Leatherjackets and Crane Flies

Eileen solved a decades old mystery for me the other day when she said that in her yard crows eat leatherjackets

I looked up leatherjacket...which led to it's incarnation as a Crane fly...which led to the true identity of a yearly pest that I only knew by the name of May Fly

Why they are called May Flies I have no idea since they appear in March-April and are dead and gone by May. But they are a royal pain, getting everywhere. They come into the house anytime the door is open and often hitchhike on your head or clothing and most disgustingly falling into the glass or cup of whatever you are drinking and you don't see them first.......'nuff said Shocked

Also, it explains why the Grackles and large black birds in my yard take great delight in stabbing their beaks into the ground and eating what they come up with....they are finding the leatherjackets.

A year or so ago, a new member here on the Stew asked a question about how to keep blackbirds from pecking holes in his yard. It is likely that is what they were doing in his yard too.

Thanks Eileen for making that comment. Wink

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To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with Spring ----
George Santayana

i never knew crane fly's were a pest but i dont know much about them either. Ive never been bitten by one so i guess there harmless to us. Just this past weekend when i was cutting the grass out front i noticed loads of them flying up when i got close.

I read the other topic and got confused with some of the names given so i did some research. This is what i found..

Crane Fly

Daddy Long legs - apparently there are two similar creatures often called daddy long legs. I took these quotes from an info page..

Quote:

The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Common names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids. They are characterized by having one basic body segment which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, at most 2 eyes and all 8 legs attach to the pill-like body segment.

Quote:

Another creature often called daddy-longlegs are actually spiders. These long-legged spiders are in the family Pholcidae. Previously the common name of this family was the cellar spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of "daddy-longlegs spiders" because of the confusion generated by the general public. Because these arachnids are spiders, they have 2 body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have 8 eyes most often clumped together in the front of the body, the abdomen shows no evidence of segmentation, have 8 legs all attached to the front most body part (the cephalothorax) and make webs out of silk.

May Fly