Well I have, usually they are around in abundant numbers. The few I have seen have become huge, in every way. Their bodies are much, much longer and thicker, with legs and wings in proportion to their bodies. These are a whole other thing to deal with as they flap erratically about, I hesitate to flail them away from me with my hands, preferring the duck and yell approach. There was one in my bathroom in the wee hours this morning when nature called, and I did not appreciate the adrenalin rush one bit. It seems to have either found it’s way out of the open window or is hiding so it can freak out this human again.
So, are regular crane flies missing this summer, or are these mutants the new thing here in the Land of the Lawn Moth? Or is it just in my yard?
As I understand it, they’re not very long-lived. The larvae turn into adults and those only last a few weeks. We’ve had such an unusually hot and dry summer that it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re affected.
Haven’t seen any yet this year (I’m in Vancouver), but I think it’s a tad early yet, usually see them around mid- to late August. Goofy, useless, aimless things, serving no purpose whatever.
While I concur that the crane flies have seemingly gotten huger, I would say that we have the same number as always. I vacuumed up 5-6 bodies yesterday alone and we always see 2 or 3 when we leave teh deck door open like years past. Now yellowjackets seem to be down this year, but that could be because our neighbors got rid of their beehive.
Sigh. I no longer live in a place with a yard. Now that you brought them up, I miss the buggers. As kids we called them skeeter eaters because our Pops told us that’s what they ate. Apparently, they don’t though. Doing a bit of quick web browsing, it appears the adults may eat some nectar or nothing at all. As larvae they eat vegetable matter. So, I guess as Ayatollah Yawuntz said, they are useless.
By the way, here in the Seattle-ish area, crane flies come in at least two sizes that I know of. One has a wing span of about two inches and one that is probably just over an inch. Maybe you just happen to be seeing the smaller ones, kaiwik.
Wish I wasn’t stuck in the Big City where I’m not likely to see a single one.
Crane flies have typically been a late-fall early-winter critter, so I think it is still too early and too warm. All of the bugs seem off-synch this year though.
Bumblebees have left early. Honey bees are now going crazy on the remaining flowers now that they have zero competition.
Spider-season seems delayed. Garden/orb spiders are only just taking up webs, and they’re pretty small still. Giant house spiders haven’t come indoors yet.
Dragon flies are very early and huge, they’re bigger than the hummingbirds are.
Almost no mosquitoes, probably because it is so dry with not as much standing water or marsh.
No moths yet, usually inundated with moths.
No bats that I’ve seen yet, maybe due to the lack of mosquitoes and moths.
I’m not sure I exactly know what crane flies are, but as a northwesterner, I’ve noticed a complete and total lack of fruit flies this summer.
It’s typical that from about June to September there’s a number of them buzzing around my room at any time regardless of how tidy it is, and I could easily go on rampages with my flyswatter and smash a dozen in a few goes, and I’d set up traps which would easily lure dozens of them to their doom.
This year? Not a one. I blame the unusually dry spring and ball-meltingly-hot summer we’ve had. There’s little in the way of puddles for them and their ilk to spawn in.
Hardly any skeeters, few crane flies, fewer honeybees than usual but for some reason the solitary bees are going ape on the tansy I’ve not pulled out because they’re nomming on it so hard. No cinnabar moth caterpillars eating the tansy, either, which is the other reason I leave it because the moths are so pretty. I’m trying to encourage the bees, I set up a water fountain for them under a drip irrigation hose. Little china bowl full of marbles so the bees can land and drink without falling in and drowning, kept full by drips off the hose. Fewer wasps and ground nesting bees, too, it seems. The heat is messing everything up.
Just moved here from the Midwest. Have noticed spiders, grasshoppers, and yellowjackets.
Mostly I am wondering where the hell the lightning bugs and cicadas are, and why I can leave a lamp on beside an open window after dark and attract no intruders at all.
Funny thing, never saw a crane-fly here, or anywhere for that matter, until August '67. They suddenly appeared, stumbling all over the place, looking like they were lost somehow, or drunk, and doing that bizarre extended mating ritual. I guess I would miss them too if they don’t come back. Something amiably inept about the little buggers.