Remeber when.....

[toploader55]

We used to collected Lightening Bugs in a glass jar ????
My yard is full of them and I just wanted to pass along this fond memory. It's hard to find a g;ass jar these days, but wasn't it fun ????? Ah, the good old days. I was just sitting outside and they are everywhere.

 

[whirlcool]

Who Couldn't Forget That!

When I was a kid, that was a lot of fun to do on a early summer evening.
Down here in Texas, I have never seen any lightning bugs or fireflies as they are known in other parts of the country. I wonder if they are only up in the northern areas of the U.S.

 

[7080swashertalk]

last year in June, when I moved into my wonderful secluded Vermont cottage on a creek. The window screens were just covered with them. It was awesome.

 

[rpm]

I was just camping yesterday and saw them.
Amazing how fast they blink and fly.
Wish the skunk in the garbage moved that fast!

 

[DADoES]

<blockquote> Down here in Texas, I have never seen any lightning bugs or fireflies as they are known in other parts of the country.</blockquote>They were plentiful in the 1960s and maybe into the early 1970s. I don't remember seeing them much after that, but maybe I just stopped paying attention after reaching a "certain" age. I surely haven't seen any in the last 15 years or so.

 

[gyrafoam]

Yeah, and you can pull the body apart and the juice from the viscera will help it glue to your finger and it will look like a make-pretend mood-ring and glow in the dark!

 

[oldhouseman]

We have them

around the house in Sparta. Just as the sun is going down they start showing up. When I was growing up I used to catch them in a jar and let them loose in my room. As I fell alseep I would watch the light show. I don't see as many as I used to for some reason. It's good to watch the lighting bugs drift about when we sit on the piazza just before turning in for the night.

 

[charbee]

Like dadoes said, they seemed to be more plentiful in the 60s and 70s, here in Texas. I remember clearly being at my uncle's farm near Gonzales, TX, at the age of about 6 (woulda been 1965 or so) and getting handed a big ol' Mason Jar with a lid so I could go outside and catch 'em...must've ended up with a couple of hundred in that jar...what a sight!

Now we live on 3 acres of creekbed with woods in a tucked-away spot in far south Austin, and we get Lightening Bugs in the late spring through the fall, but not nearly as many as there used to be when I was a kid. THey still do, however, provide much "porch sittin' pleasure" to us "big kids".

 

[kenb]

We don't have them up here in the Pacific Northwest, however I certainly remember them when I lived in the South.

There are several reasons why they are not as plentiful as in the past. Habitat destruction...suburban sprawl, decline in wetlands, pesticide use and light pollution are all known to contribute to the decline in the firefly population.

 

[paulg]

We got 'em in Chicago

I've got quite a few lightning bugs flying around my yard right now.
It seemed these fun bugs did a disappearing act for a decade or so. Or perhaps I was just getting old and didn't notice them.
They are still great fun. I sit on the deck and watch them semi-float in the air blinking away... Such fun.