OT:::: lightning bugs/fireflies

[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

[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.

[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.

[tulip]

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

[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!

[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
... 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!