Odonatas - Dragonflies and Damselflies - Eat Mosquitoes

-
The daily rain brought a swarm of dragonflies to eat the mosquitoes that are moving in and making large families.
My photos are of one of the ones that are swarming in our yard. I've looked at dozens of photos to identify the various types out there. The more closeup photos you look at the weirder they start to look.
There is not much we gardeners can do to prevent the arrival of mosquitoes but we can make our gardens into habitats that welcome predators of the nasty little biters.
Dave Ingram's site has wonderful photography of not only dragonflies but plants as well.
The dragonfly site has photos of 35 dragonflies to help with identification.
At Green Nature there are photos of several types of dragonflies - Patricia Michaels provides this information:
Fossil records date the dragonfly back 300 million years.

There are approximately 450 different species in the United States.

Dragonflies have a life span of anywhere from about six months to several years.
Dragonflies are known as beneficial insects because they eat so many harmful insects such as mosquitoes, gnats, ants termites and even butterflies, spiders and other dragonflies.
It's probably a Common Whitetail. Then, this photo makes me think it is a female Whitetail.

Do you have a lot of beneficial insects in your garden?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moldy Tulip Bulbs

-
Image
Moldy tulip bulbs are a big disappointment when you are hoping to fill a bed or some pots. It is not that unusual for their skins to have a bit of penicillin mold but these are beyond that tad bit stage. Mold penetrating tulip bulb  Mold on emerging tulip bulb growth  So, what to do? The plant references say to throw them out and buy new ones but I already spent $22 for 50 of these white tulip beauties. First, they got a soak in 1% bleach solution in the kitchen sink in the hope that the bleach would stop the mold from continuing to grow without killing the life force in the bulb itself. After a good slosh around, I wiped them off to see how much damage was beneath the blue and black.  This tulip bulb is soft to the touch and there is little chance it will thrive in the soil. This basal root on these have been ruined by mold. The final step I took to try to salvage part of them  was to spray them thoroughly with fungicide.  They are all planted in the
Read more

Propagate Begonia Stem Cuttings in water - Cane-like Angel Wing Begonia

-
Image
Propagating by stem cuttings is just about the easiest way to make more begonias for next summer's garden. During the fall, I regularly trim off 3-node long cuttings and put them into the growing pots where they take root. Now that cold weather has arrived, I root the stem cuttings in a vase of water. It's a great way to produce more pots of Begonias for next summer's garden. Water the plant well the day before. Take a cutting about 4-inches long, with 3 nodes, from a healthy stem. Use a perfectly clean container. Rinse the container with a drop of bleach if you are uncertain about its spotlessness. Remove all but the top leaf or two. There should be no leaves in the water. The cutting should  have a healthy leaf node at the bottom. Don't leave a stub below the node. Place the cutting into the water, and place the container out of the sun. In a couple of weeks, you will see new roots beginning to form. Check the water periodically to make sure it is still f
Read more

Create Nesting Areas for Birds and Wildlife

-
Image
From the website, Choose Natives , this lovely and instructive article helped remind me to continue to increase the amount of habitat and nesting that we provide in our garden. Many, though not all, are native or considered to be native in Oklahoma. So, I did a little research on each recommended plant and provided a link to more information. You'll see the plant name in italics - those are my links for your edification. Here's the post Derek Stoner, Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society, helped restore the 860-acre Middle Run Natural Area by “intensive habitat management”, including planting 12,000 trees and shrubs.  His lecture, ‘ Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna’,  given to a group of enthusiasts at the Millersville Native Plant Conference   in Pennsylvania, focused on his observations. Here are Derek’s landscaping recommendations for attracting birds: Plant shrubs in clusters (“habitat circles”) that will create the dense
Read more