Next time you wonder what pesky mosquitoes are good for, keep in mind that they serve as food for dragonflies, which is why we love dragonflies so much.
Dragonflies are carnivores, and they feed on mosquitoes, midges, flies, bees, butterflies, and other small insects that they can easily prey on while on the fly.
According to Parks Ontario, there are about 7,000 species of dragonflies worldwide, and 130 of them make their home in Ontario.
Dragonflies are part of the family Odonata (meaning “toothed ones” because they have large toothed mandibles, and according to Parks Ontario, Odonata insects have been around for 325 million years!
While most of us see them flying freely around our forest and gardens, but their life journey is spending the majority of their time underwater in the larval stage. Once they find the perfect spot in the water, adult females continuously dip the tip of their abdomens into the water to release the eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae can take anywhere from two to six years before they reach adulthood.
According to Parks Ontario, “during the larval stage, baby dragonflies molt between six and 15 times. To fuel this process, dragonflies subsist on other aquatic invertebrates, larvae and sometimes even tiny fish! They do this with an extendable jaw, which they can shoot out at lightning speed to capture their prey.
“Not only do they have a unique way of catching food, but their quick movements through water are also unique. Dragonfly larvae have gills that line their rectum and pump water through them.
“When they need to move quickly, they blast out pressurized water from the end of their gut, propelling them through the water at rapid speeds. They use this tactic both to hunt prey and to avoid becoming dinner for larger predators like fish and frogs.”
Thank you to Huntsville resident Pedro Cuevas Lopez for sharing this photo with us. If you get any neat shots while out and about and you want to share them, send them to [email protected]
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Brian Tapley says
I always am happy to see the dragon flies come out as I know that mosquitoes and black flies will drop to negligible levels soon after this happens.
Remember, all these bugs where here long before us humans and they will be here long after we have gone and no matter how much money Mosquito Buzz extracts from your wallet to pollute your yard with insecticides it will make no long term difference at all.
We put up a lot of bird boxes too and swallows eat a lot of bugs. They follow me around when I mow grass and catch the disoriented flies that have gone through the mower. No matter how fast they fly and how close to you they come, they never hit anything. Air shows could learn from these little birds.
Of course, if you live in deeply forested areas, well you won’t be quite so lucky as me as the flies carry on longer and deer and horse flies defy all logic and take big hunks out of you.
The only sure cure for biting flies is a good frost, look forward to October.
Allen Markle says
Good stuff Brian Tapley. Back a few years and I thought myself to be a fair fly fisherman. “Til my eldest son learned to cast a fly and showed me that I was a rookie at best.
On the river, up to my shins, sometimes during a hatch, I would stop and just watch. Dragonflies would dart and hover. Wings ticking, jaws cracking, sometimes even causing a fish to rise where my effort had not. When we were little I can remember calling them ‘darning needles’. Likely having heard it from my elders.
Along the smaller streams there would be lots of damsel flies, from the same family as their lager cousins. The colours of these smaller versions can be quite brilliant. I like them around when I’m working in the garden.
And I’ll take having them, the butterflies and birds, rather than some body who fetches an indiscriminate killer mist.