Harvestmen? Nah...

Daddylong legs are arachnids, but not spiders, they are as tdogmom said, harvestmen. They don't have fangs, or venom, they feed by scrapping algae and other stuff off of things. Just thought I'd explain a little more than just a no.

Here is an interesting article ~

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/nw02/1007harvestmen.htm

I have bunches of these hanging around on my milkweed plants.

~ Judy
www.ButterflyNature.com

They sure will take advantage of small caterpillars! No question! Harvestmen are predators and scavangers.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I thought that they did have some kind of venom and could be deadly to humans only they do not have the fangs or something. Keyword to previous sentence is "heard." :)

Rather strange topic
Daddy long legs are harmless non-spiders.
Harvestmen ?
Cats ?....as in felines ?
This makes no sense..

earthworm,

If you had looked at a few of the other threads here with cat in the title, it might have clued you in to think that cat is short for caterpillar. This is after all the butterfly forum. :-)

randy

Has anyone actually seen any predate on any caterpillars? The only ones I've seen are in my house and they have not shown any interest in my butterfly larvae...

Thank you everyone for reassuring me that these critters are ok to have!

Remember that these creatures are scavengers. Opportunist is probably a better word than predator (however), which insinuates that stalking and hunting are their main job. They would certainly take advantage of small caterpillars and eggs, if given the opportunity. I'd consider them beneficial, unless I noticed a bunch of them hanging around a butterfly nursery.

I've never had any inside my house, which I am glad about. I confess that they give me the willies!

I play with harvestmen all the time. Great for teaching kids. I have never seen one feed on a live insect. Not saying they don't on occassion, just never seen one. They have NO fangs and NO form of venom or anything to paralyze thier prey. That's why they are mainly scavengers, it's a bit difficult for them to catch live food, and keep it. Most just feed on veggy matter and dead decaying stuff.

Personally, I don't think they're anything to worry about.