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dlemmings

dlemmings

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Buena Park Ca
The past few days when I have got home either the sun has gone low enough that there are no flys in the back yard, or my son has cleaned said area ( :poop: )

Having used the last "extra" house flys from my trusty stash I went out front to see what I could find...with my bug net sweeping across the tops of bushes I stirred up a bunch of damsel flies with a single blue dot near the end of their long tail. easy enough to catch I brought 8 inside and divided the each to my females (one adult Ghost and a sub-adult lineola, and gave the last two to my male Ghost l5 or 6? (smallish) and they wasted no time snacking on them. another back up plan for my bag of tricks...there were dozens in those bushes!!!

 
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They love them, I had to stop catching them though, I felt bad for them with their big eyes, and could no longer use as feeders. Sometimes it does not pay to have a :wub:

 
tell me about it my mantids love them but makes me so sad to use them as feeders :no:

 
I tried feeding mine damsle flies but he would take a bite and then toss it, as if he didn't like it...

 
Damselflies are beneficial because they like to eat mosquitos. If they are on my porch, I am usually not getting bitten. :wub: Not to mention that they are very cute and they aren't much of a meal.

 
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likebugs said:
Damselflies are beneficial because they like to eat mosquitos. If they are on my porch, I am usually not getting bitten. :wub: Not to mention that they are very cute and they aren't much of a meal.
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that is not exactly true. they are beneficial because they eat small snails and slugs. dragon flies eat mosquitos.

 
gripen said:
that is not exactly true. they are beneficial because they eat small snails and slugs. dragon flies eat mosquitos.
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I'm not entirely sure where you got you information from? But Damselflies main food is Diptera. AKA flies. Did you mean maybe the larvae feed on small snails or slugs?

 
ismart said:
Oh! Okay, that sounds right! I think she was talking about the adults though. :)
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I was talking about adults. I have seen them eating mosquitos and longlegged flies on my porch.

I have seen Odonata eating many kinds of insects. I often can't even recognize what dragonflies are eating, they don't get as close as the damsels do. I can only tell that it is an arthropod most of the time cause it is all mashed up. I guess they tear it up good when they are eating it. :mellow:

 
I only wish i had more of both damsel, and dragon flies here. My mosquito population is out of control! At any given time i'm swarmed with at least half a dozen as soon as i walk into my yard! :mad: I'm going to invest in one of those mosquito catching machines next spring. It's payback time! :gun_bandana:

Anyway, i remember watching a cool video when i was a kid, of a damsel fly plucking an orb weaver spider from the center of her web! :eek:

 
Those seem as good food for mantis but are hard to catch without proper bug net. I wish if I could catch some, but anyway these days there are not many of them left flying around my stream :cowboy: Its already 2nd october

 

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