Lightning Bugs in Europe?
Jun 12th, 2002, 11:33 AM
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Lightning Bugs in Europe?
I was talking to a friend from England today, and she said she didn't remember having lightning bugs (aka fireflies) in England as she was growing up. We don't have them in the Pacific Northwest either (whah!). <BR><BR>This observation led us to wonder where lightning bugs live and why. We had them in the midwest, south and east, as I was growing up, and they used to delight children. The trade-off is, we have few truly annoying pests here. For example, mosquitos are in short supply, compared to back east. We think it must be related to humidity.<BR><BR>I believe this is the very time of year the fireflies are lighting the evening skies in the east. How 'bout it Europe? Lightning bugs? Yes or no?
Jun 12th, 2002, 11:39 AM
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One of my abiding memories is walking down the track to a Fattoria in Tuscany after an exhausting day's travel just after dark. Warm, soft air; dark velvet skies; smells of ripening cherries; and fireflies dancing.<BR><BR>Then to top it off, a nightingale started singing.<BR><BR>We don't get either in Scotland
Jun 12th, 2002, 12:48 PM
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Hi<BR><BR>I don't remember them growing up in North England (close to Scotland°.<BR><BR>They seem to follow the weather. Anywhere south of Loire valley in France for instance.<BR><BR>We have lots of them here<BR><BR>Peter<BR>Languedoc, France<BR>http://tlp.netfirms.com
Jun 12th, 2002, 03:00 PM
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I have childhood memories of clouds of fireflies covering hedges in the mid-Atlantic, and blankets of them on pastures in Maine and Massachusetts. I'm told they are mostly gone now. Why?<BR>Chemicals sprayed over lawns and fields to kill "pests" -- including all the "nurseries" of lightning bugs, which sleep and reproduce close to the ground. For you Americans: every time you see one of those little flags (Chemlawn, etc.) on a lawn announcing that it has been sprayed (and warning you not to let pets or children play there -- which should tell you something), you are seeing the continued eradication of fireflies.
Jun 12th, 2002, 03:57 PM
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When I was growing up, there was a multitude of fireflies which all of the neighborhood kids chased until bedtime. In just the past year, we've seen the return of the fireflies. Now, my husband and I can sit on the patio late in the evening and watch them in our backyard. Very romantic.
Jun 12th, 2002, 07:06 PM
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When I was a child in the South,(US) my brother and I would run around the garden after dark and catch as many fireflies as we could, then put them in a jar.We had holes in the lid so they could breath.Then we would take them to our rooms when we went to bed, "to light the room".<BR>Our mom would creep in after we had fallen asleep,and release the poor fireflies out to the night again.<BR>It is something that I still remember so clearly,and notice that there are not nearly as many as there were then.
Jun 13th, 2002, 01:41 AM
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As a small child in Ohio, we caught lightning bugs every evening in the summer. Put some grass in a jar, punch holes in the lid and fill it with lightning bugs... until it was time to go inside, when we'd let them go again.<BR><BR>I've missed those lightning bugs.... none in Brasil, Switzerland, Belgiun or northern France, where I've lived subsequently.<BR><BR>I haven't seen any here in Provence, although we do have one that must be a relative. It glows pale green, but doesn't 'blink' off and on. <BR><BR>Patricia
Jun 23rd, 2002, 11:09 AM
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They're thriving here in Oklahoma. Just yesterday evening I was visiting my sister who lives about 30 miles outside of Tulsa. They have a lovely home in the country situated on about 3acres. We were sitting outdoors grilling steaks, sipping Margueritas and having a grand ole time. I looked about and noticed fireflies everywhere. They are so magical. I don't see them in the city. Just like you can't really see the stars in the city either. However, I did see an owl one evening in the Oak tree in my backyard.
Jun 23rd, 2002, 01:45 PM
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I remember catching them almost every night in Virginia, back in the late 60's and 70's. Moved to NW Fla. and don't remember ever seeing any.<BR>I have lived all over Italy and haven't seen any here either in the 15 years I've been here. Sure do miss them and would love to be able to show them to my son.
<BR>I don't think I have ever seen fireflies... would love to though from the sounds of it, my chances are less and less...<BR>Kavey<BR>(England, also firefly-less, I believe)
Jun 23rd, 2002, 02:33 PM
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They're here in Michigan; when one of my nephews was visiting from Edmonton, Albertam he saw one & asked if they flash in different colors!<BR><BR>The year I was in school in Florence, they were in our garden in Sesto Fiorentino in the evenings...along with bats, who'd be trying to catch them!<BR><BR>BC
Jun 23rd, 2002, 02:59 PM
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Fireflies here in Atlanta positively light the night/twilight sky. Exquisite. They rest on our bedroom window frames and twinkle.<BR><BR>Fireflies are (at least historically) a big deal in Japan. Junichiro Tanizaki writes eloquently of an evening firefly-catching party in "The Makioka Sisters" (which would have been set sometime between turn of the century and 1920's).
