The spring season is a sign of renewal and life. The grass is green, the flowers bloom and little creatures walk, crawl or fly around.

At Northwestern State University of Louisiana, students have not been appreciating the environment which surrounds them. They complain about the number of insects surrounding them, such as june bugs, mosquitos and especially daddy-longlegs.

Because of the recent complaints and talks about the abundance of daddy-longlegs on campus, some students and faculty began to worry that people may be killing them solely because they were bothered. With this, they formed a new club dedicated to preserving the lives of these insects.

“You don’t just go around killing innocent people, so I just don’t understand why you would go around killing innocent daddy-longlegs,” sophomore with a major in dance and a minor in biology, Paxton Davis said.

Members of the Daddy-Longlegs Preservation club find killing the insects to be inhumane.

“The other day, my roommate killed one with a fly swatter,” Davis said. “I just don’t understand the lack of sympathy he has for the precious little guys.”

Not only do members of the club find daddy-longlegs to be cute creatures, but they also recognize that these creatures are completely harmless.

“Their mouths are so small that they can’t even bite humans,” Jack Colb, a senior with a major in accounting, said. “I don’t get why everyone finds them so scary; they are just eensy weensy insects.”

It is proven that daddy-longlegs do not harm people or their environment. Working to preserve the lives of the insects, the daddy-longlegs preservation club members are sure to go out of their way to bring the insects to safety, especially when stranded in dorm rooms and hunted by students.

“Every time I see someone talking badly about a daddy-longlegs that is hanging around them, I let them crawl on my arm and take a ride on my shoulder until they reach safety,” Colb said. “You just never know what someone might do; talking about how the bugs annoy them will quickly escalate to them plotting the insects’ deaths.”

Helping the club spread awareness about the harmless creatures, professor Nick Taylor volunteered to be the club’s advisor. He explained why he wanted to help the club members out.

“They’re such alluring, mesmerizing valuable creatures,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t just continue to let people kill them.”

To prevent more students from killing daddy-longlegs, Taylor is working with NSU TV to record a special that accentuates the unique features of daddy-longlegs. This way, when students see and understand the gentle nature of the bugs, they will be encouraged to save the daddy-longlegs rather than kill them out of frustration.

“It’s time we get together to save the lives of these guys,” Taylor said. “This can start as a simple gesture such as giving a daddy-longlegs a ride in your car or even just letting them relax in your dorm room while you study.”

On April 1 at 5 p.m., join Davis, Colb, Taylor and the rest of the club at the culinary arts annex to celebrate the long lives of daddy-longlegs by preparing well-deserved meals for the bugs in need of a home.

If no one is there, it’s because this is a fake story. Nothing above was true or real. Happy April Fool’s Day!