Homeowners warned to brace for more than 200billion daddy long legs

Invasion of the long-legged lovers from your lawn: Homeowners are warned to brace for onslaught of more than 200billion daddy long legs

Homeowners warned of invasion of more than 200billion of the amorous insects
Warm but wet weather provided perfect growing conditions for crane fly larvae
The ‘sex-crazed’ creatures are hatching and will swarm homes looking for a mate

With record temperatures, it’s been a summer to savour – for daddy long legs, that is.

Now homeowners have been warned to brace for an invasion of more than 200billion of the amorous insects.

Experts say the warm but wet weather has provided perfect growing conditions for crane fly larvae, or ‘leatherjackets’, in their underground tunnels.

Now homeowners have been warned to brace for an invasion of more than 200billion daddy long legs (pictured)

And the ‘sex-crazed’ creatures are now hatching – with hordes expected to swarm into homes searching for a mate.

Daddy long legs – which have just a few days to breed before they die – are attracted to lights and often find themselves trapped indoors.

Lawn treatment specialist Ian Kettle said the hungry larvae had been leaving bare patches on customers’ grass in Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex.

He added: ‘I’ve worked in the lawn treatment business for 13 years and never seen so many.’

Paul Hetherington, of insect charity Buglife, said: ‘They cannot eat or drink and only live for a few days.

They are purely built to have sex and the females lay eggs outdoors. They have got 24 hours or so to find a mate.

‘They are sex machines.’

The name daddy long legs is thought to come from the title of a 1912 novel by American author Jean Webster.