Yes indeed it does - I have an example of it most days.
Today I have a story to tell you!
Wandering about in the kitchen getting my tea yesterday I felt something land on my hair. I ruffled it with my hand and out flew a WASP. Luckily it didn't sting me but flew lazily to the window. I opened the nearest draw, grabbed a wooden salad server (the first thing I saw) and killed the wasp with it (and then washed the murder weapon!)
I then got a piece of kitchen paper and flushed the (hopefully) dead insect down the toilet. But it didn't go down - instead it started 'swimming' round the toilet bowl. Grabbing my toilet-cleaning cloth which lives on the toilet cistern, I hastily tried to shake it out of the bathroom window. It was of course half-dead and it just wouldn't leave the towelling cloth. In desperation I just threw the cloth out of the window quickly and shut it.
It is a super day here today (phone interruption) - friends are coming to collect me after I have unloaded my Tesco order (12 to 1 it is coming) and we are going to Dalton (near Darlington) to see a friend.
I went into the garden this morning to retrieve the cloth from the patio and noticed that my window cills were festooned with cobwebs. (this side of the bungalow faces due North). My window cleaner always cleans the cills but he only comes once a month.
There was the damp cloth in my hand - Priscilla was willing to coast along, taking her time- so I wiped the cills with the still damp cloth. But here is the interesting thing - there was not a spider to be seen but the webs were absolutely full of half eaten crane flies (Daddy Long Legs). The spiders must be having a beanfeast - for September read "Daddy Long Legs Time" - it must be written and asterisked on every spider's calendar.
It prompted me to go to good old Google and look him up (don't know whether they were he's or she's but as they are Daddies lets assume males).
So here is everything you need to know about them. Apparently some folk mistake them for a form of mosquito but it you look closely at the proboscis (NO THANK YOU) but didn't go down that road.
The reason so many of them arrive on our cills, or if the window is open in our rooms, is that they are attracted to light. They spend 95% of their lives in the larval stage and are important for the soil, for recycling and decomposition. They eat leaves, plants and bits of organic material in the soil or water bodies where they live,
Do larvae have legs to move about and mouths to eat - sorry chaps can't imagine this.
So there you are. All these words just for the sake of a dead wasp. I hope you all feel you know a little bit more about the much-maligned Daddy LL. All their dead bits, along with spiders' webs now repose in my dustbin. Spiders of course are far too clever to be caught in a damp red toilet cloth.
Have a good day. I am off to put on my glad rags.
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21 comments:
Have a grand day out!
I don't kill the wasps, just evict them. They are too useful eating bugs and grubs that eat my plants!
I live in a very old thatched cottage. if you don’t like spiders never live in an old thatched cottage.
This year we were blessed with two wasp nests. I have been stung twice this year and my partner probably about six times (I have lost count).
We also have a bees nest in the roof.
I have just persuaded a rather large wasp to leave the living room. For a moment I thought it might be a hornet.
The grubs of daddy-long-legs do quite a lot of damage to the roots of lawn grass. My husband waged war on them as he loved his lawn.
Enjoy your trip out. I hope your weather is as lovely as it is down here at the moment.
I really enjoyed this story! Have a wonderful day out dear Weaver. Jackie
Pat, I feel sure that the spelling should be sills, not cills.
As for taking so much trouble to kill a wasp, that was doing it's best to stay alive, despite your efforts, well I would of caught it up and simply evicted it, I rarely kill anything these days.
I think it can be spelled either way.
I once found a (relatively) large spider in the bathroom basin. I flushed it down. And felt awful. It's hardly a spider's fault it's so unappealing. Give it a few minutes. The spider's legs waved at me through the plug holes, in a herculean effort to climb out. What spirit! "You win", I said. And left the bathroom. Hope it found its destiny.
With any flying stuff I just open all windows. Let them make their own luck.
It gets better. The other day I had a floater in one of my eyes. Except it was so big I thought is was a fly. So I kept swiping it away. Oh did I laugh when I realized my error. It's gone now. Floaters are like ghosts. Now you see them, then they vanish.
May the sun be shining on you in Dalton this afternoon,
U
Your Daddy Long Legs and my Daddy Long Legs are not the same... mine do not fly. The one's i call Daddy Long Legs are also called Harvestmen i believe... Although i do believe i know what a Crane Fly is they are just not one in the same to me.. When that wasp flew to the window initially i think i would have opened the window then and let him out.. But honestly i consider wasps mean spirited and downright cranky... they sting first ask questions later so i rarely give them a pass and just do away with them.. Take care dear Pat. Hugs! deb
Hope you enjoy your afternoon out!
To those who say open the window and let it out - my windows have blinds which need to be opened before I can get at the window catch to open it. Too hard an operation for me.
Derek - my dictionary says 'cill' is a variant of 'sill' 'sometimes used in the trade. For some years in my early twenties I worked in the family office (Building Trade) - so that explains my somewhat archaic spelling.
That's fair enough Pat, you've taught me something I didn't know.
My daughters house has a wasp nest clinging to it, so her neighbour, a retired priest came with a very long handled gadget with wasp killer and dispatched the wasps. She asked him about killing gods creatures and he said, “I’m just sending them to heaven.”
The starlings spend a lot of time digging in out lawn for the larvae.
Anon - perfect reply!! They all die anyway excepting the Queen I rather think.
Thanks everyone. See you tomorrow.
The hornets are having their last fling before the weather gets cold. Twice when unloading grocery bags from my car a hornet went inside the bag. Like you, I managed not to get stung and pushed the hornets away. Enjoy your outing with friends.
Wasps are crazy at this time of year. They are getting ready for end of life.
I hope you had a wonderful outing in your glad rags.
Here, crane flies and daddy long legs are two different critters. One looks like a large mosquito as you describe and the other is a long legged spider. I hope you took your glad rags out on a nice outing!
Eviction rather than death. There is a scarcity of insects in the country, we should treasure them ;)
I am sure you had a great time with your friends, Pat - and a good occasion to wear one of your leather jackets, maybe?
As for wasps, I am no friend of theirs. Their sting is painful, and I don't understand why the keep flying about my head when there is nothing there for them, while at the same time plates full of food are everywhere. I would not mind at all if a bunch of wasps were quietly sitting on an abandoned plate, eating whatever is left on it, but I am very wary of them around my head. A bit over a week ago, I was stung, and you can still see it on the inside of my upper arm.
Thank you for explaining about cills/sills. I love learning such things!
Thank you all.
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