How To Attract DRAGONFLIES For A MOSQUITO FREE Yard And Garden!

what's grown on gardeners it is a beautiful summer evening here on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina do you have a favorite insect I do my favorite insect is by far the dragonfly and next to the honeybee the dragonfly just may be the most beneficial insect for you to have in your garden and on today's video I'm going to share with you all how I brought tons of dragonflies into my yard and it may work for you too if you're new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the Bell to receive new video notifications and check out our Amazon store and spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom designed apparel and other gear your support is greatly appreciated when I had this house built back in 2018 this yard was nothing but a clear-cut lot full of sand and weeds and because the rear of my property backs up to a creek that's beyond that fence the mosquito problem got terrible come summer in fact some evenings the mosquito problems were so bad that I couldn't even go outside and enjoy the yard I know I had to do something about the problem I've spent the past five years of my life radically transforming my garden in order to bring in lots of predatory insects to deal with the mosquito problem and I am sure that the number one insect that has been the most beneficial to me is the dragonfly since I started colonizing the dragonfly in my yard and garden my mosquito pressure has almost gone to zero yes you will still get the odd mosquito here and there that is inevitable but the big infestations are gone and in fact you can see the dragonflies in my yard right now hanging out on my trellis wires hey guys good to see you did you know the dragonfly's predate dinosaurs scientists have traced their Origins back over 300 million years ago they were here long before we were and they will be here long after we're gone dragonflies are nature's Pest Control service dragonflies eat primarily mosquitoes gnats and midges and it's said that one single adult dragonfly can eat up to 100 mosquitoes or 30 times its own body weight in a single day so if you have a hundred dragonflies flying around your yard that means they can clear out ten thousand mosquitoes a day and who wouldn't want that dragonflies are native to every continent on Earth except Antarctica here in the United States where I live they are native to the eastern half of the United States that's because they are water breeders they need large stable bodies of water that are fairly shallow like lakes and ponds and swamps in order to procreate while adult dragonflies only have a lifespan of several weeks the babies the nymphs they can live for years and they will continually in the water shed and molt and grow until they're finally able to take flight as adults so for that reason arid climates usually don't colonize dragonflies because you need lots of rainfall and those stable shallow sources of water in order for them to colonize and maintain a population so if you live in a temperate or fairly rainy climate where dragonflies are native I will show you some Surefire ways to attract them to your yard now here where I live in Wilmington North Carolina it is a very swampy area there's lots of ponds there's lots of lakes there's lots of low-lying swamps so dragonflies are all over the place however where I live in a neighborhood there's nothing particularly to attract them they really have no interest in lawns and features like that so when I first moved into this property there were basically no dragonflies however I have brought them into my yard in droves and I'm going to explain to you how the first thing you need to do is you need to build perches in your yard for the dragonflies to both rest on in the evening and also to have a high vantage point in order for them to hunt mosquitoes and gnats and other things and I have found the two most effective things to use as dragonfly perches are bamboo steaks and these eighth inch stainless steel aerial cables that I run for trellises all over my yard what I'm about to show you is pretty amazing I have found that dragonflies absolutely love these bamboo Stakes I use these all the time and they are just the perfect size for them to sit on and perch comfortably everywhere I put a bamboo stake I tend to get dragonflies perching when the Sun starts going down because this is their hunting hour this is when the mosquitoes and the gnats and things like that like to start coming out so if you put these steaks all over the place they will perch on the steaks you can get these bamboo steaks over at Home Depot for like two or three dollars for a six pack you can break them into pieces and you can stick them around in your various plants they just love sitting on top of them but if you don't feel like running to the store I'll also drop a link in the video description where you can get a pack of them online the other thing that dragonflies love are these eighth inch stainless steel cables that I use for trellising all over my garden I have them running all over the place and the dragonflies just love sitting on them and perching for their meal they are all over the place sitting on these stainless steel cables just look at them you can't go a few feet without seeing a dragonfly perched on top of my garden waiting for the hunt but it's not just the cables around my garden that they're attracted to I use the same cables in order to espalier a lot of my fruit trees and as you can see they love sitting on those cables just as much so no matter what you do you can get dragonflies in your yard these are just the perfect perches the second thing that you need to do to bring dragonflies into your yard is to develop a thriving ecosystem dragonflies aren't hang Hill they're not going to come over and admire your lawn and nobody likes a grasshole you have to transform your yard into something that brings the dragonflies in and to do that you really need two things you're going to need lots of flowers and vegetation and you're going to need a lot of other insects for them to feed upon because remember they're coming into your yard primarily to hunt and before you say whoa whoa whoa I don't want to bring mosquitoes and gnats into my yard just to attract dragonflies I want to tell you that now is the time of year that I have the least amount of issues with gnats and mosquitoes in the early to mid-spring they're terrible around here because the dragonflies haven't emerged yet but once these dragonflies start fluttering and going on the hunt I'm telling you it's like the populations of mosquitoes just dry up around here the dragonflies will actually keep the ecosystem in Balance so even though you may technically have a larger population of insects or gnats the dragonflies are going to be picking them off and managing them contrast that to the early spring where there might be a smaller total population but there's nothing eating them so they're just pretty much all going after you I don't know how else to explain it but this is basically aside from Winter the lowest mosquito pressure time that we have and I just have to thank the dragonflies for that I had this house built brand new so when I moved in it was nothing more than a clear-cut quarter acre of sand with a little bit of sod on it and a house plopped in the middle so there was really nothing here attracting anything but fire ants since then I have completely transformed the property doing sort of like an edible lens escaping Arrangement while still leaving just enough grass for my dog to be able to run around and do his Zoomies so the first thing that you really want to do to bring in the dragonflies is to plant lots and lots of trees to give them shade and to give them places to hide and also don't forget to mulch everything because having lots of mulch means lots of areas of organic matter and organic matter is going to grow ecosystems for you the other thing that you want is you want lots of flowers because when you get lots of flowers that is going to attract a lot of other flying insects most of them will be good some of them will be bad but remember it's mostly the bad insects that are going to attract the dragonfly so it all balances out and it's really good to have lots of flowers blooming at all times now I realize that this is not possible in all climates however if you have a mild enough climate that you can at least have things like potted Citrus that will flower all throughout the year having them outside when it's not really cold out and they can take the temperature is something I do to attract bees and other insects to my yard all throughout the year and over time basically the population of all animals have learned that my yard is simply put an oasis in a food desert so they come here looking for sustenance it's like they just know and they take up residency and as a result I have enormous populations of dragonflies and honeybees and bumblebees and earthworms and all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't otherwise find in a house that was nothing but basically a lawn and ornamental Shrubbery and the third thing I want to touch on is not destroying the population once you finally attract them now once you finally get dragonflies coming to your yard you want to maintain that population you don't want to kill them off by using insecticides now where I live in North Carolina it's extremely buggy so I have to use some amounts of insecticides in my garden otherwise I simply put won't have a garden but there are ways that you can still use organic and natural insecticides in your garden without harming the dragonfly population now dragonflies are diurnal that means that they function during the day they go to rest at night just like we do so they are not out late in the evening however because they hunt mosquitoes and gnats those populations are typically highest at sunrise and sunset and lower during the day so dragonfly activity tends to be maximized both when the sun is rising and when it is setting therefore you don't want to spray your garden until after the sun goes down and the dragonflies leave don't spray during sunset because the dragonflies are likely to be at Peak functionality then you want to wait until it's truly getting dark and they really do leave now that being said there are some other things that you should know dragonflies like I mentioned like to perch up high so when you do spray your garden try to spray down low spray the plants that are down on the ground Don't Spray Mists up into the air that are are going to go up and hit the dragonflies we don't want to contact them with any kind of sprays and another tactic that you can take if you don't have really bad bug population and you don't have to broadcast spray your entire Garden you can do things like put insecticides inside a spray bottle and you can go out and individually hunt pests and spray them directly that way you have almost no risk of ever harming a dragonfly and while I have a lot of videos on my channel on how to use insecticides to manage insect populations I really do try to minimize the spraying for a whole host of reasons and protecting good bugs like dragonflies is one of the top reasons so one of my favorite things to do during the buggy season is to actually take a hand vac and suck them up manually but one of my favorite things about dragonflies is how truly gentle they are yes I know they look scary but they are harmless they will not sting you they will not bite you they don't have stingers and the thing about them is they're one of the few insects that you can actually pet you can touch them just be very gentle because remember it may be a light touch to you but it might not feel like a light touch to them so they are petable they are extremely friendly and they're one of the biggest Assets in your yard and garden so if you're lucky enough to live in a climate where dragonflies are native those are some ways that you can attract them into your yard and garden now I know some people have things like Wildlife ponds in order to breed them but keep in mind a system like that has to be large enough to breed them it has to be stable for years because the nymph phase can take several years in order for them to develop into adults and you can't have anything like fish in your Wildlife pond because they will obviously eat the larvae so before we try anything like that let's try these simple things like steaks for them to sit on cables strung about the place so they can rest on and try to develop your yard into a thriving ecosystem with lots of different species of trees and flowers in order to attract an overall healthy population of animals in general so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button Subs subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you're notified when we release more videos like these if you're curious about any of the products that I used in my garden in real life they are all linked Down Below in my Amazon storefront Link in the video description so if you expand the video description and click on the Amazon link you'll see everything I use in real life and while you're there check out my spreadshop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video okay Dale are you ready to test out your new toy you know what this toy is this is the Dale spanker it's the Dale spanker that's what it is it's the Dale beater I got him ready and go Dale a tug of war tug of war oh it's Karen drop it good boy very good deal yeah all right I gotta turn this off I'm gonna die oh come on on oh now I have to get the ladder out nice throw mom

Channel: The Millennial Gardener

Views: 1,123,342

Keywords: how to attract dragonflies, how to attract dragonflies to your yard, how to attract dragonflies to your garden, attracting dragonflies, mosquito control, insect control, kill mosquitoes, controlling insects, dragonflies, dragonfly, mosquitoes, mosquito, garden, gardening, vegetable garden, organic gardening, gardening tips, garden tips, gardening tips and tricks, gardening hacks, garden hacks, growing, plants, vegetables, how to, diy, millennial gardener, the millennial gardener

Id: 5Kx2im0ceCc

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023