Photo By: James Morgan
Over the past few years this over-sized mosquito, or so I thought, has been showing up in my bathroom shower, on windows and walls of outside structures. It has legs like a daddy longlegs spider and the slender body of a mosquito. Unlike mosquitoes they do not have biting mouth parts and are harmless. I guess this is why the crane fly is known as the mosquito hawk or daddy longlegs.
Crane fly larvae are known commonly as leatherjackets. They are cylindrical in shape, but taper toward the front end, and the head capsule is often retracted in the thorax. The larvae can be found on dry land and in water.
Crane fly adults are large to medium-sized flies with elongated legs that are easily detectable, and wings that are transparent, brown, grayish-black, or brownish yellow. Their wingspan is about 1/3 to 2 1/12 inches. Crane flies have such a short lifespan (10 to 15 days) that they do not eat at all even though some believe that they prey on mosquitos. In fact they are anatomically incapable of killing or consuming other insects.
These dainty looking over-sized mosquito impostors should be looked at as nothing more than a nuisance. Place some sticky traps on windowsills or near outdoor lights. Better yet wait it out the 15 days.