Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
Dragonflies are a common sight in this area. With their ability to hover and fly straight up and down, they can resemble little helicopters flitting around your yard. What you may not know is with all that flitting around, these attractive flies are natural “mosquito munching machines.” In fact, one dragonfly can consume hundreds of mosquitoes every day.
Farmersalmanac.com provides some helpful tips for attracting dragonflies to your yard so they can start working for you to help curb the mosquito masses. One thing you will want to do is remove the bug zapper. Dragonflies can just as easily find themselves in the bug zapper as will mosquitoes. Let the dragonflies take care of zapping harmful insects around your yard. If you have a water feature or pond in your yard, dragonflies like to lay eggs in still, rather than moving water. Keep in mind that mosquito larvae also flourish in still water, so you might want to forgo this. If you have a pond with fish, consider adding some aquatic plants in pots and submerge them in the water. This will help protect the dragonfly eggs from being eaten by the fish. Some aquatic plant suggestions are water lilies, cattail, umbrella palm and swamp milkweed. There are also land plants you can add to your yard that will attract dragonflies, including: Black-eyed Susans, white yarrow and meadow sage. These plants will also attract humming birds, who also eat a good deal of mosquitoes. You can check with a local garden center for plants that will do well in our area.
Although mosquitoes are a fact of life in our area, these hints will help you find some help in fighting back.