I'm thinking of digging a hole in my back yard, sticking a five gallon bucket in it, filling it with pond water, sticking some twigs to stick out of it, and spiking it with mosquito dunks.

Would dragonflies be attracted to such a small body of water?

Also what if the mosquito dunks would kill the eggs or nymphs? I don't know.

This link has a little information for you. Hope it helps. Sounds like you have the right ideas going.

The nwf link states that the pond should be at least two feet deep. I'll obtain a 50 gallon bucket and shave it down to two feet, then stick it into a hole.

I'll report back with my results.

Get a black plastic whiskey barrel liner. Use waterproof clear silicone caulk to decorate the rim with flat polished stones or half marbles from a craft store and sink it into the ground.

Lousy picture but you get the idea, this one is a half depth liner not full depth. Plants are potted in pea gravel in plastic mesh pots. Normally the rims don't show. The bright colors match other decor in the bed and don't look as bad as they do in this photo.

I'm going to pile some rocks in it (I'm in the catskills and we have plenty of rocks everywhere) to give the critters some varied depths and places for the nymphs to hide.

I'll also put it next to my buried kiddie pool bog garden so perhaps frogs and their ilk can commute from one watery place to the other.

time to clean things up and plant marginal plants

The pond is the diameter of a 55 gallon drum (around a foot and a halve) and I cut it down to be around 2 feet deep.

Do the rocks provide sufficient escape ramps for frogs seeking to exit the pond? If you have any suggestions on removing some of the rocks, let me know.

Would anyone have suggestions on frog and dragonfly nymph friendly plants to plant in the pond?

by late last fall my 55 gallon drum pond had an established residece of water fleas and other barely visible critters

late in may my son and I found a quivering puddle of dying wood frog tadpoles in a just dried up vernal pool. we scooped them up and dumped them in the pond

there appear to be larval insects down there now, at least ones big enough to kill and gut a tadpole, and now there is a graduating class of a few wood frogs each day (they come up and then split asap, perhaps because a big healthy water snake has also taken up lodging right next to the pond)

all in all, it has come a long way in a year, and the bog garden i built last summer a few feet away is now an impenetrable mat of ferns and other plants

will post photos

Anne