Weather has created ideal conditions for flies
FIRST there was the warning about giant house spiders and now billions of daddy longlegs are set to hatch out this autumn in a “boom of food” for wildlife.
The insects – also known as crane flies – provide food for wildlife, such as birds and spiders, just before the winter comes, insect charity Buglife said.
Some 200 billion of the insects, which commonly head into homes, are expected to hatch out this year because of a warm summer and recent rain.
This includes a giant variety spreading north because of climate change.
So how do you keep them out of your home?
Tips online suggest the only sure way to stop them coming in is to keep your windows closed and seal any cracks and crevices that can bring them inside.
Turning off garden lights can also stop them from gathering near your house and finding entrances.
Phil Pritchard, from P and P Pest Control Ltd, in Abergavenny, added: “At the moment they are in the larval stage. It is the males that come inside.
“They usually enter after the house at dusk.
“When it is as warm as it has been recently, people will leave the windows open. They are attracted by lights like moths.”
Most of the crane flies hatching out are Tipula paludosa, a species which is around an inch in size and is found across the UK.
But a non-native species, Tipula maxima, which has a leg span of up to four inches, is also spreading north because of warming temperatures.
Buglife’s Rory Dimond said: “They are gradually spreading northwards. They are a nonnative 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.”