MECHANIC FALLS – Why would anyone spend three hours on a Saturday morning mucking around swampy woods in the pouring rain?

Because they hate mosquitoes.

About 40 volunteers showed up at the Tyrian Masonic Lodge No. 73 to receive marching orders from lodge master Joshua Armstrong, who handed out ammunition in the form of small plastic foam containers, each filled with 50 dragonfly nymphs.

The volunteers dispersed into Mechanic Falls, Poland, and Minot to spread about 3,000 nymphs in public play areas, primarily ball fields and school playgrounds.

Cold and drenched, adults and children alike slogged through mud and underbrush to gently place the adolescent dragonflies on water’s edges.

Their hope and their mission: to conquer the dreaded mosquito.

For Jim Cesare, president of Minot-Hebron Athletic Association, the idea was worth a try.

He and 11-year-old son Sawyer surrounded the ballfields behind the Minot Fire Station and the vernal pools along nature trails behind Minot Consolidated School with hundreds of nymphs.

“The mosquitoes get so bad during ball games that we’ve thought about selling bug spray in the snack shack,” said Cesare. “They’ll carry you right off.”

The nymphs, which look like a cross between a cockroach and a cricket, eat about three times their weight in mosquito eggs. After the nymphs mature into adult dragonflies, they feed on the adult airborne mosquitoes. The strategy, already tested and proven by the Masonic Lodge in York for the past three years, Armstrong said, is to eliminate the mosquitoes by letting nature take its course.

Not all alike

Not all mosquitoes have the same effect or same habits. Maine has more than 40 species of mosquitoes with varying life cycles, said Clay Kirby, insect diagnostician for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Orono.

Kirby questioned the effectiveness of dragonfly nymphs as a control tactic.

“People need to be aware that there are two million mosquitoes, and the nymphs eat one million, you’re still left a million mosquitoes,” said Kirby. “Timing is also important. Not all species reach adulthood at the same time. People might be getting their hopes of too high.”

Kirby added that flooding an area with a non-native species raises ecological concerns for wildlife managers.

But people will go to great lengths to avoid hearing that high-pitched hum and the stinging prick of a feeding female mosquito.

The Masonic Lodge in Mechanic Falls purchased the dragonfly nymphs through the York lodge as a community service project. If the results prove positive, the local lodge hopes to continue the release of nymphs each year – cost-free for public areas, for sale to individuals and other organizations, Armstrong said.

Volunteers covered the ball fields around Poland Regional High School, Poland Community School and Brown Road in Poland. Groups in Mechanic Falls spread the nymphs around Elm Street School and behind the town office where they could find standing water.

Mosquitoes also carry and spread West Nile virus, which can be deadly. For some people, a routine bite can flare up into an allergic reaction that causes dizziness and nausea.

Insect repellents that contain NN-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) can be found on store shelves in solutions up to 100 percent. Health experts recommend DEET ratios of 15 percent or less for children.

Nearly all publications about mosquitoes recommend wearing protective clothing and eliminating sources of standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. But where there is movement, heat, and carbon dioxide, there will be probably be mosquitoes.