Dragonflies as natural predators

I'm not bragging, but I just got done installing 400 feet of dragonfly perch (304 stainless steel aircraft cable) across my backyard. Now we wait for the drama.

Okay, maybe I'm bragging.

j

Do you naturally have lots of dragonflies or do you plant something to attract them?

I'm well situated within half a mile or so of multiple water sources. We've been here more than five years, and I see quite a lot of dragonflies on my trellises, etc. I decided to give them an awesome hunting perch. I have fruit trees, herb gardens, a no-till garden area that attracts good and bad bugs. Low area in the back yard is soggy in the spring, I'll eventually add a small pond at the lowest point. I'm just reinforcing the troops for this year's season of Bug Wars.

j

Anne Miller wrote:Do you naturally have lots of dragonflies or do you plant something to attract them?

I love it when I see dragonflies zip through my yard. While I have a nearby river, they haven't really started showing up until I upcycled small kiddy pools into water features on my property.

I don't think there is any harm in bragging, I hope you might be able to get some action shots in the future of the dragons enjoying their perch!

I definitely will.

You know what? We had wind storms recently and someone's kiddy pool blew into "the ditch" at the back of my back yard. Possession is 9/10 of the law, right? That may become my pond! Talk about upcycling...

j

Timothy Norton wrote:I love it when I see dragonflies zip through my yard. While I have a nearby river, they haven't really started showing up until I upcycled small kiddy pools into water features on my property.

I don't think there is any harm in bragging, I hope you might be able to get some action shots in the future of the dragons enjoying their perch!

I'll be really interested in eight months to know if you think it helped them out! I love when the dragonflies start showing up to thin the mosquitoes out.

In the mid nineties when we first discovered how to spawn Bullfrogs; the dragonflies decimated our first couple of tadpole crops.  We could see the Bullfrogs in the spawning pens catch and eat dragonflies and thought "oh cool, another natural food source".  We failed to realize that the dragonflies were laying eggs of their own. The dragonfly nymphs which were hiding in the muck on the bottom of the pen ate a big portion of our tadpoles before we figured out what was going on. Straining the nymphs out of the muck and covering the pens with 1/4 inch plastic mesh solved the disappearing tadpole problem but another problem cropped up when we excluded the dragonflies from the pens. The nymphs had not just been eating  tadpoles but also mosquito larvae. We had to develop a skimmer apparatus to send the mosquito larvae down the drain to the settling pond until the tadpoles grew large enough to eat the mosquito larvae.
So yes I would say that dragonflies are definitely predacious.

Steve,

That reads like a murder mystery! I love it. Observing how nature keeps things in balance and interacting within the process is so educational and occasionally frustrating. I have no expectations for "the pond." I won't be introducing anything on my own or rooting for anyone involved with its evolution. Just sitting back and taking notes on what takes hold in the water and on the bank, and keeping it full if I have to.

Thanks for your observations.

j

Steve Mendez wrote:In the mid nineties when we first discovered how to spawn Bullfrogs; the dragonflies decimated our first couple of tadpole crops.  We could see the Bullfrogs in the spawning pens catch and eat dragonflies and thought "oh cool, another natural food source".  We failed to realize that the dragonflies were laying eggs of their own. The dragonfly nymphs which were hiding in the muck on the bottom of the pen ate a big portion of our tadpoles before we figured out what was going on. Straining the nymphs out of the muck and covering the pens with 1/4 inch plastic mesh solved the disappearing tadpole problem but another problem cropped up when we excluded the dragonflies from the pens. The nymphs had not just been eating  tadpoles but also mosquito larvae. We had to develop a skimmer apparatus to send the mosquito larvae down the drain to the settling pond until the tadpoles grew large enough to eat the mosquito larvae.
So yes I would say that dragonflies are definitely predacious.

Okay, so I rescued the kiddie pool, and have begun embedding it into my landscape. Yes, I know...microplastics. But such is the world in which we live. When the wind gifts you a pond, you install it. At least I do.

j

IMG_4508 by jgarlits, on Flickr
IMG_4510 by jgarlits, on Flickr
IMG_4513 by jgarlits, on Flickr

J Garlits wrote:I definitely will.

You know what? We had wind storms recently and someone's kiddy pool blew into "the ditch" at the back of my back yard. Possession is 9/10 of the law, right? That may become my pond! Talk about upcycling...

j

Timothy Norton wrote:I love it when I see dragonflies zip through my yard. While I have a nearby river, they haven't really started showing up until I upcycled small kiddy pools into water features on my property.

I don't think there is any harm in bragging, I hope you might be able to get some action shots in the future of the dragons enjoying their perch!

Love the kiddie pool rescue. I stuck a half barrel in the ground near my fruit trees last year mostly for watering convenience and within a couple months it had its own little ecosystem going. Frogs moved in first, then the dragonflies showed up. Didn't plan it but the mosquito situation around the trees improved noticeably.

I have found for really big pest, you need really big dragonfly's  Bigger the better!