DADDY-LONG-LEGS. 57 



despatch previous to the deposition of their eggs, those 

 who have the wellbeing of their lawn at heart will do well 

 to light a fire of shavings or other brightly burning stuff in 

 the close vicinity of their grass for an hour or two every 

 evening when the daddy-long-legs first begin to appear in 

 form. They will fly into the flames by thousands. Some 

 may urge that such a method is cruel, but death in a large 

 body of flame is instantaneous. Indeed, ocular demonstra- 

 tion is abundant to show that these creatures, as, indeed, 

 most other insects, are scarcely capable of suffering; for, 

 were it otherwise, it is hardly possible that they should, 

 after repeated singeings, continue to fly at a candle flame till 

 they finally succeed in destroying themselves. Where such 

 measures as this are not taken, and the flies are permitted 

 to deposit their eggs in the soil, the only method of safety 

 is by rolling the ground with very heavy rollers, so as to 

 destroy the grubs, but this has only a partial success, as 

 most of them are too deep below the surface to suffer injury 

 from the pressure. 



Birds are valuable allies to the farmer and gardener in 

 their war with the daddy-long-legs, but their numbers are 

 wholly insufficient to cope with the evil. Even the most 

 voracious bird would be choked did he try to stow away 

 more than a certain-sized bundle of straggling legs and 

 wings in his crop. Moreover, the Tipula appears at about 

 the same time that plums ripen, and birds greatly prefer 

 stone fruit to daddy-long-legs. As our own taste inclines 

 the same way, we cannot find any serious fault with them 

 on this score. Spiders dispose of a few, but it is remarkable 

 that, awkward and blundering as the daddy-long-legs' flight 

 is, he very seldom intrudes into the meshes spread for him 



