But no one likes living with cobwebs, so if you want to discourage these long-legged, long-bodied intruders here’s what you can do: They may even reduce the population of other spiders, like black widows. To identify the female, it’s important to know they are a bit longer than their male counterparts.Ĭellar spiders can be beneficial because they eat insects like roaches, mosquitoes, and moths. The females lay several dozen eggs at a time and wrap them in webbing to protect them. These spiders don’t clean their webs like some other spiders-so many can be built in a short time and leave a mess of cobwebs.Ĭellar spiders live about two years. You may occasionally catch a glimpse of cellar spiders-but, for the most part, they hide in dark, humid places, like basements and cellars, or around upper parts of windows and doors. Pale yellow, light gray, or tan in color.Very long legs compared to the body size.Length anywhere from a fourth to three-eighths of an inch.(They are sometimes known as long-bodied cellar spiders) A two-part body, with an elongated abdomen.There are about 20 different species of cellar spiders found in the U.S., but they all share some common physical characteristics, including: Have you ever reached into a shelf in your basement and encountered a sticky web or, even worse, felt something crawling up your hand? If so, you may have cellar spiders, often referred to as daddy-longlegs. The common name “daddy longlegs” has/is also used for harvestmen (which are arachnids, but aren’t spiders) and some crane flies (flying insects not related to spiders).Providing Pest Control Services to Rid Your Maryland Home of Unwanted Guests.Arachnologists think their venom is not very potent at all, even when used on insects. There is a persistent rumor that this spider (or others in the same family) has the most potent venom of all spiders, but there’s never been a single shred of scientific evidence to back this up.This is where the (not often used) nickname “vibrating spider” comes from. Spider may quickly “bounce” up and down in their web if feeling threatened.Mother doesn’t usually feed at all while she holds the eggs in her mouth, however they’re occasionally witnessed hanging their egg sac in the web temporarily in order to feed, preen, or mate (Eiseman & Charney 2010).Females wrap their eggs in a few strands of silk and carry them in their chelicerae (jaws) they may lay up to three egg sacs in her lifetime, each one about 30 eggs.Can also catch and eat other large spiders that walk into their web, including things like the “ hobo spider,” the “ giant house spider,” and even large “ wolf spiders.” May invade the web of other spiders and eat them, including members of their own species.Eggs are usually visible through the translucent abdominal cuticle of the gravid (pregnant) females.Front legs on an adult can be up to 50 mm (~2″) in length, sometimes more. They are grayish-brown with bands of white and black at the joints. Legs are very, very long and thin delicate-looking.Pholcus phalangioides has been primarily sighted during the month of March. Pholcus phalangioides has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin. Pholcus phalangioides (Long-bodied Cellar Spider) has been sighted in the following countries: Canada, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, United States. Environment: Pholcus phalangioides has been sighted 6 times outdoors, and 32 times indoors.Web: 39% of the time, Pholcus phalangioides spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 38).The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 38 sightings because of certain Pholcus phalangioides sightings reporting incomplete data. There have been 38 confirmed sightings of Pholcus phalangioides (Long-bodied Cellar Spider), with the most recent sighting submitted on Octoby Spider ID member erniemas.