Watch out Mosquitoes!

Brad gets up close and personal with one of the “Good Guy” insects – depending on whether or not you like mosquitoes.    “After a family bbq we were at my mom’s in Stony Plain.  I was sitting in the shade with my niece when the Dragonfly flew by and landed in the spruce tree.   It hung around long enough for me to snap a few pictures with my iphone, and for me to lift my niece high enough so she could get a few of her own”.

DID YOU KNOW?    These gentle giants are some of the fastest insects in the world – some with an average cruising speed of about 4.5 metres per second (10 mph).    But most of all, we are grateful for their voraceous appetites for mosquitoes.   They eat many times their weight in mosquitoes (even mosquito larva) every day .. as well as flies and the occasional honeybee.    Dragonflies have a basket-like arrangement of their legs, and adults can actually catch and eat other bugs while they are flying.    Here is what their life is like:  An Egg (usually laid under water), Larva (free moving, water dwelling nymph) and Adult.    The larva lives for several weeks (or years depending on species) underwater and undergoes a series of molts as it grows. It emerges from the water when it is ready to undergo its final molt where the “skin” splits to reveal the winged adult.    On average a dragonfly will live to the ripe ol’ age of six months.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE – SO MAKE SURE YOU TAKE AND SHARE SOME PRETTY PICTURES ALONG THE WAY!    SEND US YOUR NATURE PHOTO TODAY, SEE IT ON BT AND THIS BLOG TOMORROW!