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One evening, my roommate and I were sitting on the front porch getting eaten up by mosquitoes, being a typical Texas summer. We decided to find some way to get rid of them. Being very "natural" people, we decided to find a natural predator. After doing some research we found that brown bats eat around 600 mosquitoes an hour, and dragonflies eat around 600 mosquitoes a day. We liked the idea of having dragonflies in the back yard more than brown bats (not that we have anything against brown bats), so we went around back and started digging.
Here's what we ended up with: http://bugguide.net/node/view/222462. It's a dragonfly lair -- basically a pond with plenty of places for adult and young dragonflies to perch, as well as grasses (or irises in our case) for the young ones to emerge from the water. The dragonfly in that photo is called a Neon Skimmer, and it just showed up one day, followed shortly by another male (which he had a little brawl with), and a female. I guess she got knocked up by one of the guys, because one evening I actually saw her laying eggs. She looked pretty similar to her male counterparts, but not as bright.
Larvae, or nymphs, take forever to develop into adult dragonflies, apparently (around 3 years I think), so next spring I think I'm going to try to find someone to buy some Neon Skimmer larvae from and hope there are a few near maturity. Recently, I've added a few more grasses and some more bushy plants for dragonflies to perch on. We also have a few more lilies, one of which bloomed recently. The pond really offers a way to slow down and enjoy the world (without mosquitoes).
One word of warning to people who are thinking of doing the same thing: do your homework. A pond is a very complex ecosystem, and you can't just go building one willy nilly like we did. After digging the pond and before putting water or plants in it, we spend a good solid day researching. If you do anything, be sure you get the pump and filter right, otherwise your dragonfly magnet will turn into a mosquito magnet.
Johntron, WOW, both the pond and the Neon Skimmer are beautiful!! Great job guys! How are you controlling the mosquito larvae in the pond until you get dragonfly nymphs? I would be very interested in knowing how many different dragonflies you attract, and how the mosquito population is affected by your pond/skeeter trap.
I bookmarked the web site, it looks like a good reference.
Thanks for reading and sharing your experience,
Bev
