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Garden & Home · Agriculture

Attract dragonflies to your backyard or land

Dragonflies are among the most effective insect predators alive. A small pond and the right plants can bring them to your backyard or farm, and they will repay you by hunting mosquitoes, flies, and midges all summer.

Why it matters

A single dragonfly can eat hundreds of mosquitoes in a day. They also eat flies, midges, gnats, and other flying insects, with a catch rate of around 95%, higher than almost any other predator in the animal kingdom.

But dragonflies are more than just pest control. Their presence is a reliable sign of clean, functioning water. They spend the first one to three years of their lives underwater as nymphs, where they are sensitive to pollution, silt, and chemical runoff. A pond that supports dragonflies is a pond in good ecological health.

They also sit in the middle of the food web. Birds, bats, frogs, and fish all eat dragonflies and damselflies, so attracting them to your land adds a link that feeds upward through the system. Research on blue carbon ecosystems has found dragonfly diversity to be one of the most responsive indicators of habitat quality. Areas with thriving dragonfly populations tend to be areas where the broader ecosystem is recovering.

An eastern pondhawk dragonfly resting on vegetation, showing its vivid green body and black-tipped tail
An eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), one of the most common dragonflies in the central and eastern United States. Females and juveniles are bright green; males turn powder blue with age.
For farmers and landowners

Cattle ponds are often overlooked as dragonfly habitat, but they can be excellent. Face flies, horn flies, and stable flies cause significant stress to livestock and cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually in reduced weight gain and milk production. Dragonflies prey on all of these. A cattle pond with native marginal vegetation and clean water is one of the lowest-cost fly management tools available, and it doesn't require chemicals.

How to do it

  1. 1Add water. Dragonflies need standing or slow-moving water to breed. A garden pond as small as one square meter will attract them. In a farm setting, a cattle pond with native vegetation around some of the margins is ideal. The key is that the water is reasonably still. Fountains and strong pumps discourage egg-laying.
  2. 2Keep it shallow at the edges. Nymphs need shallow, well-oxygenated water near the margins. A pond with gently sloping sides and a muddy or gravelly bottom is far more productive than a steep-sided container pond. Aim for at least some areas 15 to 30cm deep around the edges.
  3. 3Plant native aquatic and marginal vegetation. Emergent plants like sedges, rushes, and native water irises serve two purposes: females lay eggs on the stems just above the waterline, and newly emerged adults use them to pull themselves out of the water. Without vertical structure at the water's edge, successful emergence drops sharply.
  4. 4Leave some open water. Dragonflies hunt over open water and need clear flight paths. Keep roughly half the pond surface free of vegetation so they have room to patrol.
  5. 5Provide sunny, open areas. Dragonflies hunt best in warm, open spaces with good visibility.
  6. 6Include perching spots. Sticks, reeds, and plant stems give dragonflies places to rest and hunt.
  7. 7Stop using pesticides around the water. Neonicotinoids and other systemic insecticides are acutely toxic to dragonfly nymphs and to the aquatic invertebrates they feed on. Even small amounts of agricultural runoff into a pond can eliminate a nymph population. See our guide to reducing pesticide use.
  8. 8Be patient. Dragonflies will find new water on their own. They are strong fliers and scout actively. Most garden ponds attract their first dragonflies within one to two seasons without any introduction of adults or eggs.

Native plants that support dragonflies

Focus on species native to your region. These are some of the most reliably effective across the central and eastern United States:

Soft rush (Juncus effusus)
Upright stems are ideal for egg-laying and emergence. Tolerates wet or seasonally flooded ground.
Blue flag iris (Iris virginica)
Native iris with firm vertical stems. Provides excellent emergence structure and adds flowers for pollinators.
Softstem bulrush (Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani)
Dense emergent vegetation that creates excellent nymph habitat and hunting perches for adults.
Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)
Broad leaves provide shade and shelter for nymphs. The flowers attract prey insects that dragonflies hunt.
Native water lilies (Nymphaea odorata)
Floating leaves shade the water, keeping temperatures stable and reducing algae. Provide resting platforms for adults.
Woolgrass (Scirpus cyperinus)
Clumping sedge that grows at pond margins. Good for nymph shelter and adult perching.

What to avoid

Goldfish and koi eat dragonfly nymphs and are one of the main reasons garden ponds fail to support them. A wildlife pond and an ornamental fish pond serve different purposes. If you have fish, a separate unconnected pond for dragonflies is worth considering.

Avoid non-native aquatic plants like yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus), which can spread aggressively and crowd out the native vegetation dragonflies prefer. Water hyacinth and parrot's feather are similarly problematic in warmer regions.

Finally, avoid clearing the pond completely at the end of summer. Nymphs overwinter in the mud and leaf litter at the bottom, and an autumn clear-out can remove the next year's population before it hatches.