I'm not sure if the large, non-biting insects I see every summer around this time are crane flys or gnats. They look like big mosquitoes but they don't bite.
If they are crane flys, then what can I put on my lawn either right now, or later in the fall, or maybe in the spring to kill the leatherjacket larvae that will eat the roots? Will grub killer also kill these buggers to?
Knats are tiny little things -sometimes regionally called nosee'ems cuz they are so small. Craneflies, OTOH, look like mosquitoes on steroids.
Unless one has a serious infestation - more than 35 of the white grub larvae per square foot - treatment is usually not warranted. Birds will get the majority of them or reducing the watering schedule on your lawn can help - they need moist soil to survive and if you live in a cool season lawn environment, allowing the soil to go dormant in summer (as is the nature of cool season grasses) is an effective option.
If the situation warrants, you can apply beneficial nematodes in spring once the soil warms up. To my understanding, milky spore is not effective against cranefly larvae, only Japanese beetle larvae.
Cranefly adults, which are often mistaken for giant mosquitoes, are actually harmless. They are long and slender with very long legs. "Mosquito hawk" is another common name given to the cranefly.
The name Gnat is applied to small insects in the order Diptera (the true Flies) and specifically within the suborder Nematocera. This suborder represents the more primitive members of the Dipteran order but still contain within their number several very notable and important families such as the Chironomidae (Midges) and the Culicidae (mosquitoes). Other families include the Tipulidae (crane flies), Bibionidae (hairflies), Ceratopogonidae (biting midges), Cecidomyidae (gall midges), Simuliidae (black flies), and others. The males often assemble together in large mating swarms. Gnat larvae are mostly free-living, many feeding on plants though some are carnivorous. Larval plant feeders, e.g., the Hessian fly larvae, cause root, stem, and leaf galls to be formed by the host plant. Some species of fungus gnats (families Mycetophilidae and Sciaridae) are very common pests of mushrooms and roots of potted plants in homes and greenhouses. Some South American Pleurothallid Orchids are pollinated by tiny Gnats and have correspondingly small flowers.
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