Lightning Bugs: I have hardly seen any this summer (house, live)

[anifani821]

It just hit me . . . I was thinking about the cicadas and all the noise they have been making the last few days . . . and I realized that I have hardly seen a dozen lightning bugs this whole summer!

Is it just me?

[SunnyKayak]

i notice Lightingbugs the other night
I haven notice cicadas but i can hear the crikets

[uncgdad1]

Now that you bring it up, you're right, I can't remember the last time I saw one..?? Must be global warming...lol...

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by uncgdad1

Now that you bring it up, you're right, I can't remember the last time I saw one..?? Must be global warming...lol...

Everything else is global warming, so this might as well be, too, LOL!!!

I sit outside frequently in the evenings, and I have rarely seen even one lone lightning bug this season. We used to have them all over in the evenings.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by SunnyKayak

i notice Lightingbugs the other night
I haven notice cicadas but i can hear the crikets

When you were a kid, did you catch them and put them in a jar - and keep them in your room and watch them all nite? I used to love that . . .

[southbound_295]

I saw quite a few early in the summer, then it sort of petered out to just one or 2 per night.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

I saw quite a few early in the summer, then it sort of petered out to just one or 2 per night.

Wonder why?

[NCyank]

Don't they usually dwindle out by now? How long do they live?

As I mentioned in the other post...July is for Japanese Beetles, cicada's and cicada killers in August, September is when our house will be covered with spiders.....Lightening bugs are usually earlier in May-June.

What I have noticed is fewer bats...but LOTS more dragon flies this year. They both eat mosquitoes but I miss seeing the bats in the evening.

Also, another question for you Southerners. When we were kids we always called them fireflies. Is lightening bugs primarily the southern name, is it regional...like soda, coke, cola or pop?

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by anifani821

Wonder why?

No clue. . . I just figured that they got unhappy that I'm continually killing off the kudzu in the back end & moved elsewhere.

[NCyank]

OK, I found an article about the life cycle but the link isn't posting right. Here's the relevant info.

Lightning bugs remain as larvae for about one year. This is the
longest part of the firefly's life cycle. As larvae, fireflies feed through the Spring and Summer until the cool Fall weather appears. At this time, the baby fireflies snuggle under leaf litter and other decomposing materials for the winter. When temperatures rise again in the Spring or early Summer, the larvae pupate into an adult lightning bug. Adults will live from one to two weeks before mating and dying.

If the larvae are all pupating around the same time it makes sense that we'd see the adults concentrated around that same time...and only the late bloomers later in the summer.

Don't I have anything better to do than look up the life cycle of a lightening bug??

BTW...I didn't know this either...

What do fireflies eat?

Firefly larva are carnivorous. They eat earthworms, snails, and slugs. On occasion, they may even eat each other! Adult fireflies sometimes drink nectar. Most species are carnivorous. They usually attack other species of fireflies and eat them. They may also eat some other insects, too.