OT:::: lightning bugs/fireflies

[mimitabby]

Do you have these? What do you call them? What state or country do you live in?
Mimi in Seattle(Who hasn't seen one since she was a kid in New Jersey)

[mimitabby]

NO ONE has seen lightning bugs recently?! :eek:

[KnottedYet]

Not seen any here in north Seattle.

[divingbiker]

We've got them here in Maryland.

[Bikingmomof3]

Do you have these? What do you call them? What state or country do you live in?
Mimi in Seattle(Who hasn't seen one since she was a kid in New Jersey)

We have lightening bugs everywhere. I have lived in 4 states and have had them in each state I have lived in. Some people refer to them as fireflies. I have called them both depending which state I have lived in. My children used to love to catch them when they were younger.

[oxysback]

NO ONE has seen lightning bugs recently?! :eek:

Nope...not here in NW Oregon. :cool:

[mimitabby]

Thank you. My son (who has never seen one) went to Connecticut this week and couldn't find any and has been rather disappointed. I still remember their magic. We'd put one of these poor creatures on our finger and fantasize about how to imprison it there; as a ring! (that glowed in the dark)
thank you for your responses. I was afraid there weren't any left!

[im4smiley]

I have seen them in Western Mass! I also remember catching them as a kid and wanting to transform them into a ring.

[Eden]

I miss them - and crickets and cicadas, but mostly the crickets. For some reason we don't have any in the city. I've been thinking about going to the pet store and buying a bunch to release in my yard, just so I can hear them at night again.....

[mary9761]

I'm a big kid all over again every time I see my first Lightning bug of the season. I've always loved them as well. Some fairly new folklore (not sure where it came from) that I recently was told... Did you know that Lightning bugs are FAERIES in street clothes? If they appeared as Faeries to us, the normals would freak out! Of course children and those of us who have never grown up would be just fine, but thought you might get a kick out of that. :D

[DebW]

I see fireflies occassionally but rarely in Massachusetts. Where I grew up in Missouri they were abundant. As all the midwesterners here have attested.

[DDH]

I see an ocasional one here in Central TX, but not like I remember seeing them when I was a kid. The night use to light up with them. My dad was military so we lived all over. I think my best memory of them was in Kentucky when we lived there, or TN, can't remember which, or maybe it was MO. Shoot I don't know. I just know we don't have them here like I remembered seeing them as a kid.

[Nanci]

I call them fireflies, and had them in Minnesota and Florida. I have TONS of cicadas. I heard this noise the other night, and thought something was wrong with my house (like what I was thinking, I don't know, some mechanical malfunction I guess) but it was just super-loud cicadas.

I sleep with a sound machine. My favorites are frogs and crickets.

[gozlin7]

I saw one in my front yard just a few days ago here in Michigan. :) Just one though - no friends. I've been seeing fewer and fewer every year (darn pesticides, etc.) :(

Patty

[ladyfish]

We have them in Virginia. I think the first time I saw one was when I lived in Kansas. I'm from AZ originally, and they don't live there. I don't remember them in Georgia either--although Nanci says they are in FL.

[biking4health]

We have them in northern Illinois. We call them lightening bugs.

Carol:D

[velogirl]

We don't have them in California (at least I've never seen them). I had totally forgotten about them until I went back to upstate New
York (where I grew up) to do some bike touring last summer.

Someone told me last year that they're not as common now as they were when I was a kid.

[corrine]

I grew up in California and they aren't there, but I moved to WV almost 7 years ago and now live in Maryland and see them all the time in the summer, but lacking the rain lately, they aren't as numerous as they have been. I love sitting outside and watching them. Seeing them in large numbers the first time at a wetland area, I began to believe the twinkling Christmas lights were designed by someone missing the twinkle of the fireflies!

[emily_in_nc]

We still have them in the central North Carolina countryside. However, they're all gone this late in the summer, as far as I know. They are mostly a June/July thing here. There aren't as many as when I was growing up, but they are still around. I love them because they remind me of my childhood. We call them lightning bugs here, not fireflies.

We also have tons of tree frogs and who knows what else making noise outside at night in the summer. We live in a forest and put in a small pond last year, which multiplied the noisemakers by a lot! There are nights when the tree frogs are mating by the pond after dark that I have to sleep with earplugs on (even though the windows are closed) since the pond is right below our master bedroom window!

Emily

[songlady]

They are definitely around here in western NY! On summer nights around my block you can catch them in your hands, they are that plentiful!

[salsabike]

We don't get them in the Northwest. I had them in both upstate NY and Michigan. I think they need warm humid summer nights. Fireflies and thunderstorms are the two things I miss the most.

[tulip]

We have them in Washington, DC! We also have wild turkeys, deer, foxes, bald eagles, beavers, all kinds of birds, and coyotes.

[annie]

I miss them - and crickets and cicadas, but mostly the crickets. For some reason we don't have any in the city. I've been thinking about going to the pet store and buying a bunch to release in my yard, just so I can hear them at night again.....

Eden,

Come visit Iowa. We have them all! :rolleyes: :cool: Lightning bugs ( or fireflies - whichever you please), cicadas (loud enough to amaze you), and crickets, which are so common that we hardly notice them singing. Frogs, too, if you are looking for nature songs outside of the insect community.
Thanks, everyone in this thread, for reminding me to appreciate all these various creatures!

annie

[Aggie_Ama]

I call them Lightning Bugs.

Saw a few when I was in Little Rock a few weeks back. We were just sitting outside eating and along came some Lightning Bugs. :)

Last week I saw two in my Nanny's backyard in Austin. I used to see them a lot more when I was a kid here in Central Texas. We would always catch them and hope they would be our new pets. Unfortunately, we didn't realize they would die quickly in a mason jar. :o

[Bikingmomof3]

I miss them - and crickets and cicadas, but mostly the crickets. For some reason we don't have any in the city. I've been thinking about going to the pet store and buying a bunch to release in my yard, just so I can hear them at night again.....

Eden,
I live in cicada country. They never stop and are driving me batty. After 4 years I still am not used to their incessant noise. I will gladly ship them all off to you. I assume we have crickets, but the cicadas drowned out all other sounds. :(

[Geonz]

We got 'em in theMidwest.

Gnats, too.

[quint41]

In Connecticut, we call 'em Fireflies. When I hear the Spring Peepers (others call them Peep Toads), I know it's Spring, and I get really psyched. When I see the Fireflies, I know summer's here! My favorite season! :D

[CyclChyk]

Here in Gerogia we call them lightening bugs and they are EVERYWHERE! (They also hurt when the slam into your arms at high speeds). I used to catch them in jars as a kid in Pennslyania....

We also have crickets and gnats and waterbugs (aka flying roaches) and spiders and poisonous snakes, and deer, and foxes and bobcats, oh and did I mention spiders? And silverfish, and giant centipedes, and cow ants, and fire ants, and black ants, june bugs, and unidentifiable bugs and did I mention the flying roaches are FRICKIN' HUGE????? and pretty much any other bug you can think of EXCEPT cidadas...... and I do miss their sound.......... oh and we don't have black flies... ..DON'T miss those.....

[mimitabby]

You guys are all making me (a transplanted New Joisey girl) feel much better.
Even if I can't see them, I know that there are some still out there; they aren't extinct yet.

[RoadRaven]

I don't see lightening bugs :(
...or June bugs
:confused: ... and wtf? cow ants???


Wrong country I guess...

[Bad JuJu]

No lightning bugs to speak of here in NW Florida--I've heard it said that the pesticides they spray around to keep the mosquitoes under control also keep the lightning bugs "under control"--dead, that is.:(

But we've got more than our share of those cool dragonflies!

[CyclChyk]

1325cow ants (also called velvet ants )are these big orange and black stripped ants that are really wasps but they don't fly. They crawl around and live like ants and they are hard as heck to kill and they make a squeaking kinda noise. It hurts like holy heck if you get stung by one. I've attached a pic.

[Aggie_Ama]

We get june bugs in Texas. My dog, Maggie, loves to play with them and crickets. Regular toys she won't touch, but she loves bugs!

Those cow ants look mean. Glad we don't have them in Texas!

[Evie]

We have lightning bugs coming out the wazoo. I never really thought of places NOT having them! I loved catching them when I was smaller, but one time twenty or so escaped from their temporary container and flew all over my room. It was terrifying.

They're sort of a hazard now that I'm riding instead of running. There are places where I'd LOVE to open my mouth and gasp for precious air, but if I do, I'll choke on a few dozen of them. They're especially heavy around the fields, which makes sense. Oh, and about their two names--around here, it depends on how lazy we're feeling. "Firefly" is much easier to say when you're tired. I think "Lightning Bug" uses more muscles.

There's one incident I still haven't figured out. My friend and I were running on a back road last year, somewhere between a corn field and an Amish church, and there was section of the road, maybe about four feet in length, that was COVERED in fireflies. Absolutely packed with them. We felt terrible running over them, but there was no way around and it was impossible to pick through them because they covered the ground so densely. They were all lit up, even though it wasn't dark. I thought it was some freaky mating ritual, but according to Discovery, they fly around at night, flashing their fancy lights, hoping to attract a mate and maybe a snack. I've never heard anything about laying around in massive groups before sunset.

Has anyone else ever seen anything like that? I'd love to know what they were doing.

[bentforlife]

I remember those from living in S. GA. And they do have a nasty sting!!

We had lots of lighting bugs in June here in N. TX but with the drought and high temperatures we've had lately they've gone away.

I haven't even seen our usual big tarantulas this year. They must be staying underground out of the heat. We've seen an increase in carpenter ants looking for water in the house. The exterminator has tried some less polluting methods to try to get rid of them and it seems to be working.

We didn't even have out usual cricket invasion. The heat has been terrible. I'm ready for rain and cooler weather!! :cool:

Donna

[CyclChyk]

I would love to borrow one of those tarantulas! My hubby would squeal like a little girl!!!!!:D