Yes, dragonflies do eat honey bees. Large dragonfly species are capable predators of bees, catching them mid-flight with remarkable precision. For most backyard beekeepers, though, dragonfly predation is a minor nuisance rather than a serious threat to colony health.
Which Dragonflies Target Honey Bees
Only the larger dragonfly species hunt honey bees. Most dragonflies prefer insects smaller than a bee, like mosquitoes, gnats, and small flies. The species documented eating bees and other pollinators include the common green darner and the eastern pondhawk, both widespread across North America. These are big, fast dragonflies with the body size and jaw strength to handle a bee.
Dragonflies are opportunistic hunters. They don’t specifically seek out honey bees, but they won’t pass one up either. Researchers at Oregon State University observed dragonfly predation events over a seven-day period and found that half of all observed kills were pollinators, including bees, moths, and flies. Dragonflies tend to be most active near water sources like ponds, streams, and marshes, so apiaries located near these areas face higher predation pressure.
How Dragonflies Catch Bees in Flight
Dragonflies are among the most efficient aerial predators in the insect world, with catch rates estimated above 90% for some species. They use an interception strategy similar to how a missile tracks a moving target. Rather than simply chasing prey from behind, a dragonfly calculates where the bee will be and flies to that point, arriving just as the bee does.
This technique relies on a combination of real-time visual feedback and predictive internal models. Dragonflies appear to use mental maps of both their own body movements and the likely flight path of their prey, allowing them to compensate for the slight delay between seeing the target and adjusting course. Their four independently controlled wings give them the agility to make split-second corrections. A honey bee in open air, flying a relatively straight line back to the hive, is an easy target for this kind of ambush.
When Dragonflies Become a Problem for Beekeepers
In most situations, dragonflies pose no meaningful risk to a healthy honey bee colony. A strong hive contains tens of thousands of workers, and losing a few to dragonflies each day doesn’t register. Experienced beekeepers who keep hives near ponds with heavy dragonfly activity generally report no noticeable colony decline.
There is one scenario, however, where dragonfly predation can cause real damage: queen mating flights. According to the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC), dragonflies have seriously disrupted queen mating in some locations by catching virgin queens during their mating flights. A queen only mates once in her life, during a brief flight outside the hive. If she’s intercepted by a dragonfly, the colony loses its future reproductive capacity. This is a much bigger deal than losing a few foragers.
MAAREC notes that in areas where dragonfly populations are dense, “their feeding on bees [can be] extensive,” and the only practical solution is moving the apiary to a different location. This is most relevant for beekeepers operating near large bodies of still water where dragonflies breed in high numbers.
Dragonflies Also Scare Bees Away
Beyond direct predation, dragonflies affect bees simply by being present. Research published in Nature found that pollinators, particularly bees, actively avoid foraging near dragonflies. In controlled experiments, significantly fewer pollinators entered areas containing dragonflies compared to dragonfly-free zones. The bees that did enter foraged on fewer flowers and left sooner.
This avoidance behavior has ecological ripple effects. Ponds stocked with fish (which eat dragonfly larvae and reduce adult dragonfly populations) had noticeably higher pollinator activity on nearby plants. Most of those visitors were bees. Near fishless ponds, where dragonfly numbers were higher, pollinator visits dropped and the visitors that did show up were mostly flies rather than bees. Plants near dragonfly-heavy areas received less pollination and produced fewer seeds as a result.
For beekeepers, this means dragonflies might reduce foraging efficiency even when they aren’t killing many bees. If your hive entrance faces a pond thick with dragonflies, your foragers may take longer, less direct routes to avoid them.
Keeping Dragonflies in Perspective
Dragonflies are voracious insect predators, but they’re also enormously beneficial. A single dragonfly can eat hundreds of mosquitoes in a day, and they help control populations of many pest species. Trying to eliminate dragonflies near your hives would be both impractical and ecologically counterproductive.
If you’re a beekeeper concerned about dragonfly predation, the key factors are location and timing. Hives placed far from large ponds or wetlands will see much less dragonfly pressure. If you’re raising queens or expecting mating flights, consider whether your apiary sits in a dragonfly-heavy corridor. Moving hives even a few hundred yards from open water can make a meaningful difference. For hobbyist beekeepers with a single hive in the backyard, dragonflies are not worth worrying about.