UK set for invasion of 200 BILLION daddy long legs - including HUGE foreign breed
AN INVASION of 200 BILLION daddy long legs are to hit Britain in just weeks thanks to unusually warm autumn weather.
The UK is bracing itself for an invasion of daddy long legs
Experts are warning that there could be a boom in the insects – otherwise known as crane flies – as the UK can anticipate a warmer than average autumn.
Charity Buglife is expecting hundreds of billions of the creates to swarm UK this autumn.
The majority of them will be hatching from Tipula paludosa – a species that is found throughout the UK and is about an inch in size.
However, a non-native species known as Tipula maxima which is much bigger than its UK native cousin, with a leg span of up to four inches, is moving north thanks to the warm weather.
Around 200 BILLION crane flies are set to plague the UK
Buglife's Rory Dimond said: "They are gradually spreading northwards. They are a non-native species, and they come in from the trading points down the south, in areas like Dover and Kent.
"When the summer is warmer they have more chance of wandering between houses and colonising that way.”
Predators such as birds and badgers will burrow into your garden to feed on daddy long legs
Although they do not pose a threat to humans, they can inadvertently wreak havoc on people’s homes – particularly their lawns.
This is because they are a common source of pray among other animals, such as hedgehogs, foxes, cats, birds and badgers.
As they bury their larvae beneath the surface, many predators will not hesitate to rip up homeowners lawns to get the insects’ eggs.
A common misconception is that crane flies possess some of the deadliest venom known to humans, but lack the fangs to penetrate the skin.
Snake caught by daddy longlegs web
This derives from phlocidae – a species of spider more commonly known as cellar spiders and daddy long legs – which are able to kill highly venomous spiders such as black widows.
It was thought that phlocidae were highly venomous, which led to confusion that their namesakes, the daddy long legs, AKA crane flies, are also deadly – when in fact they are completely harmless.