A bumper crop of daddy-long-legs has filled many Oxfordshire families with fear - but a leading insect expert says if you can't beat them, eat them!

The wet end to this year's hot summer created the perfect conditions for record numbers of the spindly creatures, known as crane flies, to emerge through soft soil.

But Oxford University daddy-long-legs don Dr George McGavin says people should not be afraid of the insects which carry no poison and only live for up to 48 hours.

In fact, the entomologist, who has studied insects at the natural history museum in Parks Road for 24 years, ate a daddy-long-legs when the Oxford Mail visited him to prove how harmless the creatures are.

He said: "I am absolutely amazed at how adults are terrified by these things. They are completely harmless and I don't really know what the fuss is about.

"If you don't want them coming into your room, close the window. If you don't want them buzzing around by your lights turn the lights off!

"Folks will be afraid of anything - spiders, moths, bugs or beetles. It probably begins in childhood when adults say 'that's disgusting, don't touch it' which instills fear into children.

"In fact, there are no spiders in England that can hurt you. I eat many insects but, although I'd never tried a daddy-long-legs before, I ate one to prove that people should not be scared of them."

The life of an adult crane fly is just long enough for them to mate and for the female to lay her eggs. Four to five days later the eggs hatch and the larvae wriggle into the soil. They remain there for ten months feeding on grass roots before finally emerging from late August onwards.

When above the surface they have a manic few hours where they copulate as much as possible and then die.

Dr McGavin added: "There are about 300 species of crane fly in Britain. The adults have a few days of rampant nookie and then they die.

"They are actually very interesting insects to look at up close. Often the female decides during copulation that she does not want to carry on and flies off dragging the male with her by his most sensitive parts!

"People ask me what the point of daddy-long-legs' existence is. The whole object is to make more crane flies, simple as that - it is the aim of every species."