Tuesday 27 September 2016

On Bats (Good), Dragonflies (Good and Bad) and Mosquitoes (Definitely Bad)


A rescued (and shy) Noctule Bat
Dragonflies and damselflies have been flying around the smallholding for weeks. From a distance, they're beautiful, like little jewels hanging in the air. I've been watching them in the meadow where the bee hives are kept where they dart around, hunting, their translucent wings glowing with light. But this is the problem - lovely though they are to look at, I think they're hunting my bees.

Female black tailed skimmer

I'm not an expert on the different dragonflies, but I'm having a go at the ID. I do know they are fierce little hunters that will use their large, bulging eyes to spot their prey. I think they're probably spotting my bees as they fly to and from the hives, so I really hope my bees are managing to outwit them.

Instead of my bees, I wish the dragonflies could have gone for the numerous mosquitoes we had here during the hot weather. We were under attack for about two or three weeks as they came buzzing in through the open windows at night - possibly from our moat. So I bought some citronella (known to repel mosquitoes) and scattered it everywhere, but I think its effect was limited. It has to be reapplied every few hours.  I got tired of the smell soon, too. I thought about a mosquito net, but I really didn't want such an cumbersome and ugly thing hanging up.

Common darter
It goes without saying that I'm very lucky I don't live in a malaria area. But a note on this; for a long time Essex (or rather the coastal marshes) was well known for malaria or, as it was known then, the 'ague'. There's one story that illustrates how bad it was - the 'Robinson Crusoe' author Daniel Defoe travelled through Essex in 1722 and he later wrote that when the men of the Essex marshes brought home wives who weren't local, the women would soon sicken of the ague (or they would 'decay' as he put it) and die. The men would then go and find another wife and it would all happen again. And again. According to Defoe, some men had married up to fifteen times (one farmer was on wife number twenty five). This sounds like a huge exaggeration, but there's probably some truth in it, so it's a wonder why these women kept taking the risk by marrying the marsh folk.

Hawker
No one seems to be sure why the ague began to disappear in the late 19th century, but it may have been down to improvements in medicine. The last outbreak in this part of the world was recorded about a hundred years ago when soldiers from the First World War returned from the Mesopotamian campaign (where they had contracted the disease) to the Isle of Sheppey.

Anyway, there's no chance of the mosquitoes coming back now the nights are cooler.  But it has spurred me on to put up some bat boxes here. Bats hunt insects and they hunt mosquitoes. They're no threat to my bees because my bees won't be flying at night. I've hardly seem any bats around the house this summer and I don't know why, because soprano pipistrelle bats have been here in the past, and I do know they're roosting just over the fields. So I'm going to put up some boxes to encourage them back.  Will they control a future plague of mosquitoes? I don't know, but I really hope so.

24 comments:

  1. Your dragonfly photos are superb. I have a tough time finding any sitting still. I've been fascinated this year watching the honeybee predators. Our swallows and dragonflies clearly were cruising for bees, and there were catbirds and jays parked in the woods behind the hive that I suspect were also having a bee buffet. Recently, the chipmunks have been doing sweeps in front of the hive to eat the ejected drones. Yum.

    As far as mosquitoes go, I'm delighted to be living on a breezy hillside that is plagued only rarely with the little buggers. We lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for years, where, in the spring, the mosquitoes descended like a living fog. It wasn't fun. But, fortunately, they didn't carry any diseases. Bring on the bats.

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    1. I've never really added up all the predators that my bees will have; I think I'm a bit frightened to do it! There's probably more than I realise. I've plenty of swallows here too, so they would be top of the list. That is interesting about the chipmunks in front of the hives - I wonder if anything here has been hanging around for the drones.
      Being up high must definitely be an answer to mosquitoes. All bats will be welcome here!

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  2. Good morning Wendy!:) You have beautiful shots of the various dragonflies here, and the bat. Mosquitoes would be a problem here if we didn't use an electrical device, which we plug into a socket every night. It really works well, even with the windows open. Your idea of attracting bats to deal with your mosquito problem also seems like a good idea.

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    1. I have seen the electrical devices that can be plugged in. They are sold here for travel/foreign holiday use. I will look into that for next year. It's a good suggestion.
      I hope we have bats again here. They'll certainly have plenty to eat!

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  3. Great photos of the dragonflies, I hope your bees manage to outwit them most of the time. That must have been a challenge all your mosquitoes, I'm glad I don't have to deal with too much of that where I am, but definitely encouraging the bats makes sense. I do get them round my house in the evening.

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    1. It's good to hear you have bats where you are. I don't know why I haven't seen any here recently. I might have a word with the Wildlife Trust - they have a bat roost very close by.

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  4. Our bats whip through the mozzies that gather over the pond so I hope you do get some helping you out. It's such a tough one about the bees and the dragons. We have lots of dragons here and I've not seen them take any bees but I guess if there's an obvious and ready food source they'll exploit it. Let's hope evolution has planned for it and given the bees a means of avoiding that kind of predation. I know southern hawkers will take prey up to the size of butterflies.

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    1. I didn't know that about southern hawkers. They would definitely take the bees, then. I hope my bees altered their usual flight paths to and from the hives as a response to the dragonflies.
      That's encouraging about the bats taking the mosquitoes over your pond - that's just what I want here!

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  5. I hope your bees manage to dodge your dragonflies! We too have seen far fewer bats this summer, usually we see plenty of pipistrelles, but not this year unfortunately.

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    1. That's interesting that you haven't seen so many bats either this year. I wonder if there's a pattern across the country. I'd got used to seeing bats here as soon as the sun went down - but not recently.

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  6. Beautiful photos of the dragonflies Wendy although I do hope your bees are outwitting them! Very interesting to read of the ague too - one has to feel sorry for all those wives! I can't stand the smell of citronella either although some people swear by one of the Avon creams (I think it is Skin so Soft) I believe the Royal Marines use it as an insect deterrent! Not tried it myself though! Great idea about the bat boxes to encourage bats - do hope it works :)

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    1. The Skin so Soft Avon spray was recommended to me and so I did buy some. I'd heard, too, that the Forces take it to the tropics! I think using citronella did help but I really couldn't use it anymore once I went off the smell. If the bats help that will be great - it will be nature taking care of itself.

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  7. Mozzies! What a nightmare they are, we never had them here but suffer each year now. I didn't realise dragonflies hunted bees! What fantastic pics, I have a real problem photographing them too. I do hope you attract the bats back, we always had lots around here, but their numbers seem diminished of late.
    25 wives?!? My goodness.....speechless I am!xxx

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    1. I think 25 wives is an exaggeration - but then it might be true!! I would have thought several wives in women would have given the farmer and his farm a wide berth. Surely once he proposed an alarm bell somewhere would have rung!
      That isn't good news that you've seen fewer bats where you are, too. I love seeing them fly around - such fascinating little creatures.

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  8. Hi Wendy, I like the new look, background and banner are lovely. Fantastic images of the dragonflies. Regarding the mosquitoes and just about anything else that can get in the window at night (including spiders....eek), I use a fly screen over my open bedroom windows-uses velcro to attach and very easy to open and shut. Just thought it might help.

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    1. Thanks Suzie. A fly screen sounds a great solution. My windows are odd shapes but I'll have a look and see what I can buy. The last thing I want to do in hot weather is to keep the windows closed.

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  9. I live on a pond so there are many ODEs around, but I had not thought of them eating honey bees. I see them hawking mosquitos here in the yard and have never seen them with a bee and I hope your bees do ok... Michelle

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    1. I'm not sure the dragonflies are doing too much damage to my bee colonies. It certainly is nothing like a wasp attack in the hive. The problem would be if they caught a queen bee if she was flying to and from the hive and so the bees became queenless.

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  10. Growing up in Africa meant a daily, and nightly, battle with mozzies. We were regularly advised by the government to cover any containers of open water where the mosquitos would lay eggs and their larvae could grow. I work in a walled garden and there are a number of tubs and barrels used to collect rain water, I still hark back and wonder if I should cover them up!

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    1. You must know so much about mosquitoes! I hadn't thought about other sources of still, open water around our place - but I will do in future. We were a bit caught out with them this year, we didn't expect a problem and then suddenly we were dealing with them coming in through the windows. We'll be prepared next year!

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  11. Hurrah the comment box has stayed this time and I am able to comment! We don't have a problem with 'mozzies' around here, maybe a few midges but we do have plenty of damselflies. I didn't realise they went after bees. How fascinating about the ague - who knew". I love watching the bats in the evening, we found a dead one once, so tiny and strange - aren't we lucky to have such a variety of wild life around us.

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    1. I hope my new computer has fixed any issues with the comment box - sorry again it's been such a problem. Bat's aren't like any other creature, aren't they? And they are fascinating to watch when they swoop around.

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  12. I didn't realise that malaria used to be in this country too, it was so interesting to find out all about it. We put up a bat box in our previous garden, the bats didn't ever use it. They preferred nesting in the inside of our roof. Sarah x

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    1. Birds and animals can be very fussy when it comes to purpose built boxes, can't they? We put up an owl box years ago and it has never been used - I think we'll put the bat box there instead and hope that the bats like the location when the owls didn't!

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