Eight-legged invaders taking over homes in September and they’re not spiders

They’re eight-legged invaders making their way into our homes this month - but you might not realise that these are not spiders at all.

Everyone in the UK it seems has got the fear this September as Spider Season begins in earnest, with scurrying invaders rushing across living rooms, lurking in bathtubs and spinning webs across doorways and in corners trying to catch themselves some dinner or find a mate for the winter inside your four walls.

But there’s one invading creature with eight legs popping up in homes that looks like a spider, acts like a spider, but isn’t a spider at all.

Opiliones are a common sight in UK households this month. They are extremely spindly, with long legs and a tiny body, and they scurry around as if they are a spider.

While they are an arachnid, they aren’t a spider, and they can’t even spin webs and they don’t have eight eyes - just two.

You will often find them in damper and cooler places like sheds, garages, cellars, porches, attics, and the like, because they are just as happy living outside as they are inside.

If you find an opilione, you should leave it alone. This is because they eat small insects as well as mould plants like fungi, as well as dead insects, bird poo and other nasty waste products that you don’t really want lying around.

Therefore, opiliones actually play a really important role as unpaid ‘cleaners’ tidying up after you and the insects you might have in your house without even the inconvenience or mess of a spider web to worry about (or walk into).

They are also harmless, do not bite and have no venom.

Confusingly, Americans call opiliones ‘daddy longlegs’ whereas Britons are more likely to call crane flies ‘daddy long legs’.

Bugwood wiki says: “Opiliones are considered beneficial insects because they feed upon multiple pests. Contrary to popular beliefs, they are not the most venomous spider on the planet: they are not venomous, and they are not spiders.”