It has been stated by environmental
scientists that Dragon Flies in the garden are an indicator of a healthy well
balanced environment in addition their sensitivity to habitat quality and their
amphibious life cycle make dragonflies well suited for evaluating environmental
changes.
Machado’s Skimmer Orthetrum machadoi
(female) taken in my garden at Mount Moreland
They are carnivorous not only in the
adult stages of their life cycle, but also in their larval stage. The dragonfly
is considered as one of the best agile predator around.
During their nymph phase, when a
dragonfly has to remain underwater, it eats aquatic insects, worms, mosquito
larva, small fish, and little tadpoles. In this phase, it is empowered with a
thrust mechanism system to boost its speed while following its prey. It also
ejects water from its anal opening to increase its speed in times of need.
They feed on small insects such as bees,
ants, wasps, butterflies, flies, and midges. A dragonfly has the ability to
move in different directions swiftly. Hence, it can easily out-fly its prey on
most occasions
Adult dragonflies often hunt for food in
groups, when ants or termites are available in large numbers or when there are
swarms of gnats are available in their proximity. Dragonflies keep mosquitoes
at bay by feeding on them.
Julia Skimmer Orthetrum Julia (male)
taken in my garden at Mount Moreland
It is rather easy to attract these most
interesting and attractive insects into a healthy indigenous garden by
providing breeding opportunities for them in the form of a natural pond either
large or small in fact a tub with a few local aquatic plants is all that it
takes to provide a breeding opportunity for dragonflies just as long as no fish
are placed in them. There is no need to worry about mosquitoes once the pond
had matured and attracted dragon flies as their larvae are voracious carnivores
which relishing mosquito larvae.
For biological control to work enough mosquito
larvae must survive in the ponds to feed the dragon fly nymphs, which largely feed on
mosquito larvae, so a few larvae will always be found in the ponds,
however this small number is compensated for a thousand fold by the vast numbers
of adult mosquitoes that arrive from other sources that are controlled by the
adult dragon flies.
In my own garden I have a number of tubs
and shallow containers planted to an assortment of aquatic plants that together
with plantings of suitable flowering plants attract very large numbers of
Dragonflies to my own garden which act as a very good control for both flies and mosquitos.
Anthericum saundersiae
To help enhance the garden to attract
dragonflies the addition of plants like Anthericum saundersiae, Chlorophytum
cooperii and flowering grasses which attract large numbers of suitable insect
pollinator provide vast amounts of food for these aerial acrobats.
