c/til · by QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works · 36d

TIL dragonflies bite when threatened

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/do-dragonflies-bite-humans

there was a dragonfly trying to run into the windows at my work that got caught in a spider web in the process and it bit me when I was trying to save it >:(

googled to see if it was a bite or a sting and yep! the bloody bastard bit me, how rude.

Dragonflies do bite, and they will bite humans, but only if you catch one and it's trying to escape or defend itself. And only the largest dragonflies will be able to break your skin anyway.

355 points · 61 comments · view on lemmy.world

61 Comments

someguy3@lemmy.world · 81 pts · 36d (6 replies)

DYK dragonflies spend 50 to 80% of their lives as larvae swimming in water.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 108 pts · 36d (3 replies)

Where they eat mosquito larvae. Real MVPs there.

Flagstaff@programming.dev · 26 pts · 36d

Dragonflies live their entire lives full of violence from birth to death. They don't care about plants, and are constantly killing and eating other bugs and avoiding/getting eaten by all larger predators at every stage of their lives. They also eat hundreds of mosquitoes once airborne. It's unfortunate that OP got bitten, but they're absolutely incredible hunters that are on our side.

Alpha71@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 36d (1 reply)

I used to live in Edmonton AB. And you could tell when the Dragon flies came out because the mosquito population would drop overnight.

paulzy@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 36d

They are gonna be drone sized this year.

kaklerbitmap@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 36d (1 reply)

They're also possibly the most efficient hunter on the planet, capturing 95-97% of the prey they go after

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_success

Enkrod@feddit.org · 1 pts · 35d

There is a good reason their body plan is basically unchanged since the paleozoic.

icanbrewmushrooms@lemmy.world · 69 pts · 36d (6 replies)

I got bit by a dragon fly once, and I wasn't threatening towards it in any way. I just stuck my finger out in the hope that one of the many dragon flies would land on it, and one did, and then the fucker bit me for no reason and flew off

leadore@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 36d

"What a weird stick I just landed on, what is this made of? *bite* Oh shit, it's an animal!" *flies away*

Meatwagon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 36d (3 replies)

I was told their mouth is how they feel things, so maybe it was just feeling your texture.

fartographer@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 36d (2 replies)

They want to feel you from the inside

Firoaren@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 36d (1 reply)

They wanna bite you like an animal?

Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d

It. gets. me closer to dog!

rumba@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 36d

Same, was near a pond at a fams house, watching for gators and snakes. I was from 'up north'

I was so busy looking for nasty predators, I'm like OHH dragonfly.... CHOMP WTF!!!!!

pool_spray_098@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 36d (1 reply)

I used to be pretty scared of dragonflies as a kid.

My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger. He said if you piss them off they'll sting you and the stinger can go in one side of your wrist and come out the other.

Scared the fucking shit out of me.

GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 36d

My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger.

sounds like a big brother thing to say.

systemglitch@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 36d

I've saved hundreds of these guys from drowning as a kid. They would dry off on me, look at me, somehow looked very grateful and then fly away.

I was never bitten and I have held so many. I love them. Good karma.

cholesterol@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 36d (2 replies)

Once as a kid I ran my hand through some leaves on a tree, and a large dragonfly clamped down on the fleshy part between the thumb and the index. I shook my hand violently and looked at it. Fucker's whole body was torn off, but the head was still there, just biting me. Shook again and it was gone. Fucking traumatic.

quick_snail@feddit.nl · -2 pts · 36d (1 reply)

So, you decapitated a bug and complained that it bit you in the processes?

cholesterol@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 36d

No..? It bit me before anything else. Unless you count touching leaves as part of 'the process' of decapitating it.

lath@piefed.social · 24 pts · 36d

I usually find them on my clothesline and they're pretty chill even if you wander too close. But I tried to tickle one and it flew off angrily as if yelling "I was trying to have a fucking nap! God! So many fucking assholes everywhere!".
I definitely felt a middle age exhausted vibe oozing from it...

audaxdreik@pawb.social · 22 pts · 36d

I used to work at a pet store and we'd get big cartons of crickets for reptile food. If you've ever purchased them from Petco/PetSmart it's just a garbage bin in the back room with some egg crate in it.

Anyways, they shipped with potato slices and other things to help sustain them but they were usually pretty savage by the time you opened the box to add them to the bins. Surprised me the first time I got my arms covered in them and they started munching away. Didn't hurt at all, they're crickets, but boy were they trying. Dozens of little cricket mouths gently pinching away. I just kinda stood there dumbfounded like are you for serious little dudes??

Art3mis@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 21 pts · 35d (1 reply)

-has a 99% kill rate, higher than all other animals

-humans "it bites??????"

no shade, just v funny to me

Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 35d

-Named after mythological monster-

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 36d (11 replies)

Anything with a mouth can technically bite. What's even weirder is that dragonflies cannot walk in their adult form

systemglitch@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 36d (10 replies)

I am fairly certain Ive seen many of them walk when drying off on me

Einskjaldi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 36d (1 reply)

An article would say that they have working legs but don't walk well. But they can move around short distances by moving their legs, just not very well.

systemglitch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d

That is my personal life experience as well.

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 36d (7 replies)

Look it up

testaccount789@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 36d (5 replies)

Sounds like they looked at the source directly.

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 36d (4 replies)

Then it wasn't a dragonfly

BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 36d

Probably one of those dragonwalkers

systemglitch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d (2 replies)

Lol, I know what dragonflys are. Is there even another insect that looks like them? They are quite distinct.

kaklerbitmap@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d (1 reply)

I doubt it's relevant to the argument you're having (as they have very similar anatomy), but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly

systemglitch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 33d

Oh wow that's so cool. Thank you, now I have to figure out if I was saving dragonflies or damselflies!

TherapyGary@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 36d

I just looked it up and it said they can walk actually

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 35d

I was hiking with my grandson and the trail was post-rain and chock full of mosquitoes. We stopped for a breather and were talking face to face, our heads about a foot apart, mosquitoes everywhere. Just then a dragonfly slow flew right between our eyes and we both saw his "wing flutter" pulling tens of mosquitoes into his "wake" and just sucking them up like popcorn. It was cool to see.

ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 36d

They can also curl their bodies up, which makes complete sense, but when I caught one as a kid I was NOT expecting them to be able to do that as I'd only ever seen them straightened out. I think it tried to bite, but I freaked out and immediately let go.

chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz · 10 pts · 36d (6 replies)

I was flying my paramotor one morning in Florida. I didn't notice it at the time, but something caught my eye while editing the video from my helmet camera. It was a dragonfly at somewhere around 1100-1300 ft AGL.

No idea what it was doing up there.

ProfessorHoover@infosec.pub · 9 pts · 35d (1 reply)

It was thinking the same about you

Dicska@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d

Something got into its eye.

Soggy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d (3 replies)

There's loads of flying insects up much higher than that, they catch thermals. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see

chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 35d

Thermals make a lot of sense. But I wonder how much of this is on purpose versus just and accident.

I can easily see an insect getting picked up and carried by an errant gust and then flung up by a strong thermal.

And storms can have nasty thermals.

chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 35d (1 reply)

I forgot, though. I was flying in the morning while there had been a lot of low level fog. There were no thermals at the time. The earth hadn't started heating up yet.

Soggy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d

There's other kinds of updrafts (as I'm sure you know, flying seems like an especially dangerous hobby if you don't understand wind and airflow) and they can travel quite a long distance in higher currents. There's a butterfly that gets up to like 20k feet.

psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 36d

Ohh yes! I told everyone that dragonfly do bite and no one believe me! Decades ago a dragonfly land on my finger and i thought it's kinda cute, then it suddenly bite me and i have to yeet it away in shock.

Alpha71@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 36d (1 reply)

The ones you REALLY don't want to fuck around with are Giant Water Bugs.

Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 35d

What.
The.
Fuck.

albbi@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 36d (3 replies)

How painful was the bite? I'm guessing worse than mosquito, but less than a bee sting?

dregan@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 36d

It probably depends on the size. I got bit by a fairly large one as a kid and it hurt like hell.

Nastybutler@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 36d

It feels just like a horsefly bite

psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 36d

It feels like a sharp pinch, very mild pain but if you didn't see it coming it can be a shock. They do have powerful mandible to bite off insect. Definitely less painful than fire ant bite or wasp sting.

Though i might have high pain tolerance and thicker skin on my finger

SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 35d

At least it wasn't Meganeura.