‘Furball’ turns out to be hundreds of creepy-crawling spiders

Trigger alert: Arachnophobes turn away now.

A skin-crawling video has surfaced on social media of a man reaching for what looks like a hairball, only to have it splinter into hundreds of spiders.

Posted by Texas-based Instagram user datcowboykidd, the vid shows the user reaching into the furry mass, which resembles a clump of barbershop trimmings or dust bunnies. Upon contact, the “furball” fragments into a bunch of arachnids, which scatter in every direction — a sight made even more unsettling by the soothing French café music playing in the background.

However, the user seems unperturbed by the discovery, nonchalantly holding the cluster until the last stragglers have scurried from the palm of his hand.

“They call me the Spider-Man on TikTok,” reads the clip’s caption.

It’s an apt moniker. The self-proclaimed “arachnophile” has posted several “spider cluster” clips on the video-sharing platform TikTok, including one where he’s petting a clump like it’s a cat to similarly jarring background music.

TikTok viewers don’t seem to share “Spider-Man’s” affinity for the bug balls, posting cries of “hell no,” “that’s psycho behavior” and “you should have lit them on fire and then moved out of your country.”

The spider cluster constituents are actually not spiders at all but harvestmen — more colloquially known as daddy longlegs — a species of arachnid more closely related to scorpions. Daddy longlegs are actually harmless to humans, preferring to snack on spiders, insects and even bird droppings, according to life science researchers at Clemson University.

It’s unknown why they congregate in clusters, although researchers speculate they might do so to appear bigger to predators as they don’t possess the silk or venomous fangs of their spider brethren, Atlas Obscura reported. They do emit a smelly secretion, which may be more effective when discharged en masse like a giant Arachnid Gatling gun.