Based on its size, I am going to take a guess that my spider is in the cosmopolitan group and is a long-bodied cellar spider.Ĭellar spiders like human habitats, and they are beneficial to humans. People often mistake this spider for a daddy long legs, but it is not. Some species of cellar spiders are distinguished as cosmopolitan, which means that they can be found worldwide. The Arachnid class includes 11 different orders, some of which are harvestmen, aka daddy long legs, as well as mites, spiders and others. What makes a spider a spider is that it has four pairs of legs and two body parts, makes silk and venom and has piercing mouth parts.īased on scientific clues from the Field Museum, and other sources, my spider is probably a cellar spider from the Pholcidae family. “Howl’s Moving Castle,” a book that my daughter loved, includes a main character, Howl, who repeatedly reminds readers he does not believe in dusting for fear of disturbing the spiders in his castle. I love watching the spiders in my house. I’ve decided these spiders live here because it is a suitable habitat for them, so I am going to level up and embrace spider science. Spiders have fascinated me since childhood. My memories include reading "Charlotte’s Web" as a child, seeing beautiful web designs dappled with dew at sunrise, watching a jumping spider play with a moving cursor on my computer screen and seeing shimmers of silk glisten in the bright blue sky on a crisp autumn day. In this edition, Kate Caldwell, an interpretive naturalist at Plum Creek Nature Center, tells us why she loves cellar spiders. "Things We Love" explores those jaw-dropping parts of nature that one person finds particularly special. And yet for others, it's all about the scenery. One may have a soft spot for flowers, while another gravitates toward a particular animal. Longbodied cellar spider.About this series: While many people love nature, different people love different aspects of it. 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. 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-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.