![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/b60e4accea28c33a95a276585cb75060.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A ‘daddy longlegs’ up close Wouter De Praetere via Unsplash<\/p>\n
I\u2019m quite proud of how far I\u2019ve come with accepting house spiders.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not going to hurt us<\/a>, after all, and though we might see more of them in autumn than any other time of year, they\u2019re not \u201ccoming indoors\u201d \u2013 they\u2019ve likely always been there, and cannot usually survive outside<\/a>.<\/p>\n But I confess I\u2019m not so zen about craneflies \u2013 the winged, giant mosquito-looking critters I\u2019ve always known as \u201cdaddy longlegs\u201d.<\/p>\n These flitting, eerily spindly insects are terrifying for a reason. As a child, playground chatter had it that they carry the most powerful venom of any spider, yet they can\u2019t break our skin to administer it.<\/p>\n But is that true?<\/p>\n Wrong on both counts, experts say\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking to HuffPost UK,\u00a0ecologist, conservation scientist, and entomologist Professor Adam Hart of the\u00a0University of Gloucestershire<\/a> said this myth is wrong on more levels than I expected.<\/p>\n Firstly, he told us, craneflies \u201caren\u2019t spiders\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are in the same insect group as house flies and mosquitoes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And not only do they not bite or sting people, but they \u201care not venomous in any way\u201d \u2013 never mind being the most venomous spider in the world.<\/p>\n Granted, some people \u2013 especially those in America \u2013\u00a0use the term daddy longlegs<\/a> for other species, like cellar spiders and harvestmen.<\/p>\n Harvestmen have poison (not venom<\/a>), which they spray all over themselves<\/a> when attacked, but this can only kill insects and spiders \u2013 and is far from the most powerful toxin in the world.<\/p>\n