Singapore researchers are studying if dragonflies are nature’s best pest busters. Discover how they could keep the mosquito population in check.

They swoop in at high speeds to capture their prey with their legs, then devour them while flying. Dragonflies are such skilled hunters that one study put their success rate at 90 to 95 per cent.

That and their ravenous appetite for small insects, including mosquitoes, have drawn the interest of researchers in Singapore. As the country faces yet another dengue fever outbreak, dragonflies in urban areas could be a natural solution to keep Aedes aegypti mosquito populations in check.

A team of researchers from the National Parks Board (NParks) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are collaborating on a study to assess the potential for dragonflies to act as natural pest control against insects such as midges and mosquitoes. They are also investigating habitat factors to determine those that will maximise dragonfly diversity.

This would be a critical breakthrough, given the high number of dengue cases here. The first three months of 2020 have seen over 4,000 cases of dengue fever – about twice the number in the same period last year.

This study, supported by Temasek Foundation, started in early 2019 and is slated for completion in the second half of 2020.

One of the sites in the study is a 0.2ha dragonfly habitat along Neram Streams in Lakeside Garden. The habitat, a 300 m-long concrete drain that has been turned into a naturalised riverbed, is part of the first phase of Jurong Lake Gardens which opened in April 2019.

The habitat is also supported by Temasek Foundation. Some 30 aquatic plant species have been planted there, serving as platforms on which dragonflies can perch to lay their eggs, and for their larvae to emerge onto.

These have had a noticeable positive impact on the dragonflies.