Growing up in the deep south, a damselfly was called a
Snake Doctor and the folklore was that if you saw a
snake doctor, a
snake was close by. Which was usually "true" due to the proliferation of snakes in the south. We never called dragonflies
snake doctors but were either called a dragonfly or more commonly a "
mosquito hawk". Both insects are harmless to humans and we would sneak up behind the ones that had landed on clothes lines and capture them by grabbing their tail. The dragonfly would bite to defend itself but the pain was less than an
ant bite. Here is where it became "children
will be children" because we would firmly, not tightly, tie a short piece of thread to the end of it's tail. Sometimes we would release the dragonfly and then chase and recapture the insect with this thread and other times we would hold onto the thread and let the insect lead us around the yard. We got a lot of exercise that way, and yes, we usually untied the thread before we released them.
