What's The Harm In Daddy Long Legs?

The last few daddy long legs have managed to bumble their way in to the house and are now flapping against a tall standard lamp in the corner of the living room. Like a man trapped in a prison cell, they can't seem to break free from the glow of the lamp as they fly into the lampshade time after time. It's like watching a plane crash land as it bumps into the ground and then lifts up a bit, hovering for a few feet before hitting the deck again. I had left the front door open as I carried out my ritual of emptying the day's re-cycling into the outside re-cycling bins and without hesitation the hallway light had attracted the bungling bugs as though a sign with 'Utopia' had welcomed them in.

It's amazing how many people are scared of these harmless creatures.Some people react with horror as though they are just about to face a firing squad. What is it that frightens them? Could it be the apparent random movement and dis-organised flight of these gangly creatures? Is it the buzzing noise that sounds as though everything they touch is charged with static electricity? Could it be the 'stinger' on some of them that looks a quite nasty piece of equipment?

So what exactly is a daddy long legs? It's a nickname given to the crane fly. Crane flies belong to an insect family called Tipulidae. The larvae of the crane fly has an equally unusual name in that they are known as Leatherjackets. In other parts of the world the crane fly is also known as the Mosquito Hawk, Gallinipper and Gollywhopper.


So what is this insect with more nicknames than an American wrestling star's tour? There are over 4,000 species of Crane Fly. The crane fly we all know and love has a long slender body with six brittle legs. The legs will detach from the body if the the crane fly is trapped. A favourite pastime of children seems to be to pull off crane fly legs to 'see what happens'! They have two strange antennae just behind their head. These are in fact called 'halteres'. They are the remnants of wings that have evolved into balancing devices. They obviously don't work very well with the crane fly though!

The 'stinger' is in fact called the 'ovipositor'. It's on the end of the female abdomen and it's where she lays her eggs from. It's completely harmless and does not sting at all.

The crane fly spends the majority of it's life as a leatherjacket (larvae). The leatherjacket lives primarily in lawns feeding off the roots of grass and other plants. It is considered a pest in somecases as large areas of prize lawn can be damaged causing bald patches.

Around late July, August and September leatherjackets start to emerge from the soil as crane flies with just one purpose in life. They mate within 24 hours and then die.

Along with spiders, the daddy long legs is one of the most feared of all insects that invade our homes. Yes, that's right! It does not sting, does not bite, when you touch it it's legs fall off and it flies like a model aircraft in the hands of a chimpanzee.

The next time you find one in your home, cup it in yours hands and release it in the garden. The poor thing needs to mate before it ends up in daddy long legs heaven!

Written by Nature Boy for Animal Days Out

Polar Bear Points To The Bigger Picture

The story was a little late surfacing this year, but nether the less the melting Arctic ice caps got 5 minutes of air time on BBC Radio 5 Live recently. As sure as The Pope is a catholic, the story always emerges at some point at the end of the summertime as of course the full effects of the melting ice shelves can be measured and seen properly. The 5 Live presenter quite rightly highlighted that the already endangered Polar Bear was amongst many animals in the region struggling to survive in their rapidly receding habitat. The guest 'expert' on a line from some American institution agreed and nodded accordingly. (OK, it was radio, but I bet he was nodding in agreement!). Then to finish the interview as the travel news jingle started, the presenter asked, "Well, just what can we all do about it"? 

What can WE all do about it?!!

It's like going up to the governor of the Bank of England and saying "Can I lend you a tenner to tide you over, as I've heard you have a national debt of a few billion pounds". It was if the answer could be summed up in 10 seconds and then we would all go off, do whatever was required to halt climate change and then sit down with a cup of tea with a feeling of deep contentment that we've just saved the world.

Don't get me wrong. I am an obsessive recycler and eco-warrior. All my light bulbs are low energy, I always turn off my TV rather than leave it on standby and I cycle (bike) everywhere. My carbon foot print is about the size of a field mouse. Am I really going to make a difference by having the walls of my house filled with foam. I suppose my point is that it has to be a collective global effort. If I'm making an effort why can't the USA and China agree to sustainable carbon emission limits at the next international meeting on climate control? At the last Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December 2009, they could only agree to disagree. Now with 'Climategate', internal politics have again got in the way of common sense. Is there any hope? Not only can any of the major players not agree at national level, but those who did agree have been rather economical with the truth and now they all disagree. If that makes any sense!!

For very different reasons I don’t see how both the USA and China can agree to limits that they need to aim towards. China is still in the midst of its own industrial revolution. As for the USA they just won’t give up ‘Big Things’. My equivalent footprint in the USA would be that of a Brontosaurus.

How do I know? In the summer of 2009 my family and friends visited and stayed in Florida for two weeks. On arriving at Stanford Airport, our first port of call was for car hire. I had pre-booked an Economy Four Door Saloon. Now where as I may have expected a 1.2 litre diesel - USA don’t do diesel - Ford Fiesta equivalent averaging around 45 miles per gallon, we got a 2.3 litre V6 Ford Fusion where we were lucky to get 24 miles per gallon. Of course it was an automatic as well. And that’s economy!

We had rented a 5 bedroom house near Kissimmee. On arriving every light bulb in the house had been switched on to give us an illuminating welcome. Now this house had every mod con you could possibly think of. There were so many switches and buttons, it took the first week to work out what they all controlled. Every room had air conditioning and a large ceiling fan. All but two rooms had a television. Outside was a swimming pool and spa pool with spotlights that changed colour every 5 minutes. There was even an outside ceiling fan! Incidentally, someone had switched the outside fan on by accident and nobody could work out how to switch it off. After three days, I finally tracked the ‘Off’ button to stray remote control.

I was intrigued to find out what sort of equipment ran the show. On investigation I tracked down some serious hardware that took up the whole length of one side of the house. I found the swimming pool filtration system, the spa pump, the air con condensers and a couple of other large lumps of metal paraphernalia. I’m convinced there was enough hardware to run a town the size of Brighton. On one occasion we broke the sink disposal unit by trying to get it to ‘eat’ some melon skin. Thinking a fuse may have blown I tracked down the fuse board in the house to investigate. It looked like the National Grid control centre, so I thought I best leave it alone.

Now I’m not saying that the Americans have no awareness of saving energy. The local radio stations carried adverts advising their listeners to save power at regular intervals. Advice like, “Turn down your air conditioning and don’t leave a ceiling fan on if you are not in that room”. Useful advice like, “Do you really need your swimming pool filter on all day long?”  I have American friends and the awareness is definitely there.

There is no getting over it. America is big and everything that is part and parcel of American life is big. It would mean a huge life style change for many Americans to change and it would not be a popular vote for the politicians to start taking luxuries away or taxing them.

Climate sceptics in the UK have been asking why Britons should switch off lights, turn down central heating and avoid foreign flights in order to save carbon when the Chinese are increasing emissions at an ever increasing rate and the Americans find it hard downsizing.

Of course with the advance of industry in developing countries, it's not only the climate that suffers, something else has to give as well. I'm not sure whether anyone has noticed but we seem to be losing quite a few animals around the world. Not only animals, but apparently one third of the entire world's species of animals and wildlife in general are endangered. We are basically moving into areas where they used to live either through industry or building new towns and cities and they gradually die out because their homes are flattened. In a nutshell, the overall affect of building on green field sites and knocking down forests and putting people and industry in its place increase carbon emissions across the globe.

This brings us nicely back to the Polar Bear. It’s a cycle that re-cycling won't fix on its own unless all nations and all governments get their act together. They have had so many chances recently, but it's a political shambles. Until there is a collective effort the only place you are likely to see a Polar Bear in the future is in a zoo that can afford some decent climate control.

Written by Nature Boy for Animal Days Out

Nature Boy Notes - Originally written in September 2009 and adapted for 2010. To be quite honest, call me a pessimist, it may as well be September 2014 as not much is going to change at the current rate with those in charge.