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Dragon fly swarms

tomstractorsandtoys

tomstractorsandtoys

Well-known Member
Today while hauling off round bales I noticed a large number of dragon flies buzzing around. By late afternoon there were thousands of them. They seemed to mostly be in and around the corn strips(all our land is strip farmed and contoured).Never seen anything like it before. Any oldtimers on here that are going to say "Means a long cold winter" or "Long warm fall". We are in sw WI. Tom
 
I live 300 ft from the Mississippi River. There have been 2 to 3 times the number of dragon flies here as well. Some Sikorsky sized units at least 3 inches across. Jim
 
I?m in north east Missouri just a few miles from The Mississippi River. I?ve noticed the same thing. Yesterday they were swarming all around the house. I don?t remember ever seeing that many at one time. Im sure it?s supposed to mean something but I have no idea what!
 
We are in the South Skunk River valley in SE Iowa and we have a bunch around here too. Not as many as last year but still. They are the size you could hunt with a shotgun.
 
I am in southern Indiana and 2 weeks ago when we finally got rain the next day there were hundreds of them in large swarms.
 
We had some earlier than usual in the Spring, but almost none since. I wish we'd get the dragonfly hoards so they could wipe out the skeeter population!
 
Haven't seen any unusual swarms, but they are some interesting insects to watch!

Sitting at the kitchen table watching one, it was hovering by a bush by the window.

There was a swarm of whatever those little flying bugs are that make the little whirlwind swarm in the shadows this time of year...

The small dragonfly was feeding on them. It would dart out from it's position, maybe 2-3 feet out, eat one (I assume it was eating them) then fly back backwards to the exact position, stop and hover, and do it so fast!

It took close concentration to see it go out and back, unbelievable the speed and precision that it had!
 
I havent noticed any here in my part of northwest Iowa. My building site is on the banks of a creek and usually we have quite a few flying around but not this year so far. We have tons of swallows though. Yesterday I saw a swarm of what looked like a hundred swallows swarming around behind a barn. But no dragon flies.
 
We have them whenever there are a lot of mosquitoes, that's what they eat, and that's fine with me, they are good! the other name for them is mosquito hawk.
 
SE IN , we had hundreds probably thousands of them about 7 PM this evening. Noticed them around fields that were never planted this year, and fields that were planted to NT soybeans. In fields that were not planted, never tilled, never sprayed , there was lots of new territory for them. Never seen dragon flies like that. Farmers almanac says cold winter coming in eastern Corn Belt.
 
INTERESTING, I'm in north central ND and there's typically lots of dragonflies around, but almost NONE this summer.

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of bees, though!

No "Monarchs" around this year, either.
 
I was walking my hay field a few years ago. It slopes to the west and drops about 30 feet in elevation. I saw thousands of silvery thing swarming so I got closer an they were dragonflies with the afternoon sun reflecting off their wings. A beautiful sight. Only seen a few this year and heard one cicada singing. Also no katydids, grasshoppers and crickets. Seems like insect populations are way down lately, except for the damn stinkbugs.
 
We had dragonfly swarms for a few days here in central Kansas a week or two ago. Must have been thousands of them flying around our place. We've seen this before and it only seems to last for a couple days. Kind of neat to see.
 
I live along a river in C Michigan, and once the rains quit in July, we have had thousands of them up until a couple weeks ago. They are a welcome sight for me, they love to hunt mosquitoes. I try to leave them alone as much as possible, let them do their thing.
 
I just let the dog out and there are hundreds of them flying around. I am also in NEMO, about 15 miles from the Mississippi.
 
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