Well it’s July 2011 now and lastnight I encoutered my first daddy-long-legs (crane fly) of the year and I must say I was terrified of the bugger!

It thier legs! So wibbily and creepy.

They randomly fly anywhere and everywhere and disturb our peace. My mum leaves her back door open ALL DAY and thier forever coming in and chasing me around our kitchen and living room.

Luckily I have brothers who take care of them for me.
I’m dreading the day I get my own appartment. Hahaa

I guess the good thing is that they’re pretty slow flyers so it’s rather easy to wack ‘em! Although being on the wall is another story. Your just about to hit them with your shoe and then they suddenly jump off the wall RIGHT INTO YOU!!!
Honestly, I scream and run.

They are properly called Crane Flies. People think that they “have poison but no teeth or stinger to use it” wrong. This is the Daddy Long Leg SPIDER, which does not have strong enough teeth to use it but is thought to contain one of the highest levels of poison of all the spiders (but cant use it!)

This year they are much, much worse and are driving us crazy. They seem to instinctively congregate right outside doors, so they can enter the house instantly. They are difficult to swat. We slip into and out of the house with the great fear of letting more in.

I heard someone say they saw them in Austin, TX, also. I don’t believe they bite, but we just don’t want them inside with us. We kill a number of them daily inside and dozens outside and wonder how long their “season” is. Please, does anyone have some advice on how to deal with them? We have no grass anywhere near us. We live in the dry desert southwest.

Nobody has really given a method of eliminating these things here and I’ve been trying to find a way to ensure I don’t have the same problem next year. From what I have read, the best way is to power rake your lawn. Killing the crane flies won’t do much good because they’re already mating and laying eggs at this time. The larvae is what eats your grass so by power raking your lawn, it will cut into the top layer of your soil which is where the eggs and larvae are and by raking, you will kill them. I plan on buying a power rake attachment for my lawn mower which is only like $12.00 at Canadian Tire, power rake the lawn and spread fertilizer in October. Then power rake again after winter probably in March or April, spread fertilizer and also over-seed to ensure the grass grows in thick and healthy.

Also, I have not watered my lawn for a few weeks now since drying out the top soil will also help in killing the eggs/larvae. The grass won’t be damaged as it has the capacity to go without water for awhile. It just starts to look a little brown on top. And attract birds to your lawn because they eat the larvae! I saw birds in spring pulling out these worm like things which I now know were probably larvae.

Hopefully this helps and if you have any other info on getting rid of these things, please post!