CLOSED: Water bugs!

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sedna101 Graton, CA May 06, 2013

Sorry, no photo. I have several half wine barrels in which I grow water plants (iris, water lilies, water hyacinths) I recently had to move the barrels to another location, so emptied them out, saving all my mosquito fish and water. I noticed some 3/4 inch bugs in a couple of barrels; I have never seen them before, and those barrels did not seem to have any fish OR mosquito larvae. At first, I put the bugs back in the barrels but when I realized I wasn't seeing any fish with them, I became concerned that they might be eating the fish. The bugs were in the muck at the bottom, although they might just have been hiding there. All that I saw were about 3/4 inch long, maybe 1/4 inch wide, and I think they were brown, although by the time I found them at the bottom, most had some algae wrapped around them. Any ideas what they might be? Thanks!

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sedna101 Graton, CA May 08, 2013

Okay, some research has answered my question: they are dragonfly larvae! And the do eat mosquito larvae AND small fish. Images:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A2KJkCHJNItRhQcAXHKJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBxYW4yY2ljBHNlYwNkZC1pbWctc3VtLTEEc2xrA2hxaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Ddragonfly%2Blarvae%26fr%3Dgoodsearch-yhsif%26ri%3D4%26tab%3Dorganic&w=1501&h=1024&imgurl=d4.yimg.com%2Fsr%2Fimg%2F1%2Fa9a8855c-5519-3fcf-8741-ef37752b0d3b&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com&size=187KB&name=Close-up+of+dragonfly+larva&p=dragonfly+larvae&oid=a9a8855c-5519-3fcf-8741-ef37752b0d3b&fr2=&fr=goodsearch-yhsif&tt=Close-up+of+dragonfly+larva&b=0&ni=72&no=4&ts=&c=7%2C0%2C206%2C199&s=0&imgs=yahoohq&prtnr=Getty&sigr=10u1vb470&sigb=13i5jelm9&sigi=11pbv8fpn&.crumb=I/BOy9vchi/&fr=goodsearch-yhsif

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kwanjin (Zone 7a) May 09, 2013

How neat you found them to be beneficial Dragonflies. I was stumped.

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