How to attract dragonflies to your pond?

[KC Crook]

As a deep south native of LA, Tadpole is right on. Down there, we called them mosquito hawks, but either way, they love lots of wet and access to water with plants sticking out, cuz they lay their eggs right under the water on a plant stalk. (They also love to crunch sugar in your hand if you catch one, weird hunh?) lol.

 

[JBailey]

I usually have lots of dragonflies around my garden, esp when I'm watering, but when I added a dripper over my little trough pond, they went right for it. It drips onto a potted plant on a stand in the trough, then into the water, from about 18" up. I did it for the hummingbirds, but dragonflies seem to like it too.
The drip line is just poked into the tubing near the pump, and has a nice steady drip without too much pressure from the pump.

 

[KC Crook]

Dragonflies will also be attracted to alot of green. The more lush the surroundings are, the more likely they will come investigate.

 

[addy1]

I didn't get dragonflies until the pond was 8 years old. .

I had dragonflies and frogs moving in as I filled the pond.

Hi Addy,

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

nah, didn't remember..............

 

[Mike in Vermont]

As a deep south native of LA, Tadpole is right on. Down there, we called them mosquito hawks, but either way, they love lots of wet and access to water with plants sticking out, cuz they lay their eggs right under the water on a plant stalk. (They also love to crunch sugar in your hand if you catch one, weird hunh?) lol.

My grandma called them darning needles. I was also told they would sew your mouth shut.

 

[KC Crook]

Haha! I was told toads cause worts too! Even my idiot boyfriends idiot mother tried to sell me on that when I was 22. I had to let her know I wasnt 5 yrs old, and even if I was, I needed to touch the toads, worts or not! Lol!

 

[Mike in Vermont]

Haha! I was told toads cause worts too! Even my idiot boyfriends idiot mother tried to sell me on that when I was 22. I had to let her know I wasnt 5 yrs old, and even if I was, I needed to touch the toads, worts or not! Lol!

lol. Me too. I was also told bats would get tangled in your hair.

 

[Stephen T.]

Yep, dragonflies will sew your lips together and my mom claimed, "no swimming for an hour after eating or you'll get horrible cramps"!

Dragonflies love to perch on tall skinny things, plants, sticks etc. and they do eat a lot of mosquitoes. I really love things that eat mosquitoes! Bats, frogs, toads and dragonflies are my friends. Dragonflies are incredible fliers and really fun to watch and try to photograph. I'd do most anything to attract them, except encourage mosquitoes.

 

[KC Crook]

lol. Me too. I was also told bats would get tangled in your hair.

At least you werent told they would suck you dry like a vampire, lol.

 

[KC Crook]

Omg! That actually reminds me of a story about our next door neighbor. We had this fixed Tom cat but he was a territorial killer as any good cat should be. He cleared our house of mice and took and occassional bird or bat. He haunted our lot and the neighbors lot and cleaned them of small "undesireables" for years.

Well, I got to talking with my alchoholic, high neighbor one day and made the mistake of bragging that our cat had killed a bat. He got incensed and went on about how good bats are for the environment (I knew this already, sometimes you need the bad with the good), and he proceeded to speak to me about stopping the cat from killing birds and bats.

I told him, (and this is totally true!) that I would talk with the cat about stopping killing the bats. He said ok and seemed satisfied I was going to have a "discussion" with the cat. My husband and I had the biggest laugh over this! To this day its one of my most memorable stories.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Dragonflies will also be attracted to alot of green. The more lush the surroundings are, the more likely they will come investigate.

More foliage, more insects, MORE FOOD! Odonata smorgasbord.

 

[KC Crook]

Mmm...smorgasbord! Funny that word always reminds me of the movie, Charlotte's Web." Lol!

 

[Mike in Vermont]

I saw my 1st dragonfly today. I saw my 1st toad of the year, too. It was a baby.

 

[ROW FISH]

Dragonflies have been around my pond since the first day I filled it with water. However, I did have issues keeping them around the pond for more than 30 second intervals. To solve this I cut three long straight branches off one my crapemyrtle and put them on the far side of the pond sticking up above all my plants. Now the dragon flies stick around for half an hour landing on those sticks and flying around the pond. Horse rush is great too. Now that mine is grown to 2 feet they use that alot.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

We had this fixed Tom cat but he was a territorial killer.... He haunted our lot and the neighbors lot...

That's kind of spooky.