pholcidae/cellar spiders - care advice (picture warning)

[MadameButterface]

this sounds nuts, but if you are not a fan of the big hairy twats currently running around like maniacs giving everyone heart failure then I STRONGLY advise you to make friends with these babes, the spindly leggy bois who just hang around upside down in corners minding their own business. you may not think they look up to the job, but they eat the fat hairy fuckers. since I learned this, I have stopped escorting them off the premises and can report a downturn in heart stopping OH FUCKING JESUS FUCK style encounters.

anyway. so in the course of making friends with my enemy's enemy, I have found that the gentle, nice pholcidae spider is an attentive mother, staying with her babies until they have their first moult. I have one on my attic stairs who has 12 hatchlings with her. last time this happened (front room, bookcase) the mother was stuck there over a week with her babies and I started to get worried about her eating and drinking and so on. so, does anyone have any advice on how I can support her post partum (or whatever you call it for spiders). or should I just leave them all be? I want to encourage them, they're my house spider death squad. TIA

Supporting a spider post partum? That's got to be funniest thing I've read all day!

This thread was a lovely calming read at 4am. Like visual ASMR.

Although I knew there was a good reason I've always wanted a cellar.

this thread
Please let me recommend the friendly spider program at London zoo. It changed my life. Best money I ever spent.

The way they kill the big Bois is using Web - they can cast long strands really far and truss them up in it. Amazing really.

I am pleased to report that I wished and wished really hard last night and woke up to spot a leggy babe on the ceiling in my ensuite. I am so very happy 😀

I love cellar spiders. And also daddy longlegs. Spindly babes with wings.

Are the spindly spiders what are known as daddy long legs? I want to make sure I keep shudder the rights spiders in the house. I can’t believe I’m even contemplating keeping spiders in the house! 🤢

Why did I never know this piece of wisdom?

We have lots in our house and I mostly leave them to their own devices unless I catch sight of one trying to get up a coat sleeve and he gets moved along, back to its rightful place hanging from the ceiling

Daddy long legs are not spiders and aren't any help with hairy bois

NotANotMan oh bugger! So I have to have an actual spider!

positively I'm not a huge spider lover but these ones are sort of cute and never bother you at all other than going up and into coats on the hooks in the kitchen

Cellar spiders are also referred to as Daddy long legs, as well as there being the Daddy long legs flying insects.

Yeah the flying ones are Crane flies (known as daddy long legs in certain areas of the UK) and they are no good against hairy bastards.

crane flies can shit off as well. dimwits

Awww post partum leggy babe. Perhaps she’d like a spider spa day?

can you have a massage if you have an exoskeleton?

I've been defending these buggers for years! They're amazing.

They definitely don't scuttle. When they run they look like they're on roller skates!

I leave them be unless they're too close for comfort.

I think one of my leggy babes just ate her husband.

I can’t blame her really. .

I witnessed a leggy babe skillfully grab a juicy fly out of mid-air Mr Miyagi style once. I was impressed and deemed she could stay.
We don't have many of the hairy bois (now I know why) but the one I have seen this year was so big I swear I heard it gallop.

@Cerseilannisterinthesnow
Plus I wasn’t going to leave it to get it’s spider freak on and produce more monsters, not in my house

This really made me laugh

I’m impressed by all the posts witnessing these hostile takedowns in person. I’ve never actually seen the leggy babes () do anything apart from walk awkwardly on the wall and looking like an ungrateful ballerina. Reminds me of Theresa May trying to dance

Ungraceful, not ungrateful!

This is my leggy babe ❤️ (you almost got a picture of my leg too thanks to a glitchy app and an impatient button pressing user)

I can't believe I am posting this, but: one has lived towards the bottom of the wall behind our bed for a good while. We have called him (?) Reginald and at Christmas he, er, had a very small stocking. It didn't contain a big hairy spider in the morning, which may have disappointed.

Wait

@Ormally are you seriously saying you gave your leggy boi a christmas present?

That might be my favourite thing in life

I am, yes.
It was my husband's idea. But he only got a tiny stocking and didn't actually get a present. I feel more guilty now.

We even had wallpaper put on the wall behind the bed, moved him for this (again, guilt tripped hugely about the spider in James and the Giant Peach that got stuck on the ceiling when it was painted and starved), and put him back hoping he wouldn't disown us. Fortunately he did take up residence there again. He must be quite old now for a leggy boi.