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This extract from the FAQ page of the British Dragonfly Society:
"At the shortest, a dragonfly's life-cycle from egg to death of adult is about 6 months. Some of the larger dragonflies take 6 or 7 years! Most of this time is spent in the larval form, beneath the water surface, catching other invertebrates. The small damselflies live for a couple of weeks as free-flying adults. The larger dragonflies can live for 4 months in their flying stage. In Britain, lucky Damsels seldom go more than two weeks and Dragons more than two months. Most Damsels rarely go more than a week, and Dragons two or three weeks. They die from accidents and predation, and large numbers from starvation - in poor weather neither they nor their prey can fly.
So, you see, the vast majority of their lives they aren't the beautiful fly that you so admire.........
True enough, but that larval stage has a voracious appetite for larval mosquitoes! Also, I've seined up some common ditch minnows (no idea what their proper names are), there are NO mosquitoes in my lily pond!
Just out of curiosity, is it necessary to have waterlilies in the pond in order to attract dragonflies to lay their eggs in the pond? How does that work?
It helps to have lilies. The dragon flies glue their eggs to the underside of the lily pads. You would need some type of plant material to hold the eggs until hatching.
The biggest problem I have is encroachment. The dragon flies prefer open space, without spider webs to get caught in. I've culitvated a dense
rain forest
type environment, which I modeled after the Marie Selby Garden in Sarasota. My wife prefers to call it the
vacant lot
or weed infested
no maintenance
environment. She is not a nature lover. She was particularly disenchanted with the water snake who took up residence a few years back.
Also, you should never name the goldfish as herons and raccoons find them very tastey.
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This extract from the FAQ page of the British Dragonfly Society:
"At the shortest, a dragonfly's life-cycle from egg to death of adult is about 6 months. Some of the larger dragonflies take 6 or 7 years! Most of this time is spent in the larval form, beneath the water surface, catching other invertebrates. The small damselflies live for a couple of weeks as free-flying adults. The larger dragonflies can live for 4 months in their flying stage. In Britain, lucky Damsels seldom go more than two weeks and Dragons more than two months. Most Damsels rarely go more than a week, and Dragons two or three weeks. They die from accidents and predation, and large numbers from starvation - in poor weather neither they nor their prey can fly.
So, you see, the vast majority of their lives they aren't the beautiful fly that you so admire.........
Well, thanks for peeing in my Wheaties there John. *JK*
I still love anything that eats mosquitoes even if it is larvae. I think I must be the mosquitoes favorite meal. I had some friends that used to joke that they only asked me to go camping with them so the mosquitoes would leave them alone.
And the adults are beautiful.
Mosquitoes!!!? <img src=
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Biting Greenhead flies:
Expose your teeth
Lick your lips
Grasp the fly by the green head and by the tail
Stretch the green head away from the shoulder of the wings
Good advice! But I have questions:
Is the fly already deceased when you do this?
Do you swallow the head of the fly after biting it off?
If the fly is alive when you decapitate it, can you describe your capture technique?
Has no one else here experienced the charming yellowfly?
Humorous yellowfly story
There are days around here with no-see-ums in the morning, yellowflies in the afternoon and mosquitos at night.
Stump-knockers and warmouths. You had to grow up down here to understand.
My sister was sitting on an Oak root at Fish Eating Creek, trying to put a few warmouths in the bucket, when an otter came out of a hole and dispossessed her from that root!
Years later my nephews scattered her ashes in the creek.