Do Dragonflies Bite or Sting?
No, although large dragonflies if held in the hand will sometimes try to bite, but fail to break the skin. They have a lot of “folk names” which imply that they do (such as Horse stinger), but they don’t use their egg-laying tube (ovipositor) for stinging. They also don’t bite (people) but they are a fearsome predator of other flying insects.
. While many will say that dragonflies do not bite there have been many cases now where if the larger dragonfly species are sufficiently provoked, usually when they feel threatened by someone touching them or someone moves suddenly when a dragonfly has landed on them, they will give a very slight nip with the jaws. This is a perfectly reasonable survival reaction to a potential threat and dragonflies certainly do not randomly bite just for the joy of it! If a dragonfly lands on you just stay still and enjoy the fabulous close up view. Dragonflies never sting and cannot sting with their long abdominal tails. These are used for mating and egg-laying and are quite harmless. They may occasionally curl the tail and touch you with it, but they are actually trying to lay eggs on the surface of a plant when they do this!
