Discover if daddy long legs eat mosquitoes and what type of arachnid you will find at home. This spider is very common, and you can see it at home, especially in your basement, where they live and feed. Learn how the arachnid feeds and how big the flies are that they devour when caught in their net.
Mosquitoes have many predators besides daddy long legs; get to know them immediately. Discover which animals stalk mosquitoes to eat them or do it for fun to kill them.
Are Daddy Long Legs Spiders?
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Spiders of the Pholcidae type are what you may call “long legs” because they have a very distinctive appearance. They are spiders you can find in your house’s basement regardless of the country where you are. Its body is tiny compared to its legs three times its size.
These leggy spiders are not poisonous, so that you can live with them without worry. They are solitary spiders dedicated to weaving and collecting food in insects that are their size or smaller. Most of the night, they are active while resting for a moment and then doing other activities.
A Pholcidae spider measures 2 to 9 mm in its body in proportion, and the long legs can reach 50 mm long. They are very tall compared to the legs you can see in other spiders that reach a maximum of 10mm. Its long legs help the arachnid move around without problems, although it also has inconveniences to hide from predators.
Do Daddy long legs eat mosquitoes?
The spiders “daddy long legs” if they eat the mosquitoes if it falls into their net or nest where the peculiar arachnid rests. Since mosquitoes are tiny in size, this can be incredible for the spider because it eats it without problems. Besides the flying insect you commonly see, spiders can eat beetles, moths, cockroaches, etc.
These spiders have a reasonably extensive diet where most insects in your house devour it. This whole process to feed can take longer because the arachnid envelops the insect it catches, decomposes, and eats it in stages. You will not see this scene when it eats the insect due to its small size and that it does so in its nest.
Related: How to Get Rid of Daddy Long Legs Naturally
Do mosquitoes have other predators?
Daddy long legs spiders aren’t the only concern for mosquitoes to get around. As the flying insect is small, it has a list of predators that includes:
Swifts and swallows
These birds can threaten mosquitoes due to their large size and flight speed that makes them a perfect predator. If the mosquitoes are outside and they run into a swallow, they will be dead because their flights are not compared. How fast birds move, unlike mosquitoes, is ten times faster and for a longer time.
Geckos or lizards
You can see them at home are animals that look like miniature dragons with big eyes and small size. These are a second species that can eat mosquitoes if it bumps into them when moving.
Bats
Although rare, bats can be another threat to mosquitoes if they move around in the dark. This animal targets adult mosquitoes because it can easily perceive them.
Although mosquitoes are small insects, they do have big problems when moving from one place to another. Daddy long legs are the least of your mosquito concerns when compared to birds and bats.
