• LongLive
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1723 hours ago

    Are they venomous or otherwise dangerous to humans?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      33 hours ago

      One climbed onto my foot while I was brushing my teeth once and I launched myself into the wall behind me pretty hard which hurt. Other than that I don’t think so.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1418 hours ago

      Nope. Also, if you coax a momma into your hand, you can throw it at your enemies for a spectacular spider-bomb.

        • hopesdead
          link
          fedilink
          English
          812 hours ago

          Spider-Bomb, Spider-Bomb

          Does what ever a… AH! GET THAT THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      fedilink
      English
      5023 hours ago

      To add to what nougat said, because that’s very much the appropriate answer…

      All spiders are in fact venomous- it’s part of how they feed. Many species, the venom is not harmful to humans, or only very weakly so. (Wolf spiders qualify as “very weakly so”)

      That said, you try keeping a reasonable head when you suddenly come eyeball-to-eyeball with a wolf spiders qualify and her kids.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        617 hours ago

        All spiders are in fact venomous

        Are there any exceptions to this? And what about non spiders like daddy long legs?

        • FuglyDuck
          link
          fedilink
          English
          9
          edit-2
          15 hours ago

          So, true spiders digest their food externally by injecting the venom. They then slurp it up. So the answer to that is “Yes”. Some true spiders may also eat the more solid bits, but that’s in addition to. but again, many- most- spiders are essentially harmless to humans.

          harvestmen (daddy long legs) are not venomous and lack the mouth-parts necessary for injection, but they’re not true spiders.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            1
            edit-2
            1 hour ago

            So, true spiders digest their food externally by injecting the venom.

            That is not quite correct. They inject the venom to kill the prey, after that they will inject digestive fluids which will liquify and pre-digest the insides before the spider slurps it up again. But the venom is not essential to the disgestive process.

            harvestmen (daddy long legs) are not venomous and lack the mouth-parts necessary for injection, but they’re not true spiders.

            Harvestmen can bite (though many are too small to penetrate skin, it’s very rare), so it’s not like they lack the mouth-parts per se, they just don’t have any venom glands that are feeding into the mouth-parts.

            Also Opiliones are not just not true spiders, they are not spiders at all (“true spiders” are one of the 3 infraorders of the spider order). Opiliones are their own order.

            However “daddy long legs” could also refer to an actual spider (and a true spider at that), Pholcidae. It’s quite the ambigious name (there is even an insect, the crane fly that is also going by that name in some places).

            • FuglyDuck
              link
              fedilink
              English
              815 hours ago

              Dammit I need to be more careful when posting on mobile. Meant to say not, lol. Thanks for the correction

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1220 hours ago

      When they get spooked they launch their kids everywhere to overwhelm potential predators. Imagine if you squashed a spider and suddenly you were covered in hundreds of tiny spiders?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1423 hours ago

      No, they are spider bros. They kill brown recluses, black widows, and other things that are dangerous. Typically do not mess with humans unless seriously provoked.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        4
        edit-2
        12 hours ago

        I get the sentiment, but black widows (and Theridiidae in general) are quite proficient in taking out wolf spiders and other prowling spiders, not the other way around.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          22 hours ago

          I’m going to need to see some videos before I can determine who is winning this debate. With heavy metal background music, though I would also accept a David Attenborough narration. With and without the wolf spider swarm.

          sigh For completion sake, should probably also check out some videos of each of those spiders vs other things like scorpions, mice, mongeese, non-mon geese, snakes, etc.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            3
            edit-2
            2 hours ago

            I wouldn’t recommend those types of videos. These are just the arthropod version of cock- or dog fighting and basically animal abuse. They also don’t actually teach you much, since the scenarios don’t reflect their actual behaviour in nature.

            For example, almost every active hunting spider will kill a black widow if you put them in an enclosed space together. But in the real world the widows would be in her web where something like a wolfspider would get trapped long before getting close to the widow spider.