Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scientists predict it’ll be a record summer for Jenny longlegs

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

TURN off the lights, close the windows, it is going to be a bumper year for Jenny longlegs.

Hordes of Jennys, or daddy longlegs, or, more properly, crane flies are about to take off across Scotland after scientists discovered hundreds of millions of the grubs.

Experts at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) found leatherjackets, the larvae of the crane fly, waiting to hatch.

Previously, farmers have been able to use pesticides but they are now banned, meaning real concern not only for people scared of the flying insects, but also farmers with crops in the ground.

On average, a million grubs live in each hectare of land surveyed by SRUC. In gardens, the leatherjackets are a risk to lawns as they like nothing better than eating the roots of grass.

In the coming weeks they will hatch, with millions of the insects expected in June and July.

Davy McCracken, professor of agricultural ecology at SRUC, who co-authored the study said of the millions of grubs, “90% will end up as crane flies”.

Although not harmful to humans, Prof McCracken concedes many are scared of the insects. He said: “It is partly their size and partly the way they fly – they are just hanging there, drifting around with their legs dangling.

“They will be trying to come to the lights and getting in through a window. A lot of people have a phobia but they are completely harmless.”

A wet autumn meant the larvae did not dry out – the main natural reason they die off.

Prof McCracken said climate change in the last 20 years had seen the average yearly number of leatherjackets double because of wetter weather in Scotland.

Pesticides had been able to kill many of them off but three years ago, products containing chlorpyrifos were banned, meaning there is no longer an effective way of killing leatherjackets chemically.

And with no other way of ridding the ground of the grubs it means they are able to thrive on the roots of spring crops, or grass.

Farmers were now “very worried”, Prof McCracken said, as they waited to see how much impact, particularly on cereal crops there would be.

Dr Mark Salter of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said “specific phobias” such as those of daddy longlegs or other flying insects are an evolutionary condition, “a throwback to our earlier life”.

He said: “Inside your brain there are whole chunks of DNA sequence tucked away that equip you to make a quick decision when confronted by something harmful to you.

“It can be dogs, heights or it can be ancient things that posed a threat to our ancient ancestors. Those things are sitting in our genes and seem to predispose us in this modern day and age to an intense reaction, for reasons we don’t fully understand. It may be due to previous exposure to the sight of insects, or a terrifying film about insects.”