I’m having to remove at least two Daddy long legs (Crane fly) from the house every day. If I open the door on an evening, there are always a number of them sleeping on the outside of it. There were a few buzzing around at my parents house in Bradford the other day.
Are we having an invasion? Has anyone else noticed a huge influx of crane fly?
An interesting symptom of this seems to be that spiders, due to their new diet of giant flies, are now growing much larger too. So now we have gianormous spiders skulking around hunting and eating even bigger flies. I fear for the lives of our cats, although they seem to be having fun hunting and catching the flies too.
UPDATE: In addition to Leeds and Bradford, I’ve now had reports of huge flies and spiders in Huddersfield too.
UPDATE: To repell these flies get some Citronella oil apply it around your doors and windows, perhaps dousing some small pieces of cloth. To get rid of ones that have already got in I just recommend catching them in your cupped hands and throwing them outside. If you’d prefer that the ones you miss don’t lay eggs all around your house, get some fly paper to catch those stragglers. Mass killing and torturing of them achieves nothing long term; you’ll just end up in Buddhist hell.
Comments
and halifax :P
yes i have seen a marked increase in crane fly this year,in fact the things are driving me nuts. been browsing the web about them and the advice ranges from leave them be they are no harm,to kill them all because they will kill your lawn. must admit the grub stage is one ugly mother.
There is a theory in the ancient Vedic scriptures of India that God didn’t create the world. He created all the elements only and then gave the actual job of putting them together to another guy, called Brahma. That might explain the reason behind the crane-fly, and quite a few other things aswell?
Think about it …
Harry: Most scientists know that the simplest explanation is usually correct. The simplest explanation here is that you’re a crackpot.
Only 2 a day!
I’m clearing out about 20 a day at the moment but that’s because the windows are being left open due to having the painters in.
Apparently, the plague of the flying beasts is due to the lack of wasps this summer who normally eat the crane-fly lava (leatherjackets).
So wasps do have a purpose!
THE CRANE FLIES ARE SO NUMEROUS IN MY HOUSE THAT THE SPIDERS ARE MASSIVE ON SUCH AN ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF FOOD.
FORTUNATELY MY 13 YEAR OLD JACK RUSSEL IS STILL ABLE TO CATCH BOTH — HE SPOTS THE SHADOWS CAST AS THEY DASH ACROSS THE CARPET AND POUNCES!
Ok – you got me John I am actually a ‘crackpot’
But no I’m not going to put my efforts into making childish insults at people who hold different views to my own. It is a fact however that throughout history most scientists don’t agree on anything.
Harry: What other response could I give? I assumed your comment was just a bit of fun. It isn’t rooted in reality. It doesn’t even make sense. It’s a pointless comment as far as I can see. Applying that logic to things goes nowhere.
me: “I crashed my car and now I have to fill in all these insurance forms, why IS that?”
me: “Strange how time keeps going forward without ever getting tired, why IS that?”
me: “I got custard in my eye and it now stings, why IS that?”
harry: “You’ll need to have a chat with Brahma about it”
or am I missing some subtle nuance of your original comment? (seriously)
Similar sort of problem down here in the South (NW London) every evening theres between 2 and 10 of the creepy things crashing into the lamp or sat on the wall. I don’t mind most insects but these things fly / float around in a completely random fashion.
Does anyone know where they tend to nest and when their season finishes?
Having a wasp free summer was great (especially for Ice cream lovers like me) but I guess theres always a trade off.
We are innundated in Nantwich too, i’ve never seen so many daddy longlegs, at least ten a night. As for the spiders, well they are just unbelievable at the moment. I wouldn’t say they were big but one of them kicked the dog off the couch the other night and later his brother was seen TRYING to duck under the the bookcase. It doesn’t stop there either, this evening I threw one out into the garden and he had the nerve to chase me back up the path and then lock me out!
Ok , so maybe I am exagerating – just a bit. Seriously though we have far too many of those creepy longlegs things and seriously the spiders are huge and numerous too. Enough of a problem for me to actually try to find out why. So here I am!
Also, before I fly off (pardon the pun). Does anyone know why crane fly are only ever around in September? My ten year old asked this evening how much longer they were going to be around. The questions then went from strength to strength and I had to admit I didn’t know but would try to find out for her. She asked if they flew off to another country for the winter. I smiled and told her they didn’t live long enough. So anyway can anyone help here please? Do the leatherjackets live in the ground for then entire year until next September?
I hate them. East London is swarming with the bastards. Kill Kill Kill!
Well I am pleased other people are spending their leisure time investigating the sudden increase in daddy long legs, it makes me feel like less of an obsessed nutter, but seriously apart from the fact that I have harboured a fear of these things since early childhood, there are sooo many this year its unbelievable. I live in Bradford and where we are there seems to be hundreds every night(might be a slight exageration but they run into the dozens at the very least). I too can state that I agree there IS an increase in the huge leggy, extremely fast running house spiders as well. I have literally been taking 3 or 4 out of the house every day, and that doesn’t include the ones that our rather agile cats catch and devour at any opportunity. I am convinced by now they must be the same ones coming back to taunt me! I am only stopping short of carrying out a marking experiment on one of the spiders to prove or disprove this theory on the basis that my children may lose all respect for me altogether and it would really be fostering my paranoia.
The increase in the number of dll’s this year has been incredible.I am absoloutley petrified of these insects,i baulk just at the thought of one.They get into my conservatory and i am like a mad woman trying to vacum them up with the extension.And spiders!!!At least 10 so far,whoppers aswell,one of whom thought it would be hysterical to hide behind the bath sponge and give me a nice surprise when i got in the shower.
Very satisfying page to discover (via google) while having my train of thought derailed by DLLs crashing around inside the lampshades. Definitely think there’s more of ’em this year. (West London.) Also enjoyed the rest of the site, John.
I thought I’d be a bit of an anorak and investigate these annoying flying things that bug me around this time every year – and was pleasantly surprised to find this website. I didn’t know anything about these creatures, but now I do, thanks to you John and your fellow posters.
I hate the Crane fly and whack them whenever they’re in my house. Bloody thing’s can never fly straight, one flew right into my ear today before being terminated. It had to die I tell you.
Roll on November or whichever month these creatures disappear as I want to open my windows again.
well, we are in october now so there are fewer DLL’s but we have not noticed a decrease in the house spiders, i am just hoping its because we had a house extension etc and they were all disturbed etc, but i am worried. I have to put a big one out every day, i don’t like to harm them, but i wonder if its the same ones keep coming back and if i should put them out away from home? any ideas?
This post has been rather popular. Thanks for the all the feed back.
btw, I’ve not killed even one of these. I’ve got rather good at cupping them in my hands and letting them go outside. Though, for all I know, I may only be plagued by one fly that keeps getting back in.
I do find lots of DLL carcasses around. Mostly in the sink, but one found it’s way into the gas hob and looked rather charred.
Well, there’s still a few left in North East england, but bloody hell I never saw anything like last month. Oddly enough I googled Daddy Long Legs invasion like everybody else……..and ended up here, like everybody else.
I remember one day walking around town in September and every single house had tens of the pointless floaty bastards perched on the window sills and doors. Must have been millions in total, like a plague of pointless floaty locusts whacking into your face as you wander along. I thought “there must be something wrong here”, and here I am!
HELP!!!! May the 13th and there I was, down in Kent, lovely evening, door open and there, in the kitchen were TWO daddy long legs. Why NOW I ask?
What does the lava look like? Is it a wiggly grub of which I seem to find by the dozen in my garden at the moment????
I am absolutely terified of the DLL, even saying the name sends shivers up my spine. And again WHY, beginning of June and i have seen several of them. So now the first thing i do when i get out of bed is search the house to make sure none of them have got in over night. I cannot even go in the same room as one. God do i sound pathetic, a 40yr old scared of a DLL!!
I bought a spidder sucker off of eBay a couple of days ago and its great, I just suck them up! Still trying to find the last one though – its gone missing!
Adam
Great News! I managed to locate, suck & chuck the final (well it better be!) daddy long legs from my house seconds after writting my last post!
Thanks, Adam
haha for adults some of you arent very mature..
anywaayz… do the one with spikes on the sting you? ive been told they do.. :S but then people say they dont harm u
they come in my room at night and im scared im gna get killed by a crane fly!!
now i have an excuse to be immature.. im only 16 :D
So I’m not alone…..I have fear of these damn things. I know they can’t harm….but those long dangly legs flapping about…ugh! I heard though that even though they can’t bite us they do contain poisons. Are they harmful for our pets when they eat them?
So glad i found this site!! DDL are evil, invading our homes, doing press ups on our walls. They disgust and horrify me – slept on the sofa last night as two of the devil’s disciples flew over me in bed. Sad i know..
How long can each one live?
Was interested in this site. I train First Aid for my living and recently whilst dealing with the Poisons session of the course one of my students came straight out with the following statement “Did you know that Crane Flies or DDL are very venomous insects” at this the remainder of the delegates started to laugh. The original spokesperson then added that although they are very venomous they can not harm us because they do not have the necessary biting and injecting parts to use the venom they possess.
Wow, the daddy long legs are quite famous now. There are quite a few up here in Inverness to, huge ones, supermacro! One stole the baseball cap of my head tonight!No seriously, i don’t like their random flight and whirring noise either. However, they only live for a few days, and they never eat as adults – just drink water and live to mate. Respect to the little fellas i say.
ross g
3rd September 2006
Whole year passed since this forum started… and since I moved into my new house. Long overgrown lawn which disappeared over the next few weeks, eaten by lavae of crane fly. Spent all year seeding and re-growing new lawn which now looks great!!!! But guess what DLL’s back with vengeance laying their dirty eggs all over again. Help, how can I kill the lavae before they start to eat my lawn for the second time.
Glad i have found a site on Daddy long legs, you have no idea how much i have searched on these little critters over the last week! I was bitten by one last week! YES I KNOW (they don’t bite thing) BUT I WAS! While out re seeding my grass last friday, i felt a sort of buzzing in my trouser leg, (you know the one where the daddy long legs bounces off the walls sound) I suddenly felt a burning sensation at the back of my leg, i grabbed the thing through my jeans panicking that a wasp was up my trouser leg, i quickly managed to whip off one trouser leg and slowly holding the other eased it off, i started having palpations and felt rather dizzy, i sat down and told my husband to shake my trousers outside to get rid of the wasp, NO WASP except a half squashed DLL complete with wings and six legs! The back of my calf had two tiny pin hole marks with blood streaming from them! A week on and my leg still aches when i walk! can anyone find anything on the web about this, i have searched everywhere but have found nothing!
Ha! Just found this site about the daddy long legs! What a relief that’s is not just us! We have a massive problem in Scholes, near Bradford, since we moved into our house 2 weeks ago! Got literally hundereds of the blooming things on each window every day. Swarms of them fly towards the house when I walk past or put the lights on! Can’t open the door to let the dog out otherwise the room is filled with them! (yep, the dog loves chasing them!)
Can’t say I’m looking forward to the bloated spiders, which I’m sure will soon follow either.
Still. Its better than wasps I suppose!!
Help?
How do stop them from ruining the lawn?
Julie
xxx
we have a so many here in widnes i can never remember this many ddl’s in my life if i look at my back lawn its actually moving with them and doors have to be opened carefully! as for them being poisonous i hope not coz my dogs just ate a few !
They are EVERYWHERE here in Leeds too. My question is though, why are there fewer wasps? I manage a massive school-ground, and the grass – acres of it – is wearing a brown wig! I strimmed the front of the school today and disturbed thousands of them. Were they laying eggs?
Wasps feed on leatherjackets and there are fewer wasps this year so more DLLs.
DLLs just look ridiculous with those gangly legs flapping around and their drunken flight patterns. Can’t say they scare me, but it is annoying when they come into the room and start buzzing your head and smacking into things. They are a doddle to kill though – no reflexes to speak of.
I don’t kill them, I put them outside. Does anyone know why their are fewer wasps around?
This afternoon, I watched a huge flock of starlings feasting on the crane flies on the school grounds that I care for. Starlings were endangered recently, millions were killed by a mystery virus. Hopefully, this glut of flies will aid their full recovery.
I hate these things. I have removed 5 from my house today, totalling about 20-30 this week!
There’s also at least 5 crane fly corpses stuck in my hall lights (which have a bracket around them).
Last year they really made my life HELL as I have a big fear of anything with multiple, gangly legs, and a lesser fear of flying insects. Combine the two and it’s my worst nightmare.
This year hasn’t been so stressful though, I bought this thing called a bug buster which is like a hand held portable vacuum that humanely sucks up insects so I can kick them out of the house.
It’s primarily for spiders (what I originally bought it for) but it works fine on other annoying bugs like moths and daddy long legs.
Even pretty huge ones!
This is the web site:
http://www.buyabugbuster.com/
Only a tenner and well worth it!
I don’t work for this company or anything, I just really rate the product. If it wasn’t for this I’d have been spending most of my nights sleeping on a sofa!
i am so terrified of Dlls that i turn into a crazy woman, i always fall out with my husband at this time of the year as even though my logical mind knows that he moves as fast as taz to get rid of them but the mad part of me just sees him moving in slow motion. does anyone pleeeease have any ideas of repeling them.
I hate these things man!!!!
Im paranoid there driving me insane. how do kill these Duttie Things. there everywhere in sheffield stupid daddy long legg crane dumm @ss spider creatures why cant they just dissapear off da face of the earth :(
And dey betta not come bak how you stop dere eggs from hatching it cud be happening write now as i type there everywhere in Sheffield Watchin my every move probralby rite now 2 :O
soz ’bout da spelling (+ slang) give a dll crane fly haselled kid a break im only 13:D
I hate these things man!!!!
Im paranoid there driving me insane. how do kill these Duttie Things. there everywhere in sheffield stupid daddy long legg crane dumm @ss spider creatures why cant they just dissapear off da face of the earth :(
And dey betta not come bak how you stop dere eggs from hatching it cud be happening write now as i type there everywhere in Sheffield Watchin my every move probralby rite now 2 :O
soz ’bout da spelling (+ slang) give a dll crane fly haselled kid a break im only 13 :D
The larvae hatch late August and take about ten days to mature into DLLs. That’s why we have them early September!
I hate them, they are driving me mad, I cant open my windows because I am in fear of being attacked. When will they go?
Well, I really thought it was just me! I am absolutely terrified of DLL’s, I moved out into the country-side in Ireland for the beauty and peacefullness and now I daren’t leave the bloody house! the car is parked at the end of our long path and it is like running the gauntlet, trying to reach the car before get hit by one of these dangly gangly wierdy things! I find it ridiculous that this is making such an impact on my life but I can’t help it.
I have an intense fear of spiders, especially long legged ones, so long legged beasties that fly?! OMG! how worse can it get?
When do these things die off, soo I hope?
Maybe I should just spray the grass in petrol and set it alight so they don’t come back next year! :-D
DLL IS THE ONLY POISONOUS INSECT INDIGINOUS TO BRITISH ISLES (APPARENTLY/ALLEDGEDLEY)BUT I WAS TOLD THAT THEY ARE OR MAYBE NOW IT IS WERE UNABLE TO PENERTRATE OUR SKIN AND THEREFORE ONLY ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF US. MY SON HAD TO DRIVE TO HIS GIRLFRIENDS HOUSE AT 2.30 A.M. TO GET ONE OUT OF HER BEDROOM AS SHE WAS CRYING DOWN THE PHONE FOR AN HOUR. MORE FOOL HIM I SAY….. BUT THERE SURE SEEM TO BE AN INVASION OF THE GANGLE CRITTERS THIS YEAR. COUILD IT BE THELONG DRY JULY AND THEN THE VERY WET AUGUST FOLLWED BY A WARM SEPTEMBER?
OR ARE THEY ACTUALLY TAKING OVER THE PLANET………..OH MY GOD WE’RE DOOMED……….. P.
REFERENCE MY PREVIOUS MESSAGE, STUPID ME I FORGET TO MENTION WERE THIS INVASION OF D L L IS. I LIVE IN THE PARTICULARLY BEAUTIFUL NORTH EAST, I MIDDLESBROUGH. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.
CHEERS FROM PAMELA.
i am in peterborough, i got chased out of the bloody pub last night by these devil things only made worse by the laughter that followed me out by the oh so sympathetic alcys only to walk in the house to get smacked in the face by one (Dll not alcy) fell out with my husband as of course it was his fault it was in the house (not) today walked the kids home from school, they ran onto the grass and i swear if i wasnt to frightened of the fact the whole field seemed to rise with them i would have fainted, but the worse thing of all this is that i am looking like a complete fruit loop, mad woman, its comforting to know i am not alone in my fear, disgust and torment, if we just kill them off i will buy the wasps an ice cream and the birds cream cakes so they dont starve.
we have gazillions of the things here … I mowed the lawn last night & it was a like a scene from a plague movie …
grass looks OK so far .. the July hot weather did more damage
just thought i should set the record straight.
the daddy long legs we are talking about are actually Crane Flies, the daddy long legs (an actual spider) is the insect with a powerful venom but cannot penetrate human skin.
WE seem to have loads of the buggars here in Aylesbury, Bucks too!
Also i seem to be catching more and more spiders that really do seem to be getting bigger and bigger in size!
And dont start ,e on the number we have in webs just “floating” in the sky in our garden!!
Loads here in Wolverhampton too.Left the window open in our study last night to find 21 of the bloody things on the walls in the morning.Hundreds outside too.Seems like a few on everybodys house,especially those that have a white surface somewhere.The lawns look ok,but there are thousands of ants and flying ants on that ,so maybe they are killing some leatherjackets?
OMG!! The more I read, the more paranoid I am becoming!! reading the message from Steve about finding all those DLL’s in the house!
I have one window open in the house and I have pinned a piece of net curtain over the opening so none of the little b*$&*”d’s can get in!
I did have to get my partner to remove 2 spiders from the bedroom last night which is unusual! All I can say about the spiders is get a bloody move on and eat the gangly little blighters quick! is it nearly the end of DLL’s season yet?, My nerves can’t cope much longer
Just take a look at the buggers on google images!!! I just get hold of them turn the lights out and throw them out of the window.
Earwigs!! Now they are nasty little things and I keep finding them in dark corners. If you try and get them in a glass they rear up at you.