How to Keep Daddy Long Legs Out of Your House

These harmless arachnids can be annoying. Learn how to discourage daddy long legs from hanging around your house.

What Are Daddy Long Legs?

Daddy long legs (Order Opiliones) are also called harvestmen and shepherd spiders. These members of the arachnid family are easily recognized by their 8 long, thin legs. Their legs are designed to fall off to help them escape predators. A detached leg can continue to twitch for up to an hour, distracting the predator while the daddy long leg hobbles away on 7 legs.

They love to come out at night, often feeding on small insects. Unlike stories shared on the playground, daddy long legs are not venomous. Daddy long legs are also known to congregate in large masses with their legs interlaced. When disturbed, they shake violently, causing the mass to vibrate.

Are Daddy Long Legs Poisonous?

While daddy long legs are arachnids and have 8 legs, they're not true spiders (Order Araneae). Instead of fangs, harvestmen have claws around their mouths (called chelicerae) for grasping prey. They have a single pair of eyes and a fused, rounded body while true spiders have 6-8 eyes and 2 distinct body parts. Unlike most true spiders, daddy long legs cannot produce silk and weave webs; instead, they ambush their prey like wolf spiders.

This misinformation comes from confusion surrounding cellar spiders, which are also commonly referred to as daddy long legs spiders. Cellar spiders are true spiders and belong to a different classification of arachnid (Pholcidae), which is completely separate from daddy long legs or harvestmen. While cellar spiders are venomous, their bite is considered medically insignificant and only causes a mild sting for most people.

Daddy Long Legs Are Imposters

While daddy long legs are arachnids and have 8 legs, they're not true spiders (Order Araneae). Instead of fangs, daddy long legs have claws around their mouths (called chelicerae) for grasping prey. They have a single pair of eyes and a fused, rounded body while true spiders have 6-8 eyes and 2 distinct body parts. Unlike most true spiders, daddy long legs cannot produce silk and weave webs; instead, they ambush their prey like wolf spiders.

Where to Find Daddy Long Legs

Although a harmless annoyance, daddy long legs will lurk around your home and garden in the spring and summer. Daddy long legs often hang out around water sources. They like dark, damp places which is why you’ll sometimes find them in your basement, garage or crawl space. Female daddy long legs lay eggs in moist soil in the fall, and the eggs hatch in the spring. In northern parts of the U.S., they live for one year, but in the southeast when the winters are mild, they have been known to live for 2 years.

They're the Good Guys

You may not like them, but harvestmen are actually helping you out. Daddy long legs eat spiders, earthworms and other insects. They'll also scavenge for dead insects, decaying plant material and insect eggs if live prey isn't available. Because they like to eat garden pests like aphids, it's beneficial to have them in your garden.

Keep Them out of Your House

While daddy long legs are beneficial in the garden, it can be annoying (or even creepy) when you encounter them in your house. To keep harvestmen out of your home, trim plants away from your house and clean up the wood, trash and other debris around the perimeter of your house. Seal cracks and crevices around your foundation, windows and doors, and repair broken screens so they have no way of entering your home. Use Ortho® Home Defense® Insect Killer for Indoor & Perimeter2 around your window and door casings and along baseboards to help create a perimeter barrier to help keep them out.