By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The public has benefitted from local municipalities spraying for mosquitos in recent weeks. Some insects, like butterflies, bees, and ladybugs, have not. Fortunately, nature does provide its own version of chemical-free relief to combat mosquitos: dragonflies. A large band of the insects is moving through Central Kansas. Kansas Wetlands Center Education Specialist Pam Martin said wandering gliders were one of many species at the KWEC last week.
"They're on six of seven continents, and they migrate back and forth over the Indian Ocean," she said. "But they actually have an 11,000-mile migration they do, not here, but overseas. It's a three-generational migration, a lot like the monarchs."
Migration patterns can be difficult to predict as the insects look for large pools of water like ponds, flooded areas, and even swimming pools. Females lay between 500 and 2,000 eggs, and baby dragonflies called naiads hatch within 38 to 65 days.
"The naiads have a hinged mouth part so when a small fish swims by, they unhinge it, scoop it in, then crunch it up with their mandibles," Martin said. "They have really strong mandibles equivalent to our jaws."
Standing bodies of water may attract the insects for mating purposes, but also for eating purposes. Depending on the size and species, dragonflies can eat from 30 up to hundreds of mosquitos a day.
Even scientists have not been able to pinpoint a life span for wandering gliders due to their nomadic nature. Individual transmitters have been attached to the insects, however, and individual gliders have been known to travel as far as 3,700 miles, one of the longest single-generation migrations known among the insect world.