WAS IT A DADDY LONG LEGS?
If I told you Daddy Long Legs were NOT spiders would you be surprised or believe it. Well it is
true, they are not spiders but belong to the order Opiliones and are more closely related to mites or
scorpions than spiders. They ARE arachnids but so too are mites, ticks, scorpions and other 8
legged creatures.

So now that Daddy Long Legs are not spiders are they still the worlds most venomous arachnids? They can pierce the skin and bite a person but don’t have harmful venom so the myth that it is the worlds most venomous spider has been proved to be false.

The Daddy Long Legs is also known as Granddaddy Long Legs or Harvestmen and get confused with the Cellar Spider which is a spindly-legged spider and are arachnids of the order Pholcidae. Another interesting fact is Daddy Long Legs don’t make webs or even make silk, their bodies are pill shaped, no “waist” as spiders have, between their body sections, they have 2 eyes not 8, can eat chunks of food, not just liquids.

Opiliones, Daddy Long Legs, fossils have been found in rocks and sediment deposits which have dated as old and older than 400 million years and 435 million years ago it is believed Daddy Long Legs split from scorpions which means this is about 200 million years before the Dinosaurs appeared who were only around for approx. 165 million years with the Daddy Long Legs are still
here long before Dinosaurs inhabited the earth and long after the Dinosaurs have vanished. Daddy Long Legs will play dead by curling their legs in if they are disturbed and with their excellent camouflage colour they will play dead by not moving for several minutes to make sure their predator has not seen them and has gone away and they are out of danger. They live in moist dark places.
So next time you are walking in the garden or rummaging around in a dark place and come across
a Daddy Long Legs no need to panic, you are not looking at a deadly creature.

SUMMER TIME & IT’S TIME TO LIGHT UP, NO NOT THE BARBIE, BUT THE MOZZIE COILS!
What would summer be without the mosquito and it’s incessant buzzing around your ear. It only takes one to keep you awake at night with you swatting aimlessly at the air and usually the only one being hit is yourself.It is the female who bights us and animals for blood in order to produce and has the capacity to carry Ross River (RR) virus & Barmah Forest (BH) virus.Both the male & female buzz but it is the female who has the higher pitched buzz and you mostly never hear the male as it does not bite.

The life cycle of a mosquito starts as an egg and advances to larvae – pupae -adult. We know larvae as wrigglers & pupae as tumblers and for them to breath they must attach themselves to the underside of water surfaces to breath through special tube like structures attached to the back of the juvenile. If unable to connect to these water-air interfaces they will drown so the saying “Keeping Your Head Above Water” does not apply to these juvenile mosquitoes as they hang upside down!

DISEASES CARRIED BY MOSQUITOES IN AUSTRALIA ARE:
Dengue Fever
Australian encephalitis or Murray Valley encephalitis
Ross River (RR) virus disease
Barmah Forest (BH) virus disease
Heart worm in dogs & cats.

MALARIA is not found in Australia but occurs in more than 100 countries & territories transmitting malaria to roughly half the worlds population. Malariaendemic considered areas at risk are large areas of Africa, South Asia, parts of Central & South America, the Caribbean South East Asia, The Middle east and Oceania.The malaria mosquito larvae is found in a wide range of locations and prefer clean unpolluted water. Mosquitoes carrying malaria are more attracted to human scent than non malaria ones.

There are many species of mosquitoes which are found world wide and there are a number of different ones that can impact on your family and your pets. ANOPHELES MOSQUITO (Anopheles SPP.) is the mosquito responsible for transmitting malaria. AEDES MOSQUITOES ( Aedes Algypti) bites heighten at change of light i.e. after sunrise & before sunset. CULEX MOSQUITO (Culex Tritaeniorhynchus) is the main carrier of Japanese B-Enephalitis.