I’m continuing to wear a dragonfly on my head, trying to figure out whether or not they will keep horseflies and deer flies away.
Over the years I have heard good things about dragonflies, that just the mere sight of one will send other flies hurrying away in fear that the dragonfly may decide to eat them. I haven’t yet seen that happen, but it has seen to cut down on the swarms some.
Having an actual dragonfly hanging around, munching on other flies and threatening others should they come close would probably work much better than just having a pin stuck to your hat. But dragonflies don’t seem terribly easy to tame, in spite of the fact they will drop by and sit on you from time to time. But the pin version does seem to keep the numbers of attackers down. It does not seem to totally keep them away. But I’m still checking, and I haven’t actually been bitten while wearing the pin.
But there area couple things that seem to be attracted to dragonfly pins. One, that I had mentioned earlier, was other dragonflies. They seem to drop by and check out the newcomer. Or try to turn my head into some sort of dragonfly singles bar. In any case, since the pin doesn’t talk much, they don’t hang around too long.
There is however one other thing dragonfly pins seem to attract. Curious people. Since I happened to be wearing my cap with the dragonfly pin much of the last couple of weeks, it gave me a lot of time to see how other flies reacted. But it also gave me time to see how people reacted. There were several who stopped me and asked if the pin worked, or where I had gotten it so that they could give it a try.
So while I may not be absolutely sure whether or not the dragonfly pin will actually keep other types of flies with big teeth away from you, I have noticed it seems to attract people. And maybe some other dragonflies.
It might not be quite the effect you’re looking for, but it is something.
