r/interesting • u/brainland • 24d ago

NATURE Seems we are the last generation to witness fireflies. When last do you see them?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

I was thinking about these bugs few days ago and I struggle to remember when last I saw them.

11.4k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

20

u/Putrid_Cherry8353 24d ago

Do you happen to have any idea what changed this year that there are suddenly so many of them after such a long time?

Isn't it fascinating how few insects there are that people don't automatically kill or at least avoid, and fireflies are one of them. And not only would no sane person kill them but we also look forward to them and want to protect them.

12

u/girlMikeD 24d ago

Idk why there are more. But now I want to find out why.

Great memories catching them as a kid, and showing my nieces & nephew how to gently catch them.

My 4 yo niece thought they were fairies/tinkerbell, so she wanted them to “sit in” her hair. So she’d catch them and put them on her head. At one point she had 3-4 just chillin in her hair blinking.

She called it her, “fairy hair.”

5

u/WonkySeams 23d ago

I think there’s more awareness and it’s more acceptable to have a “messy” lawn. Things like native yards and “no mow May” have made a quick and huge difference in my area in the 11 years I’ve live in this house. I leave all the dead native plantings until the temperature is consistently in the 50s at night and the bugs have a place to shelter :)

2

u/Collegenoob 23d ago

They never left PA.

They just leave industrialized areas because there's no where to go. But PA has massive tracks of woods near the majority of homes. So they have been fine

1

u/ChaosSigil 24d ago

That is super strange huh...there are a few bugs that people do that with. I wonder where that comes from?

In Kentucky there is some reverence for cicadas for maybe two weeks and then everyone is telling them to shut up. But for those two weeks people and their kids are out picking up shells and trying to catch and release cicadas. It's pretty cool. But for that while lightning bugs are kind of sparse since I think cicadas eat them. Good thing they only come out heavy every like...4 or 7 years whatever it is.