Dragonfly Nymphs

A few days ago, ds2 noticed there was some kind of thing swimming around in the dog pool. It is a little pool that the dogs drink out of, and sit and lay down in to stay cool when it's so hot outside, like this cute fellow!

Ds2 came into the house and had absolutely no idea what he was looking for, but he began putting keywords into Google Search. Dh and he began guessing what it could be. From the start, ds2 thought it was a dragonfly something or other.

He actually was able to figure out that we have dragonfly nymphs in our doggie pool!!! Once he had a name for what we were looking at, I was able to put the word into Google Images and find many pictures of the insect to confirm that that was indeed what we were looking at.

So I noticed a lot of what looked like mosquitoes floating on top of the dog's wading pool this morning. It was getting pretty mucky looking and green algae on the sides. The mosquitoes had finally died down somewhat so I don't want them to get started again.

On the way to the grocery store, I asked dh if those insect things were still in the wading pool. He told me they were gone, they had died. He said he guessed they needed shade and couldn't survive being in the direct sunlight. I told him I'd seen what looked like mosquitoes on top of the water, and that we should clean out that pool just in case there were mosquito larvae in it.

When we finally got back home, I threw hay to the goats and started filling their water buckets. I observed the doggie pool again with the insects lighting on the surface. Armed with the knowledge that the poor dragonfly nymphs had died, I uprighted the pool and dumped out all the water. I saw a lot of wormy shaped things flow out, and I began to examine more closely. Because I know that if you see worm-like markings in the bottom of a water container, it is the mosquito larvae moving around at the bottom. So I started looking really closely at the water which was seeping into the earth. I noticed a lot of tiny -- like pieces of thread -- tiny, red worms.

I asked dh to come look at the red worms, to show him that I thought they were mosquito larvae. Then I saw a dragonfly nymph! I found two more! I picked them up and put them into the doggie pool. I then went inside to get the camera, so I could take a picture. To see if I could get a good closeup of one.

I got back outside, and there was LJ sitting in the doggie pool! So of course I had to snap a few pictures of him. After a minute or two, he jumped out and took off.

I was looking around on the ground again, to see what the mosquito larvae were doing. Since the water was seeping into the earth and it will be dry as a bone within a couple of hours, they have no chance for survival. While doing that, I found TWO more dragonfly nymphs!

So now we have a total of FIVE dragonfly nymphs. One of the things I read said they live in the water for one year. Ds2 tells me they shed their skins 14-15 times.

And I just now read that they are carniverous insects and help to keep the mosquito and fly population down. ACK! I just drained out all the mosquito larvae! Poor nymphs, now what will they eat!?

Until next time.