Man horrified after touching 'ball of fluff' to see what happens
In our younger days we were taught the lesson 'look, don't touch' and that if we don't really know what something is it's better not to f**k with it.
One man who really wished he remembered that lesson got the shock of his life after discovering a ball of fluff and decided to poke it to find out what exactly it was.
Everyone has got a sense of curiosity that needs indulging but occasionally it's useful to remember what curiosity did to the cat, and we don't have nine lives to fritter away on mistakes.
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That's why one poor guy was left horrified when he poked the ball of fluff that he found and saw it erupt into an innumerable plethora of creepy crawlies.
Touching the fluff ball was all it took as a chunk of it suddenly sprouted legs and ran away, followed by another set of legs scuttling to safety, and then another, and another.
Our unwitting man had accidentally disturbed a clump of critters known as 'harvestmen', 'harvest spiders' or the more common name 'daddy long legs'.
These little things are arachnids but they're technically not spiders, though anyone which a phobia of spiders is unlikely to be comforted by that bit of trivia.
In a matter of seconds the ball of fluff the man had been touching broke apart into a horde of harvestmen which ran off in all directions.
Needless to say the guy filming his encounter with the ball of fluff got back as quickly as he could to dodge the swarming masses of legs.
This ball of fluff is a defence mechanism where they band together to protect each other during the daytime, as they mostly come out at night.
Lots of species do this thing where they pack together to ward off predators, either betting that whatever has it out for them can't get them all or that by clustering together into a big ball it'll confuse the hell out of anything trying to kill them so it doesn't attack.
It's pretty clever even if it did give the guy who thought he'd disturb the ball of fluff a poke a pretty terrifying experience that the method works as he got back as soon as he could.
The only thing worse that a giant clump of arachnids is one utterly huge creature with a single purpose, to ruin your day.
Joe Harker