I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract dragon
flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD. the nymphs can
live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

muffin who found a dead fish..(probably unearthed by the recent storm)..
one that was missing for a while,,, it looked like part of it was chewed
up..... now"I" am freakin' ...(it's always sumpthin')

Hi Muffin,

There isn't really anything you can do regarding dragonflies. They will either
come or they won't.
You might be able to fish out a few nymphs (watch out they pinch!) but you'll
never get them all.

This is one of the quandaries of pond keeping. We have invaded Mother Nature's
territory and fight as much as we want she *is* going to win in the end.

If you don't have some sort of thinning program going on your fish are
eventually going to reproduce themselves into a severe overstocking problem and
the resulting mess will be painful and deadly for all the fish.

Predators serve a purpose or we'd be neck deep in mice, mosquitoes, frogs,
insects... you name it.
(eek! feeling all creepy crawly after writing that sentence!)

Who knows there could be a dragonfly out there cruising around who is going to
eat the mosquito that was headed for you brimming with West Nile virus.

k30a
yearly brother website posting
http://www.30acreimaging.com/

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 06:44:23 -0400, "*muffin*"
wrote:

I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract dragon
flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD. the nymphs can
live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

Not much, I suspect. Goldfish will continue to multiply until they
contaminate a pond and lot of koi keepers don't want fry. I have
plenty of fry to share.

Regards,

Hal

*muffin* wrote:

I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract dragon
flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD. the nymphs can
live over a year & eat fish!

Yes, they will eat fish, but only fairly small ones (think half grown
gambusia) and I think the over all loss is pretty small. They also provide
the benefit of eating mosquito larva when they are nymphs and adult
mosquitoes as full grown dragonfly's.

Joe



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"*muffin*" wrote in
:

I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract
dragon flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD.
the nymphs can live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

muffin who found a dead fish..(probably unearthed by the recent
storm).. one that was missing for a while,,, it looked like part of
it was chewed up..... now"I" am freakin' ...(it's always sumpthin')



That was I.
Dragonflies are supposed to be a very good control for mosquitoes and
mosquito lava.
I live in the Toronto area where West Nile is an emergent problem.
Because it is new and people do not understand how small the risks are
they are doing all sorts of silly things, like proposing bylaws to outlaw
standing water (including garden/ornamental ponds). Part of the problem
is the media who report single cases of the disease as though they were
reporting the end of the world.
Currently local health laws allow for the public health department to
check for standing water and lava, this is quite reasonable from a public
health stand point, but in one case that I have heard of they demanded
that the owner fill in his pond. I do not know the details, maybe it was
a very poorly maintained or there was some other problem with it all the
same I would prefer not to have fight to keep my pond. So any thing I can
do to keep the nasty bugs down in my pond sounds like a good idea.
I am using Aquabac, which works very well, but it would be nice to have
something a little more attractive to act as a pest control.
ANO

If you have fish, you will probably not have any mosquitoes. If you have
dragonflies, they further reduce the population. If you are still worried,
use mosquito dunks, they have a natural bacteria that kills the mosquito
larva without affecting any other critters. You can use both fish and
dunks, and the dragonflies will still come.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Axolotl" wrote in message
. 130...
"*muffin*" wrote in
:

I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract
dragon flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD.
the nymphs can live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

muffin who found a dead fish..(probably unearthed by the recent
storm).. one that was missing for a while,,, it looked like part of
it was chewed up..... now"I" am freakin' ...(it's always sumpthin')



That was I.
Dragonflies are supposed to be a very good control for mosquitoes and
mosquito lava.
I live in the Toronto area where West Nile is an emergent problem.
Because it is new and people do not understand how small the risks are
they are doing all sorts of silly things, like proposing bylaws to outlaw
standing water (including garden/ornamental ponds). Part of the problem
is the media who report single cases of the disease as though they were
reporting the end of the world.
Currently local health laws allow for the public health department to
check for standing water and lava, this is quite reasonable from a public
health stand point, but in one case that I have heard of they demanded
that the owner fill in his pond. I do not know the details, maybe it was
a very poorly maintained or there was some other problem with it all the
same I would prefer not to have fight to keep my pond. So any thing I can
do to keep the nasty bugs down in my pond sounds like a good idea.
I am using Aquabac, which works very well, but it would be nice to have
something a little more attractive to act as a pest control.
ANO

If you have fish, you will probably not have any mosquitoes. If you have
dragonflies, they further reduce the population. If you are still worried,
use mosquito dunks, they have a natural bacteria that kills the mosquito
larva without affecting any other critters. You can use both fish and
dunks, and the dragonflies will still come.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Axolotl" wrote in message
. 130...
"*muffin*" wrote in
:

I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract
dragon flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD.
the nymphs can live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

muffin who found a dead fish..(probably unearthed by the recent
storm).. one that was missing for a while,,, it looked like part of
it was chewed up..... now"I" am freakin' ...(it's always sumpthin')



That was I.
Dragonflies are supposed to be a very good control for mosquitoes and
mosquito lava.
I live in the Toronto area where West Nile is an emergent problem.
Because it is new and people do not understand how small the risks are
they are doing all sorts of silly things, like proposing bylaws to outlaw
standing water (including garden/ornamental ponds). Part of the problem
is the media who report single cases of the disease as though they were
reporting the end of the world.
Currently local health laws allow for the public health department to
check for standing water and lava, this is quite reasonable from a public
health stand point, but in one case that I have heard of they demanded
that the owner fill in his pond. I do not know the details, maybe it was
a very poorly maintained or there was some other problem with it all the
same I would prefer not to have fight to keep my pond. So any thing I can
do to keep the nasty bugs down in my pond sounds like a good idea.
I am using Aquabac, which works very well, but it would be nice to have
something a little more attractive to act as a pest control.
ANO

Dragonflies are one of my favorite subjects to research.
The US military has studied dragonflies to see how they 'work'. They are an
absolute miracle when you get right down to it.
They can buzz along at 35 miles per hour and reverse direction within a body
length. They can hover and fly backward with ease.
They actually fly in 'antiphase' as their two sets of wings operate
independently of each other in that the hind pair of wings operate on the air
before the front pair.
Their compound eyes have between 10,000 and 30,000 individual facets. Each eye
can be moved and adjusted while tracking down their prey.
Their breeding habits are downright strange but we'll leave that for another
day...
;-)




k30a
yearly brother website posting
http://www.30acreimaging.com/

"K30a" wrote in message
...
Dragonflies are one of my favorite subjects to research.
The US military has studied dragonflies to see how they 'work'. They are
an
absolute miracle when you get right down to it.
They can buzz along at 35 miles per hour and reverse direction within a
body
length. They can hover and fly backward with ease.
They actually fly in 'antiphase' as their two sets of wings operate
independently of each other in that the hind pair of wings operate on the
air
before the front pair.
Their compound eyes have between 10,000 and 30,000 individual facets. Each
eye
can be moved and adjusted while tracking down their prey.
Their breeding habits are downright strange but we'll leave that for
another
snip

Yes, but I also remember from my child hood days, that my Snoopy
Encyclopedia told me they would also gore your tongue out. I vividly
remember Peppermint Patty running around with her hands over her mouth. I
don't care what Charlie Brown said, I keep my mouth shut when I am near my
Dragon flies.

BV.

I had trouble believing that larvae of any sort could live more than a few
weeks, so I did a brief google (I mean, I love you guys and all that, but I
could be playing WordRacer, after all!).

Here's a website that might shed some light (or at least, "Lights! Camera!
Action!") on dragonfly mating habits:
http://www2.kenyon.edu/bfec/dragonfly/lifecycle.htm
(think "Kama Sutra" for dragonflies -- or, "Ginger Rogers did everything
Fred Astaire did -- backwards & wearing high heels? Hah! We're going to
switch from the 'tandem position' to the 'wheel position' while we are
flying!")

I must confess to muffin that my two remaining fish are 4-year-old Petsmart
goldfish who probably deserve to go to VT for a commitment ceremony! (Note:
I used to live in VT, a state full of people who have *way* more serious
things to worry about than standing in the way of people who just want a bit
of acknowledgement for their commitment to being responsible citizens with
family values.)

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC


"*muffin*" wrote in message
...
I notice there are several posts on here that people WANT to attract
dragon
flies...... from what I have read,, dragonflies are NOT GOOD. the nymphs
can
live over a year & eat fish!

what am I missing???

muffin who found a dead fish..(probably unearthed by the recent storm)..
one that was missing for a while,,, it looked like part of it was chewed
up..... now"I" am freakin' ...(it's always sumpthin')

One more tidbit about dragonfly mating...
One male can remove the sperm deposit of a previous suitor and toss it aside to
leave his own.

Which says something but I'm not sure what...


k30a
yearly brother website posting
http://www.30acreimaging.com/

Anne Lurie wrote:
I had trouble believing that larvae of any sort could live more than a few
weeks, so I did a brief google (I mean, I love you guys and all that, but I
could be playing WordRacer, after all!).

Here's a website that might shed some light (or at least, "Lights! Camera!
Action!") on dragonfly mating habits:
http://www2.kenyon.edu/bfec/dragonfly/lifecycle.htm
(think "Kama Sutra" for dragonflies -- or, "Ginger Rogers did everything
Fred Astaire did -- backwards & wearing high heels? Hah! We're going to
switch from the 'tandem position' to the 'wheel position' while we are
flying!")

brings a whole new meaning to just follow my lead



John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

never miss a good oportunity to shut up

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
I keep my mouth shut when I am near my Dragon flies.


Some of us wish you were around dragon flies all the time

Sameer

"Snooze" wrote in message
thlink.net...

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
I keep my mouth shut when I am near my Dragon flies.


Some of us wish you were around dragon flies all the time

Sameer



Ouch.

BV.

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
"Snooze" wrote in message
thlink.net...

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
I keep my mouth shut when I am near my Dragon flies.

Some of us wish you were around dragon flies all the time

Ouch.

BV.

I didn't say I wished that. Plus you have to admit, you walked into that
one.

Sameer