'Hairy animal' turns out to be spiders' nest

[Still Waters]

Two hikers came across what they believed to be a small hibernating animal, only to realise they’d disturbed a nest filled with thousands of spiders.

The pair were walking near Alamos, in the Mexican state of Sonora, when they found what at first appeared to be a furry little mammal napping in the corner of a cave.

In the video, one hiker is heard asking: “I don’t know what it is but it’s very hairy! Is it a sleeping animal?”

https://socialnewsdaily.com/82051/hikers-shock-when-hairy-sleeping-animal-turns-out-to-be-spiders-nest/

[Piney]

Daddy longlegs are harmless and they are NOT  spiders. 

[Jodie.Lynne]

Not clicking on the video!

Nope nope nope.

 

"Hello S.A.C.? I'd like to request a tac-nuke strike on the state of Sonora, Mexico. Yeah, extra crispy would be just fine!"

[Still Waters]

11 minutes ago, Piney said:

Daddy longlegs are harmless and they are NOT  spiders. 

No, but "spiders" is often used to describe them.

Quote

The arachnids were later identified as pholcidae, also known as cellar spiders or daddy longlegs.

https://socialnewsdaily.com/82051/hikers-shock-when-hairy-sleeping-animal-turns-out-to-be-spiders-nest/

There's also more than one group of "daddy long-legs". 

Quote

Pholcidae, commonly known as cellar spiders, are a spider family in the suborder Araneomorphae. The family contains about 1500 species divided into about 80 genera.

Some species, especially Pholcus phalangioides, are commonly called daddy long-legs spider, granddaddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, daddy long-legger, vibrating spider or skull spider.

Confusion often arises because the name "daddy long-legs" is also applied to two other, distantly related groups of arthropods: harvestmen (which are arachnids but not spiders) and crane flies (which are insects).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae

 

[+Hammerclaw]

3 hours ago, Still Waters said:

Two hikers came across what they believed to be a small hibernating animal, only to realise they’d disturbed a nest filled with thousands of spiders.

The pair were walking near Alamos, in the Mexican state of Sonora, when they found what at first appeared to be a furry little mammal napping in the corner of a cave.

In the video, one hiker is heard asking: “I don’t know what it is but it’s very hairy! Is it a sleeping animal?”

https://socialnewsdaily.com/82051/hikers-shock-when-hairy-sleeping-animal-turns-out-to-be-spiders-nest/

When a young man, Dr. Loren Eiseley was crawling through a narrow chamber, searching for fossils, when he happened to play his light upon it's ceiling to find it literally covered by tens of thousands of such tightly pack spiders, that began writhing under the influence of his light. Horrified, he beat a hasty retreat.

[Seti42]

Well, there goes all my nopes for the day...

[Amanda Evans]

Don’t have nightmares...

Edited January 5, 2019 by Amanda Evans
Typo

[Hankenhunter]

I though maybe it was Trumps  hair piece hibernating  but wrong color. 

[openozy]

11 hours ago, Piney said:

Daddy longlegs are harmless and they are NOT  spiders. 

What we call daddy long legs in oz are white round bodied spider which have highly toxic venom but cant penetrate human skin and like our lovely redbacks are often found in the toilet.Have seen a funnelweb  dead in their web.

[Piney]

21 minutes ago, openozy said:

What we call daddy long legs in oz are white round bodied spider which have highly toxic venom but cant penetrate human skin and like our lovely redbacks are often found in the toilet.Have seen a funnelweb  dead in their web.

Ours are related to mosquitos and keep the house clean of ants,fleas and brown spiders.

[Susanc241]

I once found a small dark clump, not hairy looking like this, but more like solid black frogspawn, under a step in my garden. Turned out to be tiny spiders, probably babies not long hatched from a egg sac. I didn�t stay sitting there long!

[Gecks]

11 hours ago, openozy said:

What we call daddy long legs in oz are white round bodied spider which have highly toxic venom but cant penetrate human skin and like our lovely redbacks are often found in the toilet.Have seen a funnelweb  dead in their web.

Yes, I make sure to keep all the daddy long legs around as they're known to kill redbacks. Luckily funnelwebs are pretty much scarce up here in qld

[AstralHorus]

16 hours ago, openozy said:

What we call daddy long legs in oz are white round bodied spider which have highly toxic venom but cant penetrate human skin and like our lovely redbacks are often found in the toilet.Have seen a funnelweb  dead in their web.

That’s actually false, daddy long legs aren’t really venomous at all, and they can penetrate the skin. Myth busters did a piece on them.

[openozy]

3 hours ago, AstralHorus said:

That’s actually false, daddy long legs aren’t really venomous at all, and they can penetrate the skin. Myth busters did a piece on them.

Don't know if their the same beast I'm talking about,these things kill much larger spiders.If not venomous how do they kill.

Edited January 6, 2019 by openozy

[Trenix]

On 1/6/2019 at 4:11 PM, openozy said:

Don't know if their the same beast I'm talking about,these things kill much larger spiders.If not venomous how do they kill.

Biting. They don't have fangs, venom glands, or even produce a web.

[openozy]

1 hour ago, Trenix said:

Biting. They don't have fangs, venom glands, or even produce a web.

The things we call daddy long legs in oz do have webs.

[Jodie.Lynne]

2 hours ago, openozy said:

The things we call daddy long legs in oz do have webs.

Note to self: NEVER go to Australia!

I swear to Athena, Oz is the gods' bio-weapons lab!

Just how many deadly critters do you folk have???

[openozy]

1 hour ago, Jodie.Lynne said:

Note to self: NEVER go to Australia!

I swear to Athena, Oz is the gods' bio-weapons lab!

Just how many deadly critters do you folk have???

How long's a piece of string?This summer here now I've lost my best jack Russell to an Eastern brown snake,Was cornered by one and only saved by my old Whippet.Now have an infestation of Redback spiders all over the outside of my house,not long ago ended up in hospital after being stung by a paper wasp.Its hot, lets go for a swim,if you don't get taken by a shark or croc the irakanji jelly fish will sort you out.No wonder the pommies sent convicts to this lovely Island.

[+Hammerclaw]

On ‎1‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 8:57 AM, Piney said:

Daddy longlegs are harmless and they are NOT  spiders. 

Correct. The Harvestman are arachnids, but only distantly related to spiders and harmless to humans.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Hammerclaw

[Piney]

On 1/5/2019 at 9:17 AM, Still Waters said:

Confusion often arises because the name "daddy long-legs" is also applied to two other, distantly related groups of arthropods: harvestmen (which are arachnids but not spiders) and crane flies (which are insects).

 

 

2 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Correct. Harvestmen are arachnids, but only distantly related to spiders and harmless to humans.

I was already corrected on the matter. 

[+Hammerclaw]

3 minutes ago, Piney said:

 

I was already corrected on the matter. 

Oops. Despite having eight legs, they don't give many people the heebie-jeebies like true spiders do.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Hammerclaw

[Piney]

16 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

Oops. Despite having eight legs, they don't give many people the heebie-jeebies like true spiders do.

They were all over the mill and I left them alone in my camper. They are one of the many critters I actually miss....

[+Hammerclaw]

1 minute ago, Piney said:

They were all over the mill and I left them alone in my camper. They are one of the many critters I actually miss....

We got'em all over down here, the ones with really long legs and pill-shaped bodies. 

[Piney]

6 hours ago, Hammerclaw said:

We got'em all over down here, the ones with really long legs and pill-shaped bodies. 

That's the ones.

I also liked watching jumping spiders hunt. Cool sight.