Daddy Long Leggers

BXmark · Jun 19, 2001

Help! It's the attack of the Daddy Lond Leggers!
We seem to be overrun with the critters. As I type here there are 5 on the window screen outside. We can't sit out on the porch without the things running all over us. Anyone know why we are overrun with the things?

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 19, 2001

Uhm... because all the Lady bugs left for the summer? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif Sorry, couldn't resist.

Probably just the weather. It's been a freaky couple of years. Or, it could just be part of a regular cycle.

Not alot of help, I know. But at least they're not black widows. Might try some spider repellant. Moths balls might work, or (I saw one guy actually do this), take some bleach and lay a stripe all around your house. There is also supposed to be an herb that keeps spiders out of your house, you just hang bunches of it around. Course, it might keep YOU out too /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I'll wrack my brain pan for awhile and see if I can remember what it is.

SHF

Bird · Jun 19, 2001

We always seem to have just a few of those critters, but not many. However, I'd love to swap you my grasshoppers for your spiders./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Bird

RichZ · Jun 20, 2001

BX, as SHF said mothballs will repell daddy longlegs. However, other than their appearance, daddy long legs are harmless, and are actually beneficial. They are not actually spiders, but are related to spiders, and eat small insects, so they're actually good to have around. Like Bird said, they're better than grasshoppers.
Where are you located? That might give us a clue as to why their numbers have increased.

Rich

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 20, 2001

Hey Bird,

Are you guys getting the Lady Bugs down there? The blasted things keep wanting to over winter here. (I understand its an asian import lady bug). They hang in the corners in clusters and come in in swarms. The other thing we get are "oakworms" which is not their real name, but what we call them locally. About every 7 years they run a cycle and you can't go near the trees. (Unless you LIKE big ugly worms falling down the back of your shirt.) There are millions of the stupid things. It's not uncommon to fill a coffee can with the sweepings off the porch. I've gone fishing and spent more time brushing the darn oakworms off me than I spent drowning crawlers. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF

Bird · Jun 20, 2001

SHF, the only time I ever notice the Lady Bugs is in the garden and they're supposed to be beneficial. We always have a few each year, but actually not as many as I'd like to have. And I don't know what you're talking about with the oakworms, so I don't guess we have them.

Bird

skent · Jun 21, 2001

Seems like in the spring or fall they have been unbelieveable here (Maryland) They end up literally covering the sunny side of the house, end up in your cars, trucks, everywhere. Seems like the last 5 or 6 years have been worse than normal.

Steve

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 21, 2001

Remembered the herb. Sage is supposed to keep bugs out of your house. BUT, you gotta burn it.

Weather patterns across the country have been changing. Last winter everyone here kept saying it was more like a "real" Michigan winter. I guess they forgot that the snow is supposed to start in November and keep falling until March. Not turn into ice rain in January and stay like that until April. Haven't seen a real Michigan winter here since the early 80's.

Weather changes can make lots of different bugs pop up. I just keep waiting for the new stuff to show. Our DNR has been watching closely because we get a lot of bugs in on shipments to the grocery stores. They're afraid something will decide it's warm enough to live here. Around the turn of the Century, Michigan had a problem with Malaria. Somebody came back from South America with it and they found out it could live here. Took them a few years to get rid of it. DNR doesn't want an instant replay.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 21, 2001

Hey, Steve! Why don't you try using the oakworms as bait?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Rich

MarkV · Jun 21, 2001

We have had tons of Lady Bugs here in Georgia the last few years. I heard that they were introduced to eat some little critters that were killing pine tree crops. Anyone know if that is true?

MarkV

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 21, 2001

MarkV

I was told they're Asian Lady bugs. They're the kind you see advertised in the back of gardening magazines. Our native ones die every winter. These just come in your house and hibernate.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 21, 2001

Mark, lady bugs primarily eat aphids. They are the best non-chemical means of controlling aphids.If aphids were attacking pine tree, that would be it.

Rich

cowboydoc · Jun 22, 2001

Hey when I was working on the barn yesterday I saw a daddy long leg that had fluorescent red bumps all over its' body and legs. Anybody know what this is? Mites, eggs?

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 23, 2001

Rich,

Nothing eats those stupid oakworms. Not birds, not fish. They're a caterpillar, about as big as a pencil and a couple of inches long. They'll strip the leaves off the trees by the end of a summer. There's usually aerial spraying from helicopters, but there's always a bunch that get away. Believe it or not, caterpillars go potty. Looks kinda like coffee grounds. Don't think I want any of that brew /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. But imagine the poor campers. I've been in the woods when it sounded like rain.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 25, 2001

Richard, I've seen that before, too. I think they're some sort of parasite on the daddy long legs. They do look like mites.

Rich

RichZ · Jun 25, 2001

SHF, I know what you mean! I used to live on Long Island, and had a very wooded half-acre (a big lot for Long Island!), and there is a big Gypsy Moth Caterpiller problem there every few years. It always sounded like it was raining in the woods, and everything wood get covered with their droppings, which get bigger and bigger as the summer goes on. The problem would get worse because everyone would spray their trees with pesticides. Well the gypsy moths are immune to almost any pesticide you can think of, so all everyone accomplished was killing everything else. Not only insects, but a day after spraying, you'd find dead birds and squirrels. The spraying did more damage than the caterpillers!

Rich

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 25, 2001

Rich,

I've been told that the oakworms and gypsy moths are two different critters. But I think they're just about the same thing.

The aerial spraying they are doing here is not with persticides. They are using a bacteria that is apparently common and fatal to the worms, and supposedly harmless to humans and everything else. After a few years of it and several complaints from seniors about breathing problems shortly after the spraying, they started warning everyone to stay indoors while the spray is applied and for a few hours afterward.

Its kind of an interesting operation to watch. They mark out areas to be sprayed using large colored helium balloons on long strings attached to stakes, sign posts, etc. The choppers and spray planes just have to stay within the boundaries marked by the balloons.

SHF

RichZ · Jun 27, 2001

SHF, the bacteria you're talking about is Bacillus Thuringeis(sp?), commonly called BT. It's a bacteria that only effects catterpillers. Very effective and very safe. It effects their digestive system, and won't allow them to absorb nutrients. It doesn't harm anything other than catterpillars, and they can't become immune to it like they can to pesticides. It's really the best and safest thing to use for any kind of catterpiller infestation. They now have deveolped a sub'species of the bacteria, BTI, that kills mosquito larvae. Also very safe, and effective.

Rich

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 27, 2001

Rich,

That's pretty much the stuff they're using. Locally at least, they are posting warnings before spraying so that people with breathing problems can get inside. Probably better safe that sorry, but I wonder how many of the complaints are just somebody seeing a helicopter spraying and deciding the "pesticide" is making them sick.

SHF