For some, this gif is a living nightmare. Some crazy dude pokes a shrub-looking thing and—seemingly out of nowhere— it explodes into hundreds of daddy longlegs. Once free, these tiny, tiny bastards run towards the poor cameraman. Feelin’ itchy?

The truth is, daddy longlegs are totally harmless creatures. And they’re pretty darn fascinating to boot. Reddit user pileated_peckerwood agrees, “That gif was gross as fuck, but daddy longlegs or [harvestmen] are actually cool little bugs!”

Why exactly is this gif so incredibly terrifying? Besides arachnophobia, our fear of these scurrying little creatures probably stems from a vicious rumor that they are “one of the world’s most poisonous spiders,” according to the University of California, Riverside.

Here’s the thing: Daddy longlegs are not even spiders. And they’re definitely not poisonous. The arachnids have no evolutionary need for fangs and venom since their diet primarily consists of decomposing plant and animal matter.

On top of that, they’re old. Much older than the dinosaurs, in fact. How do we know? Scientists discovered an ancient daddy longlegs fossil that was around 400 million years old, according to a 2014 study in Current Biology.

Entomologist Sean McCann hopes more people will learn to love these ancient, majestic creatures.

“[This gif] is bloody marvelous, and I would have loved to have been there! My girlfriend and I have taken to calling these ‘harvestpersons,’ as ‘harvestmen’ is not a very inclusive term. We hope it will catch on,” McCann told Upvoted.