feeding one to the mantis, it's a spider the same as any and it's venom will work better on an insect than a human. As a light-hearted way to research the 'daddy long legs venom' theory, watch mythbusters or there was something on the animal planet website once i'm sure.

So any way, like i say, i wouldnt risk it.

Dave

 

[Jwonni]

harvestmen are not spiders !!!

 

[ellroy]

Thankyou for the advice guys.....I'll let the plague hang out in my garden for a bit longer....

 

[Jwonni]

Are harvestmen spiders?Harvestmen are arachnids (8-legged arthropods) but NOT spiders. Spiders are also arachnids. Spiders have two body parts (fused head-thorax and abdomen), two fangs, and produce silk. Harvestmen do not produce silk (like spiders), have no fangs, and have one body part, not two as in spiders, nor three as in insects. Spiders have waist, Harvestmen do not.

 

[Jwonni]

the first of my 2 messages looks confrontational its not I was just mentioning what I found I'm sure you have much more knowledge than me but I also thought I remembered someone saying they were not in the cranfly thread as well when we got on the subject of harvestmen

 

[nickyp0]

there seems to be some confussion regarding daddy longlegs or havestmen they are also called basement monsters. they did a show on the discovery chanel regarding these spiders and they have said that the vemon strangth it is unknown as they can't test it. the so called spiders that we see in our gardens under dead leaf's and rotting matter are not spiders they are an insect. basement mosters are spiders that make there home in our basement. they have been known to kill a bee that is 6 times the size of it. so as to feed an mantis one of these i would not even think about it.

 

[PseudoDave]

The venom has been tested, and there is nothing to worry about for humans, it had zero effect on any lab mammals when it was tested. But as nickyp0 said, it may well be good enough to take down a mantis

 

[Macano]

I've fed them to my mantids with no problems, but then again I feed them wasps, black widows, basically whatever I can find, and I'm yet to have a tragedy because of it.

 

[ibanez_freak]

well, never tried wasps or bees but I fed these to mine when I ran out of crickets once and it ate it fine. And now it's an adult. But maybe different species have different immunities of some sort which we don't know of?

Cheers, Cameron.

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

a really good photo of one :

http://mk23.image.pbase.com/v3/05/6105/1/4....IMG_83245s.jpg

 

[ibanez_freak]

yikes! Looks different. The ones that I'm talkiing about are a grey like colour.

Cheers, Cameron.

 

[PseudoDave]

Yeah im thinking of the thinner, 'grey' species also. Had a pic somewhere of a female with eggsac, cant find it anyhoo...