Dragonfly rescue

Three twelve-spotted skimmer dragonflies found their way into our sunroom yesterday afternoon, and could not manage to find their way out. They were frantic, hurling themselves against the windows, wings beating with an alarming ruckus. I'm sentimentally fond of dragonflies, and when I came upon their predicament I almost panicked too. How would I get these tiny, fragile, hysterical creatures back out safely? I hadn't caught a dragonfly by hand since I was a child. And, as it turns out, the "dragonflies" we would capture (and free) in the course of each summer day's entertainment were not dragonflies, but damselflies. The damselfly, when at rest, holds its wings up together; the dragonfly rests with its wings down. I was confident that I could have reenacted a one-hand capture (chopsticked forefinger and middle finger, closing in on the upheld damselfly wings) if these had been damselflies, but what to do for these? "They'll bite you," my husband warned. "No they won't. I used to catch these by hand all the time," I lied. Well, then, I had to pony up. I got closer to one of them. Its abdomen was the color of a silver zeppelin, and bulged in and out with a frightening, hyperventilating rhythm. I caught each side's wings between fingers of each hand. I carried the dragonfly out with both hands, and set it free with a swooping skyward motion (hokey, yes. But I couldn't resist.), as if I were releasing a bird (or dispersing fairy dust), and watched it zoom up into blue and away.

Comments

[avril]

Do they bite?

[Chan S.]

Honestly, I don't know. I never got bit by any damselflies I handled when I was a kid. I'm pretty confident that a dragonfly would not bite in aggression--what I don't know is whether it would bite when threatened or frightened.

[jul]

Help! A dragonfly flew into our hallway light. I got him out and put a little cool water on his feet and he drank some. He hasn,t moved much and my little girl wants him to live! Help!What else can i do?

[Chan S.]

Oh, no! I don't know a thing about healing injured insects. I would think that keeping it outside would be better so that it could return to its habitat if it's able to heal on its own. I hope the dragonfly makes it.