Lightning bugs are one of my best childhood memories! As for so many others on this thread, these thrilling creatures were a staple of Illinois summers...

I miss them!
Robyn

Jersey: I remember doing the same thing in South Jersey with the jar with the holes punched on top, execpt I always let mine go after a few minutes. I also remember trying to catch frogs at night that would emerge from underneath our front steps, but that's another story...

It also never occurred to me that lightning bugs aren't nation-wide.

They are here in North Carolina. I noticed them about four weeks ago. It never occurred to me that our tourist board should be making something of the fact that a kid can still catch a fire fly (or lighting bug) on a summer night in this beautiful state. Y'all come on down.

We live in the country in Arkansas and we can sit outside and there are tons of them in the backyard at night. I guess I didn't know that some places don't have them.

I also never realized they weren't nationwide - you really do learn something everyday.

They do seem to favor certain plants, but I'm not sure which. Growing up, there were always more at my grandparents house than my house. We get a fair amount now, but my brother's house, with less yard and more flowerbeds, has TONS.

Eighteen years ago we were having our lat Fourth of July cookout at our home in Montgomery County Pennsylvania. At dusk it looked like a mass hatching of lightning bugs. Thousands of them flying just a few inches off the ground. Since then we have been in northeast Massachusetts where I have seen very very few.

In the 1940s and 50s, fireflies lit up my childhood in Northern New York State. Great memories, too, of a backyard full of them in Bloomington, Indiana, circa 1985. More recently, I've wondered whether they might flourish in Burgundy. Tampering, right?

Ah, sweet memories! As a kid in mid-Michigan, one of my favorite pasttimes was catching lightning bugs in jars on hot summer nights. In fact, I just remembered that a couple of years ago, while camping at Harrisville State Park on Lake Huron, I watched a lightning bug just outside my tent for about 15 minutes. Because my DD and DS were raised in Southern California, it made me sad to think that they had never had the experience of catching lightning bugs in a jar. Thanks, camcraw, for the memories!

ahhhh.... fireflies... great topic! i saw them growing up in Houston, TX and i guess now i realize that i'm lucky to have had them after we moved to Wisconsin. lots of good memories chasin' those fireflies....

none here in LA, though

lynne

As an (almost) lifetime California, in Northern California...not too far from Clear Lake....I have never seen a fire fly in these parts. Too bad. We did go to Gettysburg a couple years back during the summer and I saw my first fire fly. It was amazing. We're going to DC around the 4th, and we're hoping to see more. Sorry. No fire flys out this way though.....

Lightning bugs are common in central/southeastern PA. If you did a summer trip in the Amish country or the Lehigh Valley and stayed in a rural area, you'd be *almost* guaranteed to see them.
I missed them when we moved to Oregon. It was easy giving up the big thunderstorms, but it was sad to say goodbye to lightning bugs!
And I've never seen them here in Europe, either.

i've seen them in southern Vermont.

Coastal Maine (Kennebunkport area) around 4th of July!

I spent my early childhood in Wheeling,
WVa, then lived on the banks of the Ohio River , often visiting my Aunts farm in Morgantown WVa ;also visits to relatives in the West Pittsburgh area. We always enjoyed the "lightning bugs" during those summer evenings. We would catch them in a jar and punch holes in the top, then later set them free. If you have the chance to have your children experience this, do it..it was one of the wonders of childhood.

ttt for Starrsville!

THANKS seetheworld!!!

THAT'S the problem! We call them "lightning bugs"! (not fireflies)

Well, they are out in Georgia and absolutely gorgeous!

No problem! We actually call them lightning bugs too :D

Oh what a great thread! I love those lightning bugs! I can recall seeing them with cousins right outside Chicago when I was younger. When I went to college in Gainesville, FL, we found some along a lake behind one of the dorms. Beyond that, haven't seen many in the Tampa area but I hear my future state Vermont has plenty. :)

topping for Starsville

cam:

my mom's cousin's son when he came to PA to visit from San Diego was always fascinated by our lightening bugs. It is kind of neat at night to see little specks of light at night around the grass. You will see lightening bugs from like June through August in my area of SW PA.