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September 26, 2002 - Long live daddy longlegsSeptember 26, 2002 • The Suffolk Ti Lj F itve At ng I* daii Times /Review photo by Barbara otoutenburgn Most of us have seen this eight - legged creature called a daddy longlegs. It is perfectly harmless, not poisonous, and eats lots of little insects. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT anyone who I s lived in the country has missed eing a daddy longlegs. You can't istake it for anything else. This long - 3, ed creature has a pill- shaped body id eight long, hairy legs. The Indian ime for them was "grandfather gray - !ard," which meant "feet of sirs." These legs are seven - inted.and they are one to ,o inches in length. If we id legs in proportion.to eirs. ours would -be 40 feet We see this long - legged iaracter mostly in the fall, hich accounts for its other ame, the harvestman. They got this ame because it's at harvest time hen the farmers would notice them e most.'Iltat's also when they show I around our homes. So now is the' ;st time of the year to see them. sually they are solitary creatures but .casionally they'll cluster together in -eat numbers. We have seen this one the eaves of our house. It's quit( Focus By the way, daddy longlegs don't bite, nor are they poisonous. They are ON harmless relatives of scorpions and NATURE spiders, mites and ticks. But since they are not a true spider they do not pro - by Paul duce silk and therefore do not spin a Stoutenburgh web. They live on small insects, so they're good guys to have around. It's too bad so many people can't stand any kind of insect, good or bad. Here's one fellow you can let walk around on vour arm or hand and be perfectly sale and brave at the same time: If we look real close with a magnify ing glass we can see it has little beady eyes. We're told they are not very good at recognizing things at a dis- tance. Their eyes are more effective ul close, where the food is. Again, if you look close enough you will see a tiny, almost lobster -lik( claw, which it uses to catch small insects. . Most of the daddy lon- glegs die as winter approaches and cold weath- er takes over. The way they perpetuate the species is by the female laying eggs in the fall in the ground, in some small crevice or in rotten wood. This is repeated until she becomes a mere empty shell. The eggs hatch out in the spring as tiny daddy longlegs, and now comes the interesting part. Like the horseshoe crabs and our blue -claw crabs, they have to shed their outer skin to grow. They molt much like a crab, each time getting a little larger, until fall when they are full grown. -So when you see daddy - longlegs walking across your patio or on your garage wall or even in your house, remember they are part of the world we live in. If it bothers you, scoop up one or, even better, pick it up and place it outdoors where it can enjoy eating all those little insects that bother you. You can pick it up by one of its legs, remembering it doesn't bite, then place it outside. Sometimes a leg will come off right in your hand but, like the blue -claw crab that loses his claw in a duel over a female, the daddy longlegs will regenerate a new leg just as the crab regenerates a new claw. That trick put; them in a world of their own. Usually daddy longlegs are leisurely in their movements but they can move rapidly, with the body swung below the pumping "knees." Although fre- quently active in daytime, they are pri- marily night prowlers and solitary in habit. So respect daddy longlegs and enjoy his amusing gait and appreciate one more bit of the interesting world around us. The fox story Now to tell you my dis- turbing tale about a fox. Most readers enjoy seeing a fox occasionally. I cer- tainly do, but there is a problem with Mr. Fox. He's always hungry. The problem comes when you raise chick- ens. I've lost three of my little ban- tams to this clever rascal who got real bold and took them right out from under our noses in broad daylight, bu that's another story. The incident I want to relate today is about a armer's wife I met on a recent morn- ng. She was very upset because of hat had happened the night before o her chickens. Some of her family had raised some special chickens and brought them over to her house to be taken care of while they were busy doing other things. Each night the farmer's'wife would close the chickens up and let them out in the morning. Then the other night in bed she said to herself, "Did I close the chickens up tonight ?" She thought that if she'd just forget it everything would be all right. But you know you can't do that because you'll think about it all night and won't sleep. So the farmer's wife decided to bite the bullet, get up and check it all out and then she could go back to bed with a clear'conscience. This was at 1:30 in the morning. So off she went across the field with ier flashlight to where the chickens vere. The beam of her flashlight If we had legs in proportion to theirs, ours would be 40 feet tong, cxed up two chickens that looked :e they were asleep on the ground. s she got closer she found out differ. tly. The fox had paid them a visit d had slaughtered the entire flock. )w could she tell her family? It was r fault, she knew, yet like so many ngs we do in this busy world of rs, she had made an honest mistake I the results lay scattered about It's an awful feeling. I know, for had it happen to me. So foxes are oyed by some and hated by others. It all depends on which side of the chicken fence you are on. Barbara and I were at our friends' house where they were picking grapes when she spotted a rather large yellow bird. Upon closer examination, which as a little difficult for the Jbirdlways seemed to be hiding behind some leaves or grapes, we decided it was a chat, a yellow- breast- ed chat. This member of the warbler family is quite uncommon. When you think of warblers .you always think of tiny little birds flitting in the treetops, but this is a bird of thickets, catbrier, and grape arbors, evidently. It had a circle around its beady black eye. They call it "specta- cles" in the bird book. It has an all- yellow throat and breast. It is quite a large bird with a longish tail, but it was neat to see it, for I had only seen one three or four times before in my life. I remember seeing one once in orient and another time in East Moriches. Both times were on :hristmas Bird Counts. This just goes :o show you, when picking grapes to nake jelly, you want to keep your eye )ut for others that might be there eeking the juicy, sweet fruit.