OMG, y’all! Check it out! Because of the overnight frost/freeze warnings we’ve been getting, Chad took all the water lettuce out of the frog pond and put it in a bucket in the laundry room*.
And look what came out today to say hi — two dragonfly larvae!
The one that’s already out of its exuvia is still drying its wings. Once it’s ready to fly, we’ll usher it outside. Luckily the temps this week will be in the 60s during the day, warm enough for it to migrate.
The other larva ducked down under the water again. Apparently it’s not ready to come out yet.
The *only* thing Chad took out of the pond was the water lettuce. He filled the bucket up with water from a hose. So we’re figuring the dragonfly larvae must be hanging out in the water lettuce root systems. (Those things get pretty massive.) Which explains how they’re managing not to get eaten by the tadpoles. Or the frogs.
*I’ve already vetoed the water lettuce bucket staying in the laundry room. That area just isn’t big enough. So as soon as the dragonfly’s ready to move on, bucket is moving out to the garage. It’s a bigger area, the water won’t freeze in there, and if any more dragonfly larvae decide to complete their metamorphosis before we move the plants back to the pond in the spring, it will be easier to get them into the great outdoors.