How to attract dragonflies to your pond?

[Onyxlinkia]

This may be a silly question but I would like to attract dragonflies to my pond. My pond is a small one and it's about 4 months old now, haven't seen a dragonfly around here

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Where are you located? How small is small?

 

[addy1]

Mine have not shown up yet. They like grass, stick like items around to land on near/in the water, dragonfly perches

 

[Onyxlinkia]

Hi Meyer,

I'm close to LA and the pond size is about 8 X 5 X 2.5 ft deep. I know it's tiny in size relative to a lot of the monster ponds here

Where are you located? How small is small?

 

[Onyxlinkia]

Interesting. may be it's the netting

Mine have not shown up yet. They like grass, stick like items around to land on near/in the water, dragonfly perches

 

[addy1]

Interesting. may be it's the netting

Is your netting right on the water? I have wide weave netting over my pond around 3 feet up. The dragon flies land on it all of the time, but they can fly down and hit the water which they like to do. And the net does not trap them.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

They must have free access to the water in order to reproduce...the prime reason that they are attracted to water.

 

[Onyxlinkia]

Hi Addy,

remember my other thread? I don't have netting installed yet.

Is your netting right on the water? I have wide weave netting over my pond around 3 feet up. The dragon flies land on it all of the time, but they can fly down and hit the water which they like to do. And the net does not trap them.

 

[Smaug]

I can understand why you want them,my pond gets dozen at a time and it's a beautiful sight. Lots of brushy cover around the edges seems to be the key. I'm hoping it wasn't my huge lily mat that they liked because it's gone now.

 

[Onyxlinkia]

hi smaug, i don't have plants along the edging, may be that's one of the reasons. I have narrow edgings around the pond.

I can understand why you want them,my pond gets dozen at a time and it's a beautiful sight. Lots of brushy cover around the edges seems to be the key. I'm hoping it wasn't my huge lily mat that they liked because it's gone now.

 

[Smaug]

They definitely like a more natural setting. From 30 ft away at ground level my pond can't even be seen. Not tiny either at 15 ft by 13ft. (Memory)

 

[cas]

I didn't get dragonflies until the pond was 8 years old. I do net my pond and they will get under the net from the waterfall side and then I have to raise the net to let them out sometimes. Last year I had holes in the net for the plants to grow through and the dragonflies were able to use those holes. They seem to like to land on something close to the water - they land on my iris leaves or even the stakes for my fishing line around the pond.

 

[Stephen T.]

I guess I got lucky, they showed up as soon as water was running through the two small ponds and the stream that connects them, just bare liner and sandy soil at that point. From their actions, I suspect they were hunting small flying insects (mostly mosquitoes) attracted by the water. Moral of the story, encourage lots of mosquitoes and the dragonflies will come!

 

[Onyxlinkia]

LOL, I want the dragonflies but I sure don't want to encourage lots of mosquitoes I guess I have to give up on the dragonflies then.

Moral of the story, encourage lots of mosquitoes and the dragonflies will come!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

LOL, I want the dragonflies but I sure don't want to encourage lots of mosquitoes I guess I have to give up on the dragonflies then.

Dragonflies (and Damselflies) feed on a lot more than 'skeeters'. As larvae they feed on other aquatic insect larvae, mosquito larvae, tadpoles and very small fish (fry). As adults their diet doesn't change much, they will dine on other flying insects including each other. They are especially attracted to ponds that have water lilies or other floating leaf plants. It is on the underside of these leaves that the female will deposit her eggs. The second choice location is the submerged portion of emergent plants such as reeds, grasses, sedges, Iris, etc.