Daddy Long Legs

DXP55 · 26 Aug 2014 at 20:31

Has anyone seen any Daddy Long Legs yet - Wife has brought a pack of Nematoads to kill off the grubs in lawn - But so far we have only seen one daddy long legs and instructions are to water these Nematoads into lawn two weeks after they fly - I think one isn't enough to warrant watering them into lawn.

Only problem is the end by date is 3rd September so things are running a bit late.

Dave

DannyDrama · 27 Aug 2014 at 14:26

Oh the ironing!

There are loads round here, my venus fly trap nearly got one yesterday but it got it by the leg so he escaped.

cheesyboy · 27 Aug 2014 at 14:50

Why bother with all that? What's wrong with them?

DXP55 · 27 Aug 2014 at 15:42

cheesyboy said:
Why bother with all that? What's wrong with them?

They do this

dave

cheesyboy · 27 Aug 2014 at 15:45

Well I've never seen that before. Do you have a serious infestation then? Why do they like your lawn so much? And what is it they do to cause it to die?

We have a lot of them kicking about, later in the year, but no such grass problems.

Grimley · 27 Aug 2014 at 15:47

They'll be here soon enough, I've a feeling there will be a bumper batch this year where I live :mad:

I dug loads of their larve up earlier this year.

cheesyboy said:
And what is it they do to cause it to die?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranefly#Pest_status

PhillyDee · 27 Aug 2014 at 15:57

I assume you mean Cranefly, as a daddy long legs is a spider

peige · 27 Aug 2014 at 16:03

PhillyDee said:
I assume you mean Cranefly, as a daddy long legs is a spider

Daddy long legs are craneflys where I come from

Common names

Numerous other common names have been applied to the crane fly. Many of the names are more or less regional in the US, including mosquito hawk, mosquito eater, gallinipper, and gollywhopper.[19] They are also known as daddy-long-legs around the world.[20] - not to be confused with daddy-long-legs that refers to arachnids of the order Opiliones or the family Pholcidae. The larvae of crane flies are known commonly as leatherjackets.[7]

jh30uk · 27 Aug 2014 at 16:25

PhillyDee said:
I assume you mean Cranefly, as a daddy long legs is a spider

Can be either :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_longlegs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

Here we call them Daddy/Jenny Long Legs (not sure if there is a difference for both).

EDIT: Seems Jenny is the Scottish name, Daddy elsewhere.

DXP55 · 27 Aug 2014 at 18:44

I have to own up somewhat - I have finally sprayed lawn with weed killer - I had bare patches all over it along with clover - The bare patches are from Cranefly/daddies who eat the heart of plants roots and slowly work out.-
They even attacked wifes plants in borders - You can see the flowers and leaves sagging so she dug one up and raked out roots and found 10 grubs - in end she had to lift a lot of plants.

My other two lawns are affected but not to same extent as this one.

My idea now is to turn the old lawn from circle back into a border and re-seed the front bit.

So before 3rd September which is use by date on nematodes we will spray/water and prey.

Dave

Bubo · 27 Aug 2014 at 19:16

My dad calls them "Diggle Dygles" God knows where he got that from.

cheesyboy · 27 Aug 2014 at 21:30

DXP55 said:
I have to own up somewhat - I have finally sprayed lawn with weed killer - I had bare patches all over it along with clover - The bare patches are from Cranefly/daddies who eat the heart of plants roots and slowly work out.-

I can't help but be amused at the idea you solved the problem of craneflies killing bits of your lawn by...... killing it all yourself.

Hopefully your Final Solution will be worthwhile with a beautifully unmolested lawn next summer

lflowers · 29 Aug 2014 at 22:25

Bubo said:
My dad calls them "Diggle Dygles" God knows where he got that from.

Haha thats great, wonder whether there is a story behind that, could be a good one!

Paul N · 30 Aug 2014 at 15:20

yeah they normally come autumn time don't they? When it cools down a bit.