10 Interesting Facts About Dragonflies

I love dragonflies because they eat mosquitoes. And living with a swamp in your backyard, you need all the help you can get eliminating the pesky, biting insects! With dragonflies flittering in the wind, I don’t have to worry about eliminating them. My friends, the dragonflies will do it for me. These insects can actually eat up to hundreds of mosquitoes per day! Ah, the circle of life…

Did you know?

1. Dragonflies have been around for 300 million years? They’re actually one of the first insects to inhabit the earth. Which probably means mosquitoes have been around for some time, too. Even crazier, scientists have found dragonfly fossils with wingspans of up to two feet! Today, they’re more like two inches.

2. Dragonflies are expert fliers. Like a helicopter, they can hover, fly straight up and straight down, and even mate mid-air (probably more than you wanted to know!). More interesting, if they can’t fly, they’ll starve, because they only eat prey they catch while flying. Watch out all you gnats, mosquitoes and other small flying insects!

3. The nervous system of a dragonfly allows them to focus on a single prey as it flies amid a cloud of insects. Their capacity for detection is so acute, a dragonfly can track its moving target, increasing the odds for successful mid-air capture. So quick and lethal are they at hunting, their prey never knew what hit them.

4. The dragonfly’s head is pretty much “all eye” giving them incredible vision. As you might imagine, they can pretty much see 360° capacity. The only place they can’t see? Right behind them.

5. Dragonflies cannot bite humans. While they have very sharp teeth, most species don’t have mandibles that are capable of breaking the human skin. Those that can will only bite as a defense mechanism. So be nice to them and they’ll be nice to you.

More fun facts!

6. Dragonflies of different species will gather in swarms, either for feeding or migration, and no one knows why. So little is known about this behavior that people are encouraged to report sighting of swarms to the The Dragonfly Swarm Project.

7. A dragonfly known as the globe skinner is on record for the longest migration of any insect—11,000 miles back and forth across the Indian Ocean. Whew. Now that’s a lot of flying!

8. In their larval stage, dragonflies are aquatic and eat just about anything—tadpoles, mosquitoes, fish, other insect larvae and even each other. This stage can last up to two years, which is weird, considering adults live for only a few weeks while others can live up to a year.

9. There are a select few insects that live in the ocean, yet dragonflies can lay their eggs in water that is even saltier than the ocean, like the seaside dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenicei).

10. Dragonflies are endangered, need of protection from the dangers humans have created, from pollution like pesticides and insecticides, as well as the loss of wetlands. Good news—there are dragonfly sanctuaries around the world where visitors can interact with these amazing creatures.