Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/daddy-long-leg-spider-swarm/

We tend to think that life is good and we don’t have too much to worry about when we are in our home. That may be the case, but what if you were asked to take care of someone else’s home or perhaps a property that has not been cared for in a while?

You may soon discover that a strange ball of fur in some forgotten corner is actually a swarm of daddy long legs.

The spiders that have this type of behavior are known as Opiliones, sometimes referred to as harvestmen or daddy long legs.

They are different from the common spiders you would find in a basement, and don’t worry, they aren’t going to kill you with venom.

Both of the daddy long leg varieties belong to the Arachnida class, but harvestmen are not within the Araneae order.

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Although they may not be in a class that has spiders, it doesn’t mean that they are less creepy when we come across them in some forgotten corner of the shed out back. They tend to swarm in a larger mass, forming a large fuzzy ball that can move as a singular unit. Harvestmen may even pulse when they feel threatened as a type of defense. If you happen to go up to a wall that is furry looking, it may just start pulsing at you!

There was a display at glacier national Park a number of years ago and the Park service re-shared the pictures for all of us this Halloween. It shows a swarm of Opiliones that appears to be a wall covered with fuzz. As it turns out, it was the hundreds, if not thousands of long legs from the spiders. Along with being creepy looking, they also tend to smell. Just another reason to be freaked out by them!

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog