Sunday, April 05, 2009

mosquito hawk

mosquito hawk
originally uploaded by billaday.

Everyone around me seems to hate mosquito hawks. I don't. I like the fact that they eat mosquitos. That means that I get bitten less. So please, don't kill these insect superheros.
Year 3, Day 116

3 comments:

AddictedtoCrafting said...

Actually according to an artical, they're not moskito hawks, they're crane flies, and they do not eat moskito's/

http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg215.html

Anonymous said...

Your photograph shows a crane fly.

There are THOUSANDS of species of crane flies.

The larva of a few species eat the larva of mosquitos but more of them eat the roots of grass and are considered a pest by groundskeepers of golfing greens. In general, once they reach the adult stage, they only live to mate and don't eat.

The ovipositor (egg layer) protrudes from the rear of females and it's understandable why some people think they can sting. They can't - They are harmless to humans. My young girls would gently cup them in their hands and remove them to the outdoors. My youngest said it feels "like you're holding a whisper in your hands".

Anonymous said...

AddictedtoCrafting is right. Crane Flies don't eat mosquitos. Nor do they bite people.
Dragonflies eat mosquitos.