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+--- Thread: Do you also have so many Daddy Long Legs (/Thread-Do-you-also-have-so-many-Daddy-Long-Legs)
Do you also have so many Daddy Long Legs - Pronkertjie - 19-09-2006
Where I live and work we have a huge Oval. There are millions of these Daddy Long Legs on the grass. This weekend one of our staff posted this on our Intranet:
Hi All, since Ila kicked off our Autumn nature-watching with her mushroom report... I thought I'd share with you some of my Daddy Long Legs research.
On the way home from church Mark happened to say 'remember all those horrible grey larvae we had earlier this year... I bet they were of the Daddy Long Legs since we had so many'....
I thought that this could only have been a coincidence... so with the help of Google decided to find out... and it turns out Mark's hunch was RIGHT.
Daddy Long Legs (aka Crane Fly) do indeed lay eggs in grass (which is why we have so many) and the larvae are the fattest around April/May before they pupate and emerge as clouds of daddy long legs in late August/early Sept.
So those hundredds of grey larvae we had in spring are leatherjackets - the larvae of Daddy long legs. Nature lovers amongst us may have known this... but for all you fellow ignorants out there... I thought I'd share this new found knowledge. Here are a few snippets from the internet on Daddy Long Legs/Leatherjackets...
Leatherjackets are the larval stage of the crane fly or daddy-long-legs. Leather jacket larvae are about 2.5cm (1" long), greyish black in colour, legless and with no distinct head.
In summer leatherjackets pupate. In August they start to lay eggs re-infesting lawns. Within two weeks eggs hatch. The young start to feed, continuing throughout winter, ready to gorge on grass roots in spring. Grass growth slows and yellow patches appear. Grass is easily pulled up, with little or no root growth.
In August gardeners may see clouds of daddy-long-legs emerging from lawns in the early morning and this, as well as the listed damage, are sure signs of leatherjacket infestation.
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Leatherjacket larvae are greyish-black or brown in colour, are legless and without a distinct head. They are usually soft and plump, but have a tough skin.
Crane fly adults are large flies with slim bodies, long ungainly legs and have narrow wings. They emerge in late August and early September, shortly afterwards eggs are laid in the soil. A single female may lay as many as 300 small oval black eggs.
The larvae hatch in about a fortnight, at this stage they are very vulnerable. Large numbers of larvae perish unless the weather is cool and damp during this hatchingperiod. The larvae grow slowly over winter, but will be about 40 mm long after the main spring feeding period. During summer the larvae change into pupae in the soil before emerging as adults.
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Wet autumns and mild winters will favour leatherjackets which is why we are facing an epidemic this year. A survey by Dow AgroSiences suggests that leatherjacket populations are higher than in 2001 which was a particularly bad year. Their test sites showed an average of 250 grubs per m2 with 80% of the sample sites showing infestations. The biggest recording prior to this year was 30 grubs per m2! (this is from 2005 - but by all accounts 2006 is just as bad or worse).
http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection/wp/c/Crane_fly.htm
for even more PLUS pictures!!!
Do you also have so many Daddy Long Legs - Pronkertjie - 19-09-2006
Just now someone else posted this on the Intranet:
Ok, count the daddy long legs and lets do the maths ...
... based on Josie's report below , if all of those daddy long legs lay 300 eggs, and the autumn and winter conditions are right, I reckon the oval will be about 5 feet deep in larvae!!
pider: pider: pider: pider: pider: