a fish pond might be what's needed in your garden

"The reason? Fish reduce, if not decimate, dragonfly populations when they start their lives in the ponds as larvae. Those dragonflies that can escape the fish grow up to live outside the water environment where their major prey are bees, moths and flies..."

http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/5856.html

Seems pollinators prefer to be where the fish are. Only flies and moths are attracted to a fish free pond.

Interesting - don't live where I could observe this more closely.

You mean dragonflies are bad? They are one of my favourite insects

Thanks Fran an interesting read, learnt something new today, so the day was not a total waste after all

I love dragonflies too - captured a photo of one down at the dam a few weeks ago - not easy. Love seeing them about - but according to this they're bee butchers

"Incidentally, the common name for one species of dragonfly is the “bee butcher.” These are fierce predators of most flying insects, including other dragonflies. They’re able to eat an insect as large as themselves (imagine eating a meal as big as you are)! So it’s quite possible that changes in the fish population that affect dragonflies could have many other effects on the local insect population."

http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.cfm?DocID=284

Don't know that I want to know more but it's interesting that stocking a pond with fish could be all it takes to improve success rates for pollination of plants.

I wonder if we could breed a race of them that only eat house flies?