It seems too early and too cool for them to be here, but they are.?ÿ Dozens at a time.?ÿ Later they will be seen by the thousands.?ÿ I suppose the June bugs will be here any time.
As a youngster I recall my cousins from Pueblo, Colorado being at our farm and chasing those miniature flashlights to catch and put in glass jars.?ÿ They swore they didn't have them there.
I was so young I had never realized that different places might have different creatures hanging around.
Haven't seen any yet around here.?ÿ But late May and early June are their usual season.?ÿ Don't know if the temperature has anything to do with their emergence or not.
You can keep every damned June Bug you find as far as I'm concerned.?ÿ I treat my yard with a concoction of crap that kills them while they're still grubs.?ÿ But I don't treat the whole neighborhood.?ÿ They still infest the porch light every summer evening until all the toads and snakes eat 'em up.?ÿ
Another critter we get these days might be a Green June Beetle.?ÿ I don't remember seeing them until the past decade.?ÿ I may have the name wrong but they are green and zip around all day about eight inches above the lawn in great number.?ÿ If they fly at night I don't see them.?ÿ They need to adopt a lightning bug/firefly as a service bug to provide adequate light for nighttime flying.
I don't historically remember the Green Beetles either.?ÿ I've only noticed their prominence in the last 5 or 6 years.?ÿ I think the first time I saw them was of an early morning hovering all over a fresh cut hay field.?ÿ I first thought they were ground hornets (yes, I'm blind..) and hesitated to get out of the truck.?ÿ Once I got a good look at them I was OK.
Had a good mess of them last year and the wife was hesitant to get from the door to the car because of them.?ÿ I had to convince her they had no ill intent. 😉
We don't have them, here in Puyallup. But we had them in Omaha. We took my son and 4 grandkids back to Nebraska with us, last year, and they were plentiful. So were the mosquitoes...
Slugs are something we see a lot of here, and was rare to see one in Nebraska; Bald Faced Hornets too. Can't say I ever saw one in Omaha.
Lightning bugs were very abundant as a child in Wood County, Tx. I knew of several places that were covered in clover and lit up at night by firefly. Now there are many houses there.
Our pasture is ready to be cut, it is filled with light'n bugs.?ÿ we enjoy taking the grandkids out and letting them sit on top of the UTV and marvel with no other lights but the bugs themselves.
Tennessee Firefly's flash in unison;
Pretty rare in my neck of the woods, but they are here (in some areas). The first time that I REALLY noticed them was around the old Winter Quarters Coal Mine in Utah. Abandoned since about 1920, and locally known as being haunted, we of course went up there one night (mid 70s) to see the ghosts. Not much for ghost sightings, but a butt load of fireflies.
😮
No fireflies here in CA, so whenever I do get somewhere that has them they're a real treat.
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Edit:?ÿ After posting this I got a look at my avatar photo.?ÿ 10+ weeks without a haircut and my hair doesn't look like that now.
10+ weeks without a haircut and my hair doesn't look like that now.
We want to see.
That is wonderful. It is hard to imagine bus loads of city folk stumbling around in darkness to take in a show they don't have to pay for while sober.
They??re coming out here, a little late. Live at the bottom of a loop, fronting a creek. Something about our 300?? stretch of lowland attracts fireflies like crazy- I would guess we get about the densest onset in all of town. It??ll be like knee-high carpet in the evenings for a couple months each year. Neighbors and I have discussed trying to get our little stretch of street renamed to firefly ave. Or something before we all eventually move on. It??s pretty damn remarkable.
Otherwise we??re Lodi g up the kids and the dogs and heading up to SW Iowa to see the folks here in a few weeks (anticipating it being difficult to do so again in the fall, and all the other summer plans have been 86ed). If it??s like it usually is- and as RADAR alluded to- they??ll be plentiful when we get there.
Growing up with mosquito lagoon from FL/GA??s post as my back yard, we never saw fireflies as kids, except when we??d go up to Glenwood every summer to see the family.
The early days of what is now known as Glenwood are quite interesting.
@holy-cow you're familiar then? yeah, both my folks grew up there (in fact, lived across the street from each other when they were toddlers). when the folks retired and moved back up to the farm (between glenwood and PJ) about 20 years ago, mom suddenly found herself with a lot more free time than she was used to and went to work at the county history museum for several years. she did a bunch of work, uh, re-exposing a lot of that history (mainly as it pertained to pre-anglo times). but i'm guessing you're talking about the mormons and later stuff?
my dad's side of the family has been there in large quantities for eons. my mom's folks just ended up there (grandpa was a mechanic at the pontiac dealership in omaha for decades) after WWII. i've never lived there (we moved to florida when i was 3), but obviously know the area quite well. it's strange to go from "home" where we were essentially on our own in terms of extended family (and has also been the case for me since i moved to texas for college way back when) to visit glenwood, where i can walk in any restaurant, bar, or grocery store and have about 5 different people know exactly who i am, despite us either never having formally met or else not having seen each other in decades.
It's not particularly close to Glenwood, but in that general region -?ÿ have you ever been to the Old Northwest Corner of Missouri?
Straight north of KC on the IA MO boundary, a cast iron monument set 1851? after the US Supreme Court settled the dispute in favor of the 1816 Sullivan line. I have been there and have coords filed somewhere.
It is one of relatively few state line POB markers that is not now the corner of a state nor a PLSS corner.
I have a sister, lives just outside of Glenwood. We saw lots of fireflys up at her place.
My favorite, little Iowa Town, was Pisgah...
Always wanted a big ol front porch
We don't get fireflies here in New Zealand. They sound very pretty, I'd love to see them
We do have a 'glow worm' which emits blue light and hangs out in caves and on mossy banks.
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Reminds me of a very old joke from my childhood.
Q: What did the firefly say when he sat in bucket of water?
A: I am de-lighted to be here.
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We do have a 'glow worm'
@bill93 I’ve never been. Sounds like a fun diversion. If I can somehow manage to convince the 3 females riding along w/me that we need to see it...
