You can also attract dragonflies by adding these specific plants to your garden. Now, as many homeowners know, stagnant water-like your dragonfly-attracting pond-is a potential breeding ground for mosquitos, which you obviously don’t want! Gibbs suggests placing a mosquito dunk, a small disk “which releases a bacterium that attacks mosquito larvae but not dragonfly larvae.” In fact, this is something you could place in a fish ponds, too, as it’s harmless to pretty much everything besides mosquito larvae. “Aquatic plants will provide cover for the larvae.” Just make sure you don’t keep fish in your pond, because they’ll eat the larvae, and that definitely defeats the whole purpose. “Put vegetation nearby so the adults have places to perch, and a few good-sized flat rocks for sunning,” says Gibbs. They lay their eggs in water and the larvae grow up in water.” While something like a small wading pool can attract dragonflies, you’re best off with a larger pond, one that’s about two-feet deep with sloped sides. So how can you attract dragonflies to your backyard or garden? “Water!” says Gibbs. There are many beneficial aquatic plants to include in your water feature to attract dragonflies. This will protect the dragonfly eggs from being eaten by fish (dragonflies in the larva or nymph stage aren’t as vulnerable). “Dragonfly watching has become a growing hobby in recent years.” If you have a pond with fish in it, place aquatic plants in pots and submerge them in the water. “They are very pretty and fun to watch,” says Gibbs. But take a closer look at a dragonfly, and you might notice iridescent hues throughout its body and delicate patterns in its wings-they’re actually rather beautiful. Generally harmless to humans (they can bite in self-defense, though they won’t do so unprompted), their appearance can be a little disconcerting at first, given that they can grow to have a wingspan of up to seven inches. There are more than 5,000 species of dragonflies and their brethren, damselflies, and they can be found all across North America, from the coasts to the deserts to the mountains. “Dragonflies love to eat mosquitoes and gnats and can help cut down on them,” says Allen Gibbs, an insect expert and life science professor at the University of Las Vegas. But if that bug is a dragonfly, fret not-it’s one of the best insects to have around, especially because they’ll eat up all the mosquitos. Finding any of those species in a water body suggests that the water is healthy. If that bug is a horsefly, you can worry a little bit. Dragonfly larvae have long been considered an indicator of good water quality because many species require clear, clean water to thrive. Then WHAM! A large, fast bug whizzes past your head. There are examples of our customers where the mere existence of the piscina biológica completely changed the mosquito plague because the biological pool brought so much biodiversity to the place that the mosquitoes left.Picture this: you’re sitting in your backyard, enjoying the sunshine, maybe sipping a lemonade. A swimming pond is a complete habitat, with all its diversity: dragonfly larvae, frogs, flies flying over the water, and swallows come to drink and catch insects. A forgotten bucket in the garden, a tire with water in the bin or even a glass with water, these are the favorite places where the mosquito larvae develop without problems and where they grow enough algae for their food.Ī biological pool is quite different than a bucket, because of the size and ecosystem installed in it. Species of mosquitoes of the Culicidae family lay their eggs in places free of predators. Dragonflies thrive around ponds and streams, so homeowners with waterfront properties are more likely to encounter them. This is due to the preference of mosquito species, harmful to humans, to choose places of breeding where no other insect larvae live. Also for some species of mosquitoes, but not for those that sting people. But the opposite is the case!īiological pools are very attractive habitats for various insects like different species of aquatic beetles and larvae of dragonflies. Many people suspect that building a swimming pond could attract mosquitoes. Autumn is the season of flies and mosquitoes.
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