I welcome questions! If you don’t wish to leave a comment or have a more in-depth question than may be appropriate in the comments section please feel free to fill out the contact form below. If you would like a response, please make sure you include a valid e mail address (proofread it before you send it – I’ve been unable to respond to several e mails due to incorrect e mail address entries) so I can contact you. Please note that I will try to respond to all questions, but it might be a few days before I get messages. If you don’t hear back from me within a week, please feel free to try again – I was likely unable to respond because the e mail address was incorrect.
If you’d like to report a dragonfly swarm in your area, please visit my dragonfly swarm report form!
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The Dragonfly Woman 
Hi, hope you can help me, i am really afraid of bugs and bugs that fly. right now there is a swarm of dragonflies in my yard. there are so many of them, i am afraid to go outside. I live 5o miles north of Chicago IL. We had heavy rain last night and this morning and we are expecting more rain again tonight. Does this have anything to do with why they are swarming right now, how long will they hang around. will they bite or try to get in your hair. I’m really freaking out over this. Please, any information you can give me would be appreciated. Thank you,
Bev
I live in Burbank, IL just a couple minutes SW outside the city of Chicago. There’s a million of these things seemingly only in my backyard. Don’t want to go outside with my son because they’re all over and flying around like crazy. This is happening RIGHT NOW! 7/28/10 at 7:00 PM CST. Freaky!
Do not be afraid of them, they will not harm humans and they are beneficial to us as they eat tons of mosquitoes.
Also please don’t kill any of them, unless you like having more mosquitoes around.
We had a large number of them in the Oak Creek Wis area yesterday, it was a sight to behold, very cool.
NW Ohio 20 miles SW of Toledo. Swarms last night. Chased us out of the pool. Never seen a swarm before now. Why are they divebombing us?? It was freaky. It has been a hot summer, over 90 everyday, little rain.
We just noticed a Huge swarm of dragonflies in our side yard! Hundreds of them in a fairly small area. It’s been very stormy ( a good rain just came thru) and very humid. They just keep circling fairly close to the ground. Friday August 13th, 6:40 pm. What a site! Never seen anything like this EVER!!!
Sorry … Le Sueur, MN
i went out to my parents house for dinner tonight and when i got there i saw in the backyard a massive swarm of dragonflys, they were dark colerd, it was really cool, i walked into the swarm and they were flying all around me it was amazing but im wondering why they were acting this way, my parents have a pond in the back yard but even so ive never in my life seen more then 3 or 4 of them at one time. we are in pawnee illinios
I live in Stonewall, Ok and as of yesterday evening there have been thousands of dragonflies all over my yard. They’re flying close to the ground as well as well above 10 feet or so. They are literally everywhere as far as I can see. Some are very large and some are the average size I would normally see flying around. It has been a dry, hot, humid summer with daily highs of 104. We just had a big rain yesterday and the day before, the first rain in a long time.
Hi. It’s Lynn from South Dakota again. They’re back! There are just so many, and this is the first time I’ve seen them since the last time I contacted you. It stormed last night, and also, my husband was on his way home from work and he said they were everywhere too, and he works about 25 miles away. He said for as many as there were there were none on his windshield. Maybe they’re smart and beautiful! I started seeing them about 6 pm August 20th. I just can’t believe we’ve never seen this before. Thanks!
Thanks once again Lynn! I really appreciate your sending so many reports! It’s very interesting to see how the dragonflies move in and out of a single area over time. You’re amazing!
I had been outside since about 4:30pm. I went inside at about 6:30. After a shower I started a load of laundry and when I looked outside the whole yard was alive with dragonflies! Our yard is almost two acres. It was an amazing site. They were zumming around in what looked liked figure eight patterns no more than 6″ to 6″ above the ground. I called my neighbor to the east (about 1mile away) and she also had dragonflies in the back part of her yard.
The weather has been very hot and rainy. Today was 90 with little wind and high humidity. It has rained maybe three day this week. The last rain was yesturday.
I live near Grinnell, Iowa 2miles from RockCreek State Park.
I did not think to get a net to catch any. I was in shock and awe.
I know that they were very large, at first I thought they were hummingbirds!
By 7:30 almost all of them are gone. I will watch again tomorrow. I think your reaserch is very interesting.
100’s of dragonflys in my backyard flying 3′ to 6′ off the ground at 7:30pm, overcast sky after some light rain early in the morning. Without sunlight at this time of the day it was hard to judge color but most looked to be green. The day did turn out to be sunny, hot and humid then it overcast again. I live a little more than a block away from the Fox River in Ottawa Illinois which is about 65 miles SSW of Chicago. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, maybe several of them in an area by a pond or lake. I thought that there has to be a reason for this so I did a “dragonfly swarm” search and here I am.
I saw a dragonfly swarm in the last part of July. I am afraid I do not have the date, but it was about 10 a.m. and hot. I live in Hunt County, Texas, in the northern part about 10 miles south of the county line. I noticed the swarm because it was in the front yard near the house when I let my dogs out. I live on 14 acres and have a pond, but the house is about 400 yards from the pond and surrounded by burnt to a crisp grass. I remember because I thought it odd that they were zooming around in a loud swarm of probably twenty dragonflies so far from water. There were at least two kinds of dragonflies in the swarm. Mostly drab brown bodies with clear wings and two or three of the ones with pale bluish white bodies, pale bluish white wings with brown racing stripes. I never saw the swarm again. I am sorry I cannot be more precise on the date or species. I do not know much about dragonflies. I saw the notice in the Nature Blog Network this morning that you were seeking reports and it reminded me of the swarm.
6-7 p.m. September 13, Nashville, Indiana. Swarm covered 5 acre field. I have never seen anything like this. 85 and sunny today. low humitity. Hard to see them, they seemed to be just flying around in circles over a grassy field. Way below rainfall this year, but it rained 2 days ago.
Today Sept 13,210. Started at around 5:00 through dusk. Berwyn IL. Second day above 80 for a week. Seemed to be whole neighborhood, and coinciding with large number of Monarchs migrating. Butterflies were above the dragonflies which numbered in the hundreds at ant given time. They did not seem to be attacking the butterflies. I’ve never seen anything remotely like the numbers
I did a search on the internet looking for the possible cause of a swarm of dragonflies and found your webite. Last night, Sept.13, around 7-7:30 pm, about 75-80 degrees outside, I saw what I thought were hummingbirds, we have a lot here, but there were dozens of them flying in circles and figure 8’s, but on closer observation, I saw that among the hummingbirds, there were dragonflies flying with them. I was amazed. They must all have been after insects. It has been horribly dry here, but we got rain on the 11th. We live in a lake community between Coatesville, In, and Greencastle, In. Our home is between the lake and a soybean field. They were swarming and my husband and I sat outside in a swing and watched them swirl around us. What a phenomenon of nature to be a witness of. It was fantastic, a once in a lifetime event.
We have a feeding swarm of about 50+ larger dragonflies about 4″ and dark maybe bluish colored using a small patch of our back yard just above some tall weeds next to an old barn. They swarmed in an area about 100′ long and 30′ wide. There is lots of similar weeds and area all around but they have always picked the same little area. They were flying as you described doing figure eights about 5-20 feet above the ground. I have seen a report from the Ohio DNR of these swarms about a week ago and these showed up for the first time on 9-14-10. They came back this evening as they were not here during the heat of the day. I live about 8 miles as the crows fly from the Ohio river 5 miles southeast of Wheelersburg, OH. We have had a very hot, and recently dry summer and no rain for about a month.
Hi, in regards to Drahonfly Swarm in my area. & I am a bug phobia.. Especially flying ones.. I’m pretty much borderline OCD about it. Cicadas are hell for me. It’s a lil funny, I know…& I wish I could get over it!! I have a 4yr old daughter & we were outside tonight, I saw thw swarm & went inside within minutes & I watched from the front glass door..we both did. Anyway, it’s neat I guess…but I hate it. I’m already nervous about tomorrow @ the same time now after reading the info. I know they don’t bite. But they scare me!
LOCATION: Brookville, IN …. Small town, southeastern side.. 30mi or so from Cincinnati OH.
WHERE: hovering & circling & really jerky movement over my yard..maybe 5ft-20ft… It is a tree lined road, very green pretty trees..they flower in the spring…cant think of the name. Lots of traffic & people..town park right near..The whitewater river runs through brookville & is I’d say it runs about a mile from my house..we walk there time to time.
DATE: Sept. 15, 2010… Also, when talking about this with my boyfriend & he says he saw them @this time last year, because we moved in here Sept 1st & he remembers sitting on the porch watching them do that a few different nights..says about for about a week. Guess I was busy in the house..
SPECIES: I have no idea…didnt look close enough!! Ha! Umm.. & I’d say there were approx. 25-50..
WEATHER: Been very very dry & is suddenly heating back up in the low 90’s..had been mid to low 80’s, even upper 70’s. They say rain tomorrow.
I guess that’s all you need.. Feel free to write back or comment!.. I do wish they would move on!! Just on to another location! Take care!
I had a huge dragonfly swarm in my yard on the Sept. 22nd. Also hundreds of seagulls where flying overhead at the same time. It was awesome and very creepy at the same time. Thank you for the information, I was afraid my house was cursed.
I wanted to let you know I had a swarm of about 200 dragon flies in my yard Saturday evening the 9th of October! We live in the Ogden area of Wilmington. It was about 6pm and beautiful! I have never seen seen
anything like this before and I was amazing! The kids enjoyed it too!! Thanks for sharing all your info!
I just cam inside because the swarm of dragonflies in my front yard and only my front yard. I live in a community with many homes but they are only in my yard…this is srtange. I live in Northern Fl, and today there is a overcast.
I was so happy to read about the swarm in The Athens Messenger today. I also saw them Wednesday evening September 14th in The Plains – about 7:00. It was truly amazing to see – could not believe how fast they were moving.
On Sept 10 I witnessed a swarm of dragonflies in our yard as did two neighbors in their yards in Athens Couty, Ohio. We are midway between Marietta, Ohio and Athens, Ohio – they were beautiful; my husband reports he sees them frequently near where our garden was. It has been a very hot, dry summer with cool temps recently. I spoke with neighbors who report, as I do, we have never witnessed this phenomenon every before.
There was a whole lot of activity in your area during that week! I got a lot of reports from Athens then,so it looks like it was a pretty major event. Thanks for the report!
Need to identify a bug that looks like a huge mosquito – not a crane fly. Hump back, long tail, about 2 inches long, eats flies.
Have you got a picture of it? Sounds like a robber fly from the humpback part of the description, but it would be really great to see a photo to confirm.
Hello so I came across this site when i searched for dragonfly behavior. I had a very crazy experience yesterday where my 4 year old daughter was playing tag with a dragonfly. By the time realized that it was actually chasing her and really interacting with her five minutes had gone by. It was so cool I called my husband over and we watched them play and then we all sat in the middle of the yard together and he flew up to and between us and would hover right up to our faces looking directly at us it was WILD!!
This whole thing lasted over forty five minutes!!! It was amazing I live in new england in very woodsy area and have always loved insects and animals and I have had dragonfly’s land on me but this was interacting with us without a doubt. I would love to know if this is something you have heard of before?
Hello! I responded via e mail! Thanks for sharing your story.
Hello, My name is Alexis Jarman, I would really appreciate it if you could send me the link for your brochures via email. I highly support your activities with the dragonflies and would like to be apart helping out.
Sorry for the delay! I overlooked this comment when you posted it. I’d be happy to send it to you! Look for it in your inbox shortly!
Hello Dragonfly Women :)
I need help in identifying a species. I am from India , from a rich biodiversity spot in Western Ghats of India. Please let me know if you can help me identify this species. To which mail address should i send the snaps? Kindly help
I would love to help, but I am not nearly as well suited to identifying your dragonflies as some other people will be. I encourage you to look for an Indian dragonfly group on Facebook and ask there or to join the Odonata-L listserv (you should be able to find a link to it on odonatacentral.org) and send your photos out to the group. I believe Odonata Central also has some links to groups throughout the world where you could connect to other dragonfly enthusiasts in your area. I haven’t ever been to your part of the world and do not consider myself an expert identifier to begin with, so I don’t want to waste your time when I know I am probably not going to be able to help…
Good luck!
July 3 saw a swarm….never seen anything like it before.
I sent in a report but I believe there was trouble with your site.
I live on a ridge over looking Lake Superior in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada
I’m hoping someone else saw the swarm! We have had cool wet weather and between the swarm and the moon last night I FEEL LIKE A VERY LUCKY PERSON!!!!
There was a swarm just on the other side of the border from you the same day as your report, so I think someone else DID see it! I put the map up on my blog today so you can see it – Grand Marais, Minnesota was the other location.
Is the Dragonfly Swarm Project still operational? From the posted reports, it looks like it wrapped up in 2015. Yes? No?
I saw a swarm in Mobile Alabama, when our ship went to the yards there in 1979-80. I believe it was fall. (A little unsure on that, as it was a long time ago, and their only real winter was a few weeks of blistering rainy cold windy weeks in January.) Heard what sounded like a growing LOUD buzz, like a muffled chainsaw. Went outside, there were dragonflies everywhere. Over the house, a couple thousand, of every size and color imaginable. I always thought they were cool bugs, this was a delight! Wasn’t until finding your blog today that I knew this was a known event.
It’s still going! I’m just crazy behind on posting, but I’m collecting data still. Hoping to get caught back up this summer.