Today I was peaking over my garden fence and received a mild scare. A dragon fly buzzed at me! Sitting on the corner of the bird netting about a foot away, this thing created a buzzing hiss from its wings. My 5 year old son came running over thinking I had found something cool; what could be cooler than a giant bug that scared Dad? “Don’t touch it” I said, “Just look while I go in and get the camera”.
At this point I wasn’t sure it was a dragonfly. I’m not on the best terms with most insects. Lightning bugs and earthworms I tolerate. Butterflies I don’t mind, but not in my garden. Ants? Let’s just say I have a nasty surprise in store for them. So I snapped a picture to compare my bug online. That’s when I noticed another giant bug with exactly the same colored wings sitting on a corn stalk. So whatever I had, there were several, and they certainly weren’t there yesterday.
Online I found out the creature was indeed a dragonfly. To be exact, it was a 12 spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella). The one in my picture looks female. How can you tell? The first clue is that it sat there silently looking at me like it expected me to know what the hell it wanted. That’s a joke, son. Actually, the female has no white spots, while the male has 8 white wing spots.
Live or Die? “Let the creature live!” I declared to my garden denizens. The lima beanplant nodded at my wise decision, knowing full well I was the supreme ruler of my 17 square foot garden. She’s been agreeing with everything I say ever since I gave her a pole to dance around. Why did I not banish the pesky invaders? Simple, dragonflies eat mosquitoes, flies, and other bugs like ants. Yes, the ants, my old nemesis who have been sitting there milking their aphid cows and living the high-life. All the while laughing at me from the safety of their underground lair. An enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine, at least that’s how I think that saying goes.
Since dragonflies are aquatic and there are no ponds nearby, this brood will probably be the first and last. NJ got soaked with an incredible amount of rain this June. Maybe some coy (koi?) neighbor installed one of those newfangled fish ponds and released a few mosquito controlling predators into the wild.
My research also suggests that dragonflies are harmless to humans. They will not land on you and bite. Even if they did, they’d have a hard time breaking the flesh. So enjoy your mosquito buffet my dragonfly friends, just don’t eat any tomatoes.
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My husband is a keen fly fisherman. He is continually tying his own flies to use when they go fishing. All I know about dragonflies are that it is the different life stages of these that he is always trying to imitate. I am not into bugs but I most definitely enjoy the trout he occasionally brings home. A very nice story well told.
The Dragonfly has long been a symbol of versatility and comfort.
This was a wonderful, and joyous post. Thank you so much for sharing. I felt I was outside looking at your garden while reading your words. Thank you again.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it Kimmy. Writing posts about internet marketing or social networks usually doesn’t leave me any opportunity to explore different writing styles. The switch to gardening has allowed me to enjoy blogging again.
I’ve only managed to take a photo of a dragonfly once. They’re normally too quick for me! Maybe they’re in decline because I haven’t seen many this year
How big is a skipper?
Big, a wingspan of about 2 inches. To make matters worse, now I have a diseased skunk bothering my garden.
In Louisiana we had Lots of dragonflies all the time. They are harmless. And I LOVED the coy koi pun.
We’ve had quite a few dragon flys this year. I took the kids for a walk and noticed a retention basin for the stormwater was not draining too well. That explains the number of dragon flys I have seen and also the large number of mosquitos. The dragon flys are cool, but the other insects that bite I could do without. They also spray in our area for the west nile virus. I think that has hurt lightening bugs more then anything else. There are very few lightening bugs this year.
We’ve had quite a few dragon flys this year. I took the kids for a walk and noticed a retention basin for the stormwater was not draining too well. That explains the number of dragon flys I have seen and also the large number of mosquitos. The dragon flys are cool, but the other insects that bite I could do without. They also spray in our area for the west nile virus. I think that has hurt lightening bugs more then anything else. There are very few lightening bugs this year.