Tuesday, July 29, 2003

 

Bugs - the "mosquito hawks" are invading my space
Actually, the name mosquito hawk is a misnomer. Yes, this bug looks like a big mosquito, but it really is a Crane Fly. And no, it does not eat mosquitos, it is a dragonfly which carries the same name of mosquito hawk which does that. The crane fly is mostly harmless. It lives for a few days as an adult, and that is when we see them, mostly at night when they are drawn to lights. They seem to be able to fit through the smallest openings in screens. These guys are big, and fly slowly, more drifting than anything else it seems from the way they silently and slowly float along inside the house, bouncing off the ceiling and walls. They are totally silent when they fly, unlike the high pitch buzz of mosquitos. At rest, they look exactly like a huge mosquito except their wings are out to the side whereas a mosquito folds theirs alongside the body. I have seen ones with a body an inch and a half long. Like I said, really big. As adults, they do nothing but mate and lay eggs in the ground. The eggs hatch in early spring and the larvae are what do the damage, by eating the roots of most lawn grasses. They come out as adults in mid to late summer. In an infested lawn, where the grass is short, or there is bare ground, you can sometimes see the adults emerging from the ground as sundown approaches. It looks strange since it looks sort of like the ground is moving as they emerge. I saw this one evening recently in my own lawn and wondered what the movement was which had caught my eye. I kept on seeing something out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked directly at the spot where I thought I saw something move, nothing was moving. It wasn't until I actually got off my front steps and walked around that I saw them coming out of the ground. Like a butterfly coming out of a caccoon, it takes a while for them to emerge and then they sit and wait for their wings to fill and harden, and then they fly off to mate. Like I said, mostly harmless to you and me as the flying adult, just a bother when they get inside the house and quietly drift around. They are very fragile and are difficult to catch and release as I do with most spiders, without damage. I try to catch and release every spider that gets in the house since spiders are the good guys. What is is with women and spiders? I mean, every one I have known for more than a casual conversation, have all wanted me to kill the spiders they ran into in the house if I was at hand. A while back, I was sitting at my usual place in front of the tube with my keyboard on my lap with my feet up, and a really large garden spider dropped down and gently landed on my arm. I looked at it and it looked at me and I gently got up and used my empty coffee cup to catch it and a piece of paper to cover the cup. I carried it outside and let it go back in the garden where it had come from. Most of these guys get "lost" looking for a mate. Female garden spiders of this variety make a web and stay put in one place. It is the males that roam around, looking for females, of course, just like most normal males, me for example, and for exactly the same reason I'll bet. It just amazes me how big these guys can get. This one was easily 3 inches over his legs, with a body about an inch long. A couple of days ago, I found another one almost as big trapped in the sink, of all places. I don't know how he got there, but he couldn't get a grip to climb out. Again, I implemented my catch and release program. During the summer, I seem to find 4 or 5 every week inside. Most are small, an inch or so over their legs. Well, well... there's another one right now, on the ceiling above the fireplace, trying to blend into the white paint. Time to stop this entry and move this other guy on the ceiling outside where he belongs... Wait a minute, there's another smaller one up there in the corner. I guess I might as well get them all while I am at it. I'll be sure to space out where I release them outside in front bushes so they each have their own territory. I wouldn't want them eating each other! Better they should catch the bad guys! Go spiders!

Posted by: Rowlfe - at: 7/29/2003 12:32:00 PM

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