Found some leatherjackets

[willyg]

I was weeding my soil in one of my raised beds today and came across 3 strange larvae of some sort, i googled it and after a bit of research it turned out it was the larvae of the daddy long legs - leatherjackets.

there was only 3 that i found, i dug the soil up and all and turned it over but didnt see anymore since doing that , just lots of earthworms! which is a good thing

my question is, do i spray with the insecticide you can get or will i just leave it and plant in it anyway, since i only found 3

I know they eat young seedlings roots and thats what id be planting in it , young seedlings i started off indoors , i dont know which plants i will be growing in this raised bed yet .

 

[johnny canoe]

I love this story. One of my sisters would absolutely have a meltdown if I told her. She is terrified of daddy long legs.

I didn't know that they damaged roots.

 

[willyg]

if u go to my profile there is a link to a video of it , the larvae are so rotten looking lol
i am terrified of spiders i think i have arachnophobia
did u no daddy long legs have powerful poison in them but cant use it because they have no fangs

 

[Beth_B]

Most "daddy long legs" are not actually spiders. And it's a myth they are venomous but can't bite.

http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

Also can't find any evidence they are harmful to plants. Can you provide a cite for this?

 

[willyg]

yeah, only spiders scare me despite the daddy long legs resemblance to spiders (the long legged spindly ones) they dont cause the arachnophobia to flare up. the fact they can fly should make them more terrifying like, flying spiders!
but its the larvae that they lay in the ground that can eat young seedlings and small plants roots. heres a link below

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=651

i dont know if i should really get this leatherjacket killer or just let them live... its really expensive and i only found 3 of them, plus i have nothing against daddy long legs'

i didnt know the venom thing was a myth, Beth, thanks for letting me know.

 

[willyg]

sorry its actually the crane fly that we call daddy long legs here where i live, not the spider

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

 

[Plantdoctor]

Leatherjackets are usually found in lawns, they can do some damage,by eating roots

As for spraying insecticide indiscriminately because you found 3 larvae, that is a bit OTT.

 

[willyg]

yeah true Plantdoctor , and also the insecticide contains nematodes which sound rotten !