Are dragonflies good for the garden?

DRAGONFLIES

The beauty of dragonflies is known to the whole planet. Their powerful colors and flight attract most of us. The eyes of a dragonfly cover most of its head surface and can fly 25-35 miles in an hour. There are over 5000 species of dragonflies, most of which belong to the Odonata family.

Additionally, they have compound eyes, which have nearly 30,000 lenses. So they can catch their prey very quickly. You will mainly find them buzzing on the fountains or ponds in your garden.

But are dragonflies good for your garden? Yes, they are beneficial for your garden. A single dragonfly can eat nearly 100 mosquitoes in a day. So dragonflies play a vital role in controlling mosquitoes and reducing diseases like malaria, typhoid, and many more.

Their prey even includes moths, butterflies, horseflies, and other insects. So, if you have more dragonflies in the garden, there are fewer chances of harmful insects. 

The article discusses more about the benefits of having dragonflies in the garden. So, keep reading this article to learn more about dragonflies.

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DRAGONFLIES

Advantages Of Having Dragonflies In Your Garden

It’s nice to observe a dragonfly moving back and forth in the garden. Dragonflies are indeed a blessing to your garden.

Let us discuss below the advantages of so many dragonflies in the garden.

1. Indicator of Good Quality Air

Dragonflies cannot stay in polluted air. You will rarely find so many dragonflies in an industrial area.

So, if you see so many dragonflies in your garden, then it indicates that you are breathing good qualitative air.

2. Eat Mosquitoes

We usually face mosquito problems in our garden. No one wants to hear their buzzing sound while visiting the garden. They even suck human blood, which is quite annoying and can result in causing infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid, and others. 

Thankfully there are many options for controlling mosquitoes, and one of them is having many dragonflies in the garden. Mosquitoes are one of the favorite food of these beautiful dragonflies. Thus these insects help reduce the mosquito population in your garden, and you can enjoy an outdoor area.

#3.Helps In Controlling Flies And Other Insects

Dragonflies are gifted with compound eyes. So, they can easily catch grasshoppers, bees, flies, and other insects on the first attempt. 

Life Cycle Of Dragonfly

Female dragonflies usually lay almost 1500 eggs at a time in the swampy areas of your garden Nymphs emerge from these eggs after a few weeks. They remain alive for at least one to two years and feed on mosquitoes, algae, tadpoles, and insects. Its exoskeleton cracks at the end of the nymph stage, and finally, the four wings emerge from it. 

The adult dragonfly remains alive for almost a few weeks to one year. 

What Are The 5 Ways To Enhance Dragonflies In Garden?

1. Build Ponds

Do you want to have so many dragonflies in your garden? If yes, then build ponds with aquatic plants in your garden. Building ponds will enable dragonflies to lay eggs and increase their population. But never add fish to the pond because they’ll eat dragonfly nymphs.

You can even install various water features like a fountain in your garden. A rain barrel will also help multiply dragonflies, but female dragonflies will never lay eggs in small containers filled with water or in the small gutter.

2. Add Numerous Plants In Your Garden

You can add a lot of plants to your garden to increase the number of dragonflies. For instance, submerged plants are great for nymphs, whereas floating plants are suitable for laying eggs.

Having a lot of plants in your garden will help dragonflies to survive. It will even give ample space to hide and hunt their prey.

3. Add Numerous Rocks In Your Garden

Rocks are the favorite landing spot of the dragonflies. You can lay some flat rocks in your garden. Dragonflies use sun rays for gathering heat. These rocks will help dragonflies in gaining heat.

Additionally, try to add numerous types of rock in the garden. For instance, if you keep darker rocks, they will radiate heat. Lighter rocks are usually cool. So rocks differ in their properties. So keeping numerous types of rocks in the garden will enable dragonflies to sit according to their choices.

4. Avoid Chemicals

You need to avoid applying any pest control that has harmful chemicals. They cannot identify between good and harmful insects and can kill dragonflies.

Conclusion

Dragonflies are pretty adorable to look at. You can benefit from having a lot of dragonflies in the garden. Adopt the above ideas and enjoy these beautiful cold-blooded creatures in your garden.

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Swatisweta Parida

She has an M.tech in Mechanical engineering from Pune University and is currently working as a Freelance Content Writer. She loves to write about animals and shares some of her thoughts on this website.

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