Posted on 07/25/2025 7:28:56 PM PDT by kawhill
Hear the word firefly or lightningbug, and what comes to mind? Warm summer nights? Flickering lights in the encroaching dark? Maybe soft grass underfoot, with children running about? Few species ignite such warm feelings of nostalgia as fireflies.
(Excerpt) Read more at xerces.org ...
All over the place like mosquitos here. If the female didn’t rip the head off the male....to my and my kids horror one night, they might do better.
My dog was in the episode where they landed on some Western World. I was working at Paramount Ranch and had no idea what they were filming and she took off across the street view set right after an assistant yelled “action.” He loved it and kept the scene.
I had never seen a firefly before in my whole 55 years until I picked up a friend in Michigan to drive back to the PNW. I kept thinking I was imagining things. I felt like a little kids trying to catch them. Fascinating bugs.
I also have a happy memory of being on a layover in Washington DC... our hotel was up near Adams Morgan area and one of my crew mates and I went out for dinner. On our way back, we took a shortcut through an old cemetery and it was filled with fireflies. I was so happy because I had not seen fireflies since I had moved to the west coast. My friend was from Hawaii, so he had never seen them and was mesmerized.
I’m from SoCal, but I was fascinated by firefly’s when we went to Arkansas to visit my mom’s Dad when I was about 11. So very cool to watch. We don’t have them here in SoCal.
I’m sorry to hear that they’re in decline.
I don’t recall seeing any around my house here in Macomb Twp. But several years ago while at my nephew’s house in Farmington Hills, there were lots of them in his yard that night. But that was a really wooded area.....
ADM? Thanks.
There’s about 600 trillion billion million in the corn fields of Iowa.
Well, there at least two of us here...
Ditto seeing them in abundance in Michigan. Both at home (Clinton Twp) and up north (leaving Saganing Eagles Landing Casino last night!)
We still have them although subjectively the population is down and they appear later in the evening. The tick population has certainly made up the difference though. If I was a college scientist I’d surely try to get a government contract to study this phenomenon.
I was born and raised in the Rochester, NY area - used to see them in-season all the time. They like warm, humid nights.
Have occasionally seen them over the years on the MS Gulf Coast.
We had a wet spring so had a good year for lightning bugs. Our house is surrounded by permanent cow pasture with some low ground, and trees in the fenceline. We still see lots of them for now. We don’t spray or mow the pasture ... barely mow the yard ;)
Lots where I live as well. There are stories of a global decrease in fireflys which suggests some diease process. These population fluxuations are always blamed on people in the same way as global warming (and give more money and power to enviromentalists!)
There was a global decrease in many frog species which was caused by a fungus. Populations have rebounded by natural selection.
Not to say they've never been here before, but this is the first time I've ever seen them here.
Kinda makes me feel like a kid again........
See my last post.
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