there was a dragonfly trying to run into the windows at my work that got caught in a spider web in the process and it bit me when I was trying to save it >:(

googled to see if it was a bite or a sting and yep! the bloody bastard bit me, how rude.

Dragonflies do bite, and they will bite humans, but only if you catch one and it’s trying to escape or defend itself. And only the largest dragonflies will be able to break your skin anyway.

  • Art3mis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    -has a 99% kill rate, higher than all other animals

    -humans “it bites???”

    no shade, just v funny to me

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    I was hiking with my grandson and the trail was post-rain and chock full of mosquitoes. We stopped for a breather and were talking face to face, our heads about a foot apart, mosquitoes everywhere. Just then a dragonfly slow flew right between our eyes and we both saw his “wing flutter” pulling tens of mosquitoes into his “wake” and just sucking them up like popcorn. It was cool to see.

  • cholesterol@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Once as a kid I ran my hand through some leaves on a tree, and a large dragonfly clamped down on the fleshy part between the thumb and the index. I shook my hand violently and looked at it. Fucker’s whole body was torn off, but the head was still there, just biting me. Shook again and it was gone. Fucking traumatic.

  • pool_spray_098@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    I used to be pretty scared of dragonflies as a kid.

    My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger. He said if you piss them off they’ll sting you and the stinger can go in one side of your wrist and come out the other.

    Scared the fucking shit out of me.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger.

      sounds like a big brother thing to say.

      • Flagstaff@programming.dev
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        19 hours ago

        Dragonflies live their entire lives full of violence from birth to death. They don’t care about plants, and are constantly killing and eating other bugs and avoiding/getting eaten by all larger predators at every stage of their lives. They also eat hundreds of mosquitoes once airborne. It’s unfortunate that OP got bitten, but they’re absolutely incredible hunters that are on our side.

      • Alpha71@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I used to live in Edmonton AB. And you could tell when the Dragon flies came out because the mosquito population would drop overnight.

  • Lemmywinks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I got bit by a dragon fly once, and I wasn’t threatening towards it in any way. I just stuck my finger out in the hope that one of the many dragon flies would land on it, and one did, and then the fucker bit me for no reason and flew off

    • leadore@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      “What a weird stick I just landed on, what is this made of? *bite* Oh shit, it’s an animal!” *flies away*

  • systemglitch@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’ve saved hundreds of these guys from drowning as a kid. They would dry off on me, look at me, somehow looked very grateful and then fly away.

    I was never bitten and I have held so many. I love them. Good karma.

  • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Anything with a mouth can technically bite. What’s even weirder is that dragonflies cannot walk in their adult form