Harvestmen are my least favourite of all creatures. They just look like they shouldn’t exist, and they really freak me out.

So I batted this one away and it fell to the floor and started running across the carpet. I went to get a glass and by the time I returned it was nowhere to be seen. Understandable really, when they’re so obscenely gangly that they don’t even cast a shadow. I was determined, however, to catch it, since I wouldn’t be able to sleep with it in the room.

Let me make it clear though, that I’m not scared of them. I don’t have any kind of arachnophobia (and, by the way, although harvestman are arachnids, they’re only very distantly related to spiders), but there’s something about harvestmen that just make me shudder. It’s their legs mostly; I just can’t understand how anything with that little substance can move. And the worst part is, they have so many of them that they leave them behind willy nilly.

Eventually I caught this one since it made a mad dash across my floor, towards my bed, and gently slid a piece of paper under the glass to trap it. Despite my efforts of gentleness, one of it’s legs fell off, and just lay there next to it. Apparently they continue to twitch once detached as well, which I’m glad I didn’t see. Surely that’s not natural though; any other creature would be “wah, I’ve lost my leg,” and at least slow down or bleed, but no, not these obscene things.

Once caught, I threw it out the window, and shut it tight. I realise it’s unlikely the thing would have tried to get back inside, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.

Here’s the Wikipedia article if you want to find out any more about these…things.