![long body cellar spider overview long body cellar spider overview](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/502d2cede4b0ab396711e089/1448289117335-74JR3RPDHMN3E7W1SO8Y/image-asset.jpeg)
They eat insects, spiders, and other small invertebrates. Like all spiders, cellar spiders are predators. They are also very sensitive to vibrations in their webs. Spiders in this group probably use touch and chemicals to communicate, though they can see too. They are not social animals, they only come together to mate. They often hang upside down while waiting for prey to touch their webs. Most cellar spiders don't move around too much, they usually stay with their web, or raid nearby webs. We don't know for sure how long these spiders live, probably only a few years at most, and very few probably make it that long. To grow they have to shed their exoskeleton, which they do many times during their lives. These animals are found in the following types of habitatĬellar spiders hatch from eggs, and the hatchlings look more or less like grown-up spiders, though sometimes their colors change as they age.These spiders prefer to live in dark places: in caves, cracks and crevices in rocks, unused animal burrows, and in the dark and quiet parts of buildings. Only a few species occur in Michigan, but they are common in basements and unused buildings. One species in particular, Pholcus phalangioides, is particularly comfortable living in houses and other buildings, and so has been spread all around the world by people moving around. There are hundreds of species of cellar spiders found all over the world. Their color varies from light tan to grayish-brown.įemale cellar spiders are often much bigger than males. Cellar spiders have fangs that they use to bite their prey with, and have venom glands, but their fangs are very short. These are used to grab prey, and in mating, and are much bigger in male spiders than in females.ĭifferent species of cellar spiders have six or eight eyes, and the size and arrangement of eyes is different in different groups. On the front they have two small "mini-legs" called palps. Because of this they are sometimes called "daddy longlegs spiders", though they are not related to the other "daddy longlegs," which are Harvestmen. Their legs are many times longer than their bodies. Cellar spiders have very long thin legs compared to other spiders. They have eight legs, all attached to the cephalothorax. Longbodied cellar spider.Like all spiders, cellar spiders have two body-segments, a cephalothorax in front and an abdomen behind. Repeat this every few weeks until no new webs are seen. Systematically move through your house, removing all webs and spiders. Insecticides are not very effective at controlling these spiders for a few reasons 1) the spiders don't move around that much so the chances of them walking through a residual insecticide are not good 2) even if they do walk through the insecticide they are walking on the tips of legs on claw-like tarsi, and 3) insecticides are often not as effective as we want because spiders are not insects, they are arachnids.įor cellar spider control the best thing is a vacuum with a hose attachment.
![long body cellar spider overview long body cellar spider overview](https://bugguide.net/images/raw/1RR/QUR/1RRQURYK9RHQNRJKDQG000MQZ0KQYRZQBR80WRFKBR7QBRHQVRRQNRG0BR7QCRFKURSQL0E0L0E0TQ.jpg)
Often the spiders and webs are concentrated in a dark, seldom disturbed, basement or cellar area. Long-bodied cellar spiders are difficult to eliminate from a home.
![long body cellar spider overview long body cellar spider overview](https://spideridentifications.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Cellar-Spiders.jpg)
Long-bodied cellar spiders are not poisonous to humans and are actually sort of good guys because they eat insect pests, house centipedes, and other things we do not like in our homes. Long-bodied cellar spiders leave what seem to me to be permanent webs in basements, corners of ceilings, walls, book shelves, basically just about anywhere. Sometimes long-bodied cellar spiders are seen hanging in their web, but most often just the webs are seen because the cobwebs do not become obvious until they are old and abandoned by the spider and have gotten covered in dust. Long-bodied cellar spiders have a long body that is usually a bit less than 1/3 of an inch, and very long thin legs that can make the spider seem quite large. In Iowa the most common species of spider that makes cobweb-like webs is the long-bodied cellar spider. There is a group of spiders we call the cobweb spiders, but many species of spiders make messy webs we would call cobwebs. Cobweb is a term used for messy spider webs in homes, the flimsy webs that sort of drape down and get covered in dust.