[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

This guy has been hanging around on my garage siding for a couple days now.
What do they eat to survive? And how do they stay so thin?

They bicycle daily, eat like they did when they were in HS, and chill with turtles.


On a related note, crane flies (mosquito hawk or sometimes daddy long legs).

They look like giant, gangly mosquitos that fly/move pretty slowly. There's a rumor going around that they eat mosquitos. I heard it growing up, and I've heard folks repeat it recently.

Despite widely held beliefs that adult crane flies (or "mosquito hawks") prey on mosquito populations, the adult crane fly is anatomically incapable of killing or consuming other insects. Although the adults of some species may feed on nectar, the adults of many species have such short lifespans that they do not eat at all.

They are also not venomous which is, apparently, another myth attributed to them.

We get these, dobsonfly, here.

I used to find them on our outdoor light pole with the mercury vapor bulb in the mornings (as well as Luna moths and a bunch of other big bugs). I stopped leaving the light on so I wouldn't impact the migration of birds, so I don't see them any more.