A lovely little town north of New Orleans--Pearl River, Louisiana--was full of them prior to Katrina. Not sure what their status is now. Sure hope they made it!

Two nights ago, I swear, I thought I sw a firefly driving home. I had thought that I must be wrong, I thought that it was too cold. I also thought of this thread, too! Thanks for bouncing it back up. :)

Fire flies are out in Iowa already too!

Ah fire flies, I haven't seen them since I was a young girl at ClearLake, CA. How fortunate you all are you have them in your areas. They are magical at night, aren't they?

My daughter commented to me the other day that they had a LadyBug in their garden. We never see LadyBug's anymore, that is so sad. Here in N CA there use to be so many. Thinking about it we don't see butterflies like we use to either.

It never occured to me that I should take fireflies for granted! They are beautiful.

LoveItaly, ladybugs have become a real nuisance around here the last few summers.

LoveItaly, you don't even have ladybugs? Oh my. I wonder if it is because they spray insecticides around the cities or something.

We have lady bug infestation times around here sometimes. We end up sucking up thousands of them in the vacuum. One time in my fiends screened in porch, you could not see any screen. My parents get them bad also.

That's those imported ladybugs--Asian, I think. You hardly see the old native orange ones anymore. Just those reddish ones that can be such a nuisance.

Wow, BayouGirl (hey, were both BG's)!

We used to consider it good luck to see a ladybug, but for the last few years they have really taken over some people's houses (not mine, thankfully). Although, a few summers ago they really did hang around the outside of my house. And you're right....there are more red than the occasional orange ones we used to see.

There was a ladybug infestation in the mountains a couple of years ago. As much as I like them, too much of anything is NOT a good thing! :-)

In high school choir, we sang a song called The Firefly (which after all these years, I still remember):

When the purple evening shadows
Darken over grassy meadows
Settle down on dewy meadows
Where the daisies grow

When the silent stars are brightening
Then like sparks of tiny lightening
Vivid sparks of harmless lightening
Swarms of fireflies glow

In the dark, entrancing, dancing
As if living stars came dancing
As if twinkling stars came dancing,
Thousands of them there

Every merry little fellow
Wears a lamp of greenish yellow
Soft and cool and bright and mellow
Gleaming in the air


I never realized they weren't all over the country either.
((S))((*))

I didn't realize that this delightful thread had been revived when I just posted concerning the synchronous fireflies in the Smoky Mountain Park.

If any of you know anything about this phenomenon, I'd love to have any info on my post!

Thanks,

Byrd

I remember seeing thousands of lightning bugs on the levee batture outside of New Orleans as a child (early 1960s), but the insecticides they used for mosquitoes killed the lightning bugs, also. The good news is that I've been seeing them every night in my backyard in Picayune, Mississippi. It's a great thing to share with my kids and grandkids.

Kamahinaohoku, that was very beautiful, thank you for posting it.

Hi dsm, just saw your post of two days ago. I hadn't thought about not seeing LadyBugs until my daughter mentioned having one in her garden. She and her son sang a song to the little LadyBug as they did when he was a little boy.

That got me thinking..no butterflies either or very very few. I would suspect that the use of insecticides is the reason although I really don't know for sure. We have a lot of agriculture land around us here in the Sacramento Valley. I sometimes see dustcroppers.

But the squirrels..although I don't know where they are right now (they dissapear when it gets to be hot weather) this spring they really took over the area, lol. Cute but sometimes annoying little creatures.

Had European friends visiting NC last year, and they'd never seen fireflies -- they were completely transfixed watching them light up the nearby woods.

Biggest threat to them comes from companies that "fix" your lawn chemically -- when I see those stupid flags on people's lawns after they've been chemically treated, I want to cry. Not only is the lawn now toxic to children and pets and small animals, all the fireflies are gone, too. Choice between killing crabgrass or fireflies? I'll choose the magic flying lights every time.

Hi soccr, your comments have me wondering. Lots of people in my area use pest control companies. Do they cause the same problem? Thanks.

Just one more comment for anyone that has little babies or toddlers in their homes or even as visitors. The SF Chronical had an article a couple of years ago about chemicals used on lawns. Then people walk on the lawn and consequently walk into their house. Chemical residue is left on the carpet (from the bottom of their shoes of course). And little ones are always on the floor.

My daughter was renting a house..they had just moved in and discovered flees. She called the landlord. The landlord had the house sprayed for flees. The kids stayed with us for a couple of days and then went back home. A couple of days later my little grandson (about a year old at the time) almost ended up in the hospital due to an illness that was determined to be from the spraying that was done in the house. So do be careful about what is used on your property, especially if you have children.

You can buy lady bugs at Home Depot; $7 for 1,000 bugs.

Last night, near Chicago, in IL- well they were everywhere.

I'm suburban, and some people do have lawns sprayed around me. But last night they were dense. We have wetlands, corn fields, prairie and forest perserves as well as lawns. We also have large numbers of butterflies and moth populations. I have a large tract buttefly garden with Joe Pine Weed and Butterfly Bush included..

But near my lake in MI, well you can hardly drive on certain foggier nights between the haze and the lightening bugs. I've made jokes about their light keeping you "on" the road.

And one year our surburb had a specific problem that lady bugs would cure. They eat aphids and other smaller entities in quantity.

So my job (worked at the library and they gave us distribution packages) was to deliver then to each house in my subdivision. They were nifty to release and everyone loved to get their lady bug delivery. A great job for the kids to release them for aphid etc. problems.