If you have walked through any grass lately in Southeast Louisiana, you may have been swarmed by flying bugs that look like huge mosquitoes.
WWL listeners texting the Early Edition of WWL First News call them many things. While many people think they are "mosquito hawks," others have called them a wide variety of things:
· Daddy Long Legs
· We called em mosquita eatah
· Skeeter eaters
· I have ALWAYS called them XL skeeters
· Cow Mosquitoes is what we called them as kids
· My wife's family call them Galli nappers not sure why.
· We called them " Cow flies "
· We just called them mosquito eaters.
· They are called GollyWhoppers
Another texter refused to change the terminology:
· Ok ok they're crane flies but I'm still calling them mosquito hawks
While many people believe they eat mosquitoes, they do not. In fact, an Urban Entomology expert says once they advance from larvae; they pretty much just mate until they die.
"They may not feed at all. And primarily what the adults are doing is just reproducing and shortly after, they are dying,” LSU Ag Center Dr. Aaron Ashbrook said.
He says the crane flies mate, lay eggs, and only live a week or two.
Ashbrook explained that Louisiana typically sees large emergences of crane flies in February and March. Most adults are typically attracted to light and water.
“You can of course turn lights off that are by the door, so they are less attracted to that area. You can potentially consider sealing cracks and crevices. But we do not recommend that you actively control for crane flies.”
They do not bite either.