Plague of... dragonflies

Question

Okay, if you can explain this, I hope you don't.
Outside we've developed a flying ant problem. Swarms of flying ants (or something like them) on, or just above, the grass. But, above them, we have thousands of dragonflies, weaving, circling, bobbing, diving and catching the ants. We're not by the water I've never seen a single dragonfly here before now we've got thousands of them.
Weird.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Okay, if you can explain this, I hope you don't. Outside we've developed a flying ant problem. Swarms of flying ... seen a single dragonfly here before now we've got thousands of them. Weird. RonB "There's a story there...somewhere"[/nq]
Count your blessings - and maybe you can make a film and put it on YouTube. It's like way back when in Salt Lake City, a plague of grasshoppers hit, then out of nowhere, seagulls flew in to save the day (and the crops).
I love dragonflies.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Okay, if you can explain this, I hope you don't. Outside we've developed a flying ant problem. Swarms of flying ... seen a single dragonfly here before now we've got thousands of them. Weird. RonB "There's a story there...somewhere"[/nq]
Are you sure your "flying ants" aren't termites? Years ago, when I first got to Dayton, we were living in a small rented apartment until the furniture arrived, and we came home one night and when we turned on the lights, all you could see was this mass of flying critters. Termites! The landlort didn't seem at all concerned. I was very relieved the furniture arrived before the floor collapsed beneath us.
No idea about the dragonflies... Maybe they're just hungry?

Caroline

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Count your blessings - and maybe you can make a film and put it on YouTube. It's like way back ... of grasshoppers hit, then out of nowhere, seagulls flew in to save the day (and the crops). I love dragonflies.[/nq]
I like dragonflies too, but I usually only see them around the water. Funny, shortly after I posted about them the whole show packed up and was gone as sudden as it started.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Are you sure your "flying ants" aren't termites? Years ago, when I first got to Dayton, we were living in ... very relieved the furniture arrived before the floor collapsed beneath us. No idea about the dragonflies... Maybe they're just hungry?[/nq]
Termites make more sense. I'm sure the dragonflies were hungry it's just the fact that they showed up so suddenly and in such high numbers that made it surprising.

RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Count your blessings - and maybe you can make a film and put it on YouTube. It's like way back when in Salt Lake City, a plague of grasshoppers hit, then out of nowhere, seagulls flew in to save the day (and the crops).[/nq]
Seagulls, or... PTERODACTYLS??!!!
jaybee

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I like dragonflies too, but I usually only see them around the water. Funny, shortly after I posted about them the whole show packed up and was gone as sudden as it started.[/nq]
Yeah, you think they're gone. But they lurk, just out of sight, watching... waiting... and in a couple of days, when they're hungry again, you'll start looking pretty **** plump and juicy to them...
jaybee

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]That sounds like a fun story you could write up - "Day of the Dragonflies" maybe. Maybe the marauding termites ... Golden Pond... only to return because endless lilypads does not make up for true family love. I smell a blockbuster.[/nq]
Pixar could animate it. With Ray Romano voicing the role of the reluctant hero, and Queen Latifa as the no-nonsense streetsmart beetle sidekick.
jaybee

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Okay, if you can explain this, I hope you don't. Outside we've developed a flying ant problem. Swarms of flying ... not by the water I've never seen a single dragonfly here before now we've got thousands of them.[/nq]
It's the dragonfly hatching. I first noticed it here in Woodstock a few years ago: the dragonflies in this region all hatch and take flight on the same day. There's a 10 acre meadow behind my house and on hatching day this year it was yesterday the meadow has, literally, thousands of dragonflies hovering about 2 feet off the ground. I can call friends for 15 miles in any direction from here and they'll have the same phenomenon on the same day. Amazing.
Either that or it's a sign that *** wants us to set His People free.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Or next, I'll send in
the Plague of Yorkies.
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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Okay, if you can explain this, I hope you don't. Outside we've developed a flying ant problem. Swarms of flying ... seen a single dragonfly here before now we've got thousands of them. Weird. RonB "There's a story there...somewhere"[/nq]
They're probably termites, which tend to produce really massive numbers of flying queens and consorts when they reproduce.

What you are actually witnessing is an interesting strategy that certain species (usually insects, but some plant species as well) use to maximize their chances of successfully reproducing.

I think it's called (I could be wrong) predatory satiation. It consists of producing a truly tremendous number of breeding pairs (that's why it's generally only appropriate for insects, which often have immature feeding forms and mature breeding forms like caterpillar and butterfly), and your species has to have adapted so that the season is extremely short and coordinated so that they all show up at once. The predators that normally feed on your kind of thing are simply caught off guard.
There are literally so many around and for such a short interval that the predators can't possibly eat more than a very small percentage of the breeders. Nor can they adapt to such events, increasing their numbers to take advantage of them, because they happen so rarely that a large population dependent upon them would starve waiting around for the population spikes to happen.
NMS

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Count your blessings - and maybe you can make a film and put it on YouTube. It's like way back when in Salt Lake City, a plague of grasshoppers hit, then out of nowhere, seagulls flew in to save the day (and the crops).[/nq]
(Well that what the Mormons thought anyway. Turns out those "gulls" live there all the time.)
[nq:1]I love dragonflies.[/nq]
Well sure but a plague of them?

Plague of... dragonflies

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