West Nile Virus was huge concern after the storm. All that standing water left people vulnerable to mosquitoes. An unexpected group of rescuers showed up.
Unbeknownst to most of the first responders was the fact that New Orleans had an ally in its fight against mosquito-born disease.
Female dragonflies lay their eggs (nymphs) in water or on floating plants. After Katrina their eggs were deposited in the floodwater. The aquatic larvae hatched. From then on, they started devouring mosquitoes, dive-bombing them with aerial acrobatics that made the Coast Guard helicopters look clumsy by comparison.
Sometimes when a corpse was found floating around the streets of New Orleans, washed up against a chain-link fence or concrete wall, dragonflies hovered around the victim. Never did the dragonflies touch the flesh, hunting instead for the maggots and fleas and mosquitoes, drawn to protect Katrina's victims just as they did its survivors.
(The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley)
3 comments:
Isn't nature amazing?! If only we'd learn to leave it alone. *sigh* I've been seeing a lot of dragonflies this summer. Wish they'd stop long enough for me to take a photo. So beautiful.
I am just amazed by their various colors and shapes Carolyn.
They are currently hanging around Heartland in large numbers. Hooray!
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