Long Legs!

  This afternoon, I went out to help Son a bit.  He was up on the rooftop doing more home repairs after our bout with termites.  It seems that he is rebuilding the entire house.  Anyway, my help was obviously not needed so I started to clean up a bit of the scrap lumber.  While I was bent over retrieving a small piece that had fallen under the house, I came face to face with a critter.  On the side of the house was a Daddy Longlegs or Harvestman.  When I was younger, I was under the impression (as are most folks) that this was a spider of some sort.  It is not.  It is an arachnid in that it has eight legs but it is not a spider. (Mine must have met with a horrible accident because it only had seven legs!) The Harvestman is closer kin to a scorpion.  Those long, lanky legs make us think of a spider so the critter is often mistakenly called one. The Harvestman does not bite (that I know of anyway) but can emit a pretty foul-smelling musk if feels threatened.

  Finding the Daddy Longlegs made me take a trip down memory lane.  Growing up, we always called them Granddaddy Longlegs and would often catch them in the barn.  To us, these critters were playthings.  It never ceased to amuse us that once the Granddaddy Longlegs got over its fear of us, it never made an attempt to escape.  My folks had shown us how to hold one in the palm of our hand and in a sing-songy voice ask it "Granddaddy, Granddaddy, where are the cows?"  Invariably, one long leg would slowly rise and seemingly point to where the wayward cows had strayed.  As kids, we were thrilled that the "spider" had helped us in our quest to find the cows! (This was back in the day when the cows pretty much had free roam of the farm and were often hard to locate.)  Now, I realize that this ploy was to get the kiddies over the fear of critters but it was great amusement as well.  The barns and chicken houses held a wealth of critters other than the farm animals so it was rather useful thing for us not to be fearful.  

  There is a long-standing myth surrounding Harvestmen.  They are often claimed to be the "most poisonous spiders in the world".  When questioned why more folks are not suffering from bites, the myth explains that the critters' mouths are too small and weak to break human flesh.  Well, that is pure hogwash on so many points and we won't even go there.  Just remember that you can hold them, they are not spiders and they help you find the lost cows.  That is all that is needed.  "Granddaddy, Granddaddy, where are the cows?"  Enough said.