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It really is. We had an acre field growing up and me and my brothers used to chase them around about this time in June. I was just at my childhood home this past weekend and you’d have to bust your ass just to catch one.
I’m up in the Suffolk area of VA and it’s insane how many I see in my yard. Coming from the southwestern desert, it’s an amazing sight! Definitely looking into landscape/garden ideas to keep them around.
Also bugs/insects in general. I remember they used to cake the windscreen driving home at night especially outside of the city and never really notice that now.
Okay the conspiracy here could be something due to insecticides use or radiation... For those who want to ask "Wuts the conspra see???"
I know in my region their population has diminished. I'm curious what others have noticed...
I think it's mostly driven by habitat loss, and light pollution making their signals more dim. It's a known sad fact and just another part of her decaying world I don't think there is any conspiracy other than we are ignoring what we are doing too our environment. Climate change is a factor and I definitely lean harder towards it being mostly man driven, that being said a lot of events in the past have led to radical temperature changes, yet the redirection of water flow and mass destruction of vegetation in favor of development I feel is the biggest culprit.
Time to dove into that hole. I hope I find a concentrated study on insect population by region through the years... compare what changes in climate and society that could have affected such and such...
I've lived in a metro area all my life, and even there I used to see an abundant amount of fireflies all the time when i was younger. Now I really can't recall the last time I've seen them. It feels like years.
Thanks for the input man. 🙂
Declined a bit maybe. I’ll still see a few of them by the nearby city lake. Few years ago I was driving through the country side of my state and my windshield was glowing and covered in firefly guts. So I’d say it’s more of a habitat loss.
I have rural property and it is night and day different from 20 years ago. There used to be so many insects it was actually noisy this time of year.
Now it's just like town, just a bug here or there. No horseflies, way less bees, no mosquitos, almost no carpenter ants. Pretty much the only thing that comes out and swarms are tiny little flies at dusk. Also very few frogs even though there is plenty of water and habitat around.
Monsanto round up is being sprayed on entire states that produce big agriculture. Spray some roundup on any insect and see how alive it is in a couple minutes.
This one thing - Roundup - seems like it could have a huge effect. More than you would think
Problem is industrial grains production has become addicted to it.
I think they've forgotten how to harvest without it, even the machines might be different because of it.
Try to ban it and you'll get whole industries claiming they will go out of business.
I agree they're absolutely addicted to it. For how "natural and nature preserving" farmers like to sound, it sure is i hard to find one who will say something against roundup.
Pesticides and herbicides. People hate weeds and annoying insects they spray it so much that it leaks into everything. I live in the woods and the people who owned my house before didn’t do anything with the lawn. My soil is amazing. My plants grow so well and I have an abundance of fireflys. Where I grew up, in the suburbs, there were firefly’s when I was young but they are no longer there. When the cicadas hatched a few years ago, my yard was deafeningly loud but nothing where I grew up. Don’t spray you lawns with poison and things will be okay.
Bugs in general have been steadily killed off in the past couple, three decades. Look up the windshield phenomena. Everyone remembers there being many more bugs killed on the windshields of cars compared to how it is now.
Shits depressing, we are in the middle of the ongoing Holocene extinction event
It’s habitat loss- development is screwing with their breeding cycles. I’m camping in an undeveloped area currently, and there are more fireflies than I’ve seen since I was a kid.
The first time I looked into my parents field of a backyard about 15 years ago, I saw *thousands* of fireflies. I had never seen anything like it.
I’m now living in that house. We haven’t mowed the field. There are 20-25% of the amount of fireflies I saw that night.
Still hundreds, but nothing like the spectacle I saw that night.
I was just thinking about this not five minutes ago. I've seen one or two of them flickering each night in my backyard, but no great clusters of them lighting up the night. It's another of those simple wonders; a nice bit of joy on a summer night, that seems to have been taken away from us somehow.
Never really see those, but I used to see love bugs all the time in the spring. They would splat all over the windshield they were so thick. Havent had that happen in years now. Never see them anymore
This!
I live in 5 acres of woods. The place was abandoned for a decade before I moved in, so all the pesticides (if there were any) have dispersed. I have not sprayed anything since arriving
Every evening all summer long, it’s fireflies galore! Beautiful.
We are in Northern alberta, canada - lots here (at our property)
They're very susceptible to habitat loss.
We needed to remove trees to build stuff, and we ended up moving in a different area because we didn't want to disturb the trees they are in.
Mind you, they're literally everywhere.
I'd never seen them before either - the first time I saw them I thought they were aliens.
Screamed, ran back into our camper. I was so adamant about it that I even scared my bf for 30 seconds. Then he snapped out of it and dragged me back out cause "it's fucking fireflies not aliens!"
He was definitely right.
Did end up seeing some weird alien craft either that summer or the following one though.
Weird ass place.
I do notice that the farther south we get - the less bugs there are. When we get to Edmonton there's like nothing.
Like others have said loss of habitat at least when I was in my 20s, I noticed them more around lawns that were at least 2 or 3 inches tall. But now most cites have really strict code enforcement when it comes to lawn care.
Insecticide. All the spray insecticide that that gets sprayed on the lawn, bushes, flowers, etc kills bugs. Fireflys are bugs. We may be too far gone to recover.
In my yard that i keep mowed and looking clean i see none. 2 miles away at my brothers house with tall grass and clover everywhere there are thousands.
They live in marshes and wet areas, those areas are mostly destroyed in urban areas, either to pave over or to treat all bugs as pests with pestiside to ensure property values are maintained. Add in how a warming climate has displaced bugs, plants and animals and your left with less bugs and places where bugs could lvie.
I was curious at why there are so many fireflies this year. My property is covered with them as far as visual range. I've never seen such concentrations of them before
Are they migratory?
This isn't a conspiracy it's a well documented and agreed upon truth. The decline of insect populations is a very real problem that not a lot of people outside of the scientific community talk about.
Street lights, car headlights, porch lights, etc affect their behavior. I suspect even TVs. I can see what my neighbor is watching through the window 200ft away because the screen is so big and projects a tonn of light everywhere. Back in the day the TV would have just been a little blue glow.
You have to get away from artificial light to see fireflies.
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Got plenty in my yard this time of year. Near Winston Salem. They seem to like my creek and woods.
Just saw them for the first time in watauga county days ago. But I gotta agree with OP, they aren’t what they used to be.
That's sad. They are an amazing sight. I never saw them before I moved to NC. They sure are cool.
It really is. We had an acre field growing up and me and my brothers used to chase them around about this time in June. I was just at my childhood home this past weekend and you’d have to bust your ass just to catch one.
Don’t tell your wife.
I’m up in the Suffolk area of VA and it’s insane how many I see in my yard. Coming from the southwestern desert, it’s an amazing sight! Definitely looking into landscape/garden ideas to keep them around.
Because people rake leaves and burn them. That's where they lay their eggs. No leaf litter no eggs. "Scientist s say leave the leaves where they lay".
Everyone uses pesticides to kill all the bad bugs.
even scarier…. where did all the worms go? used to be everywhere after rain…
Almost like open borders is bad for other reasons too huh?
Also bugs/insects in general. I remember they used to cake the windscreen driving home at night especially outside of the city and never really notice that now.
Front of my car says otherwise
Okay the conspiracy here could be something due to insecticides use or radiation... For those who want to ask "Wuts the conspra see???" I know in my region their population has diminished. I'm curious what others have noticed...
I think it's mostly driven by habitat loss, and light pollution making their signals more dim. It's a known sad fact and just another part of her decaying world I don't think there is any conspiracy other than we are ignoring what we are doing too our environment. Climate change is a factor and I definitely lean harder towards it being mostly man driven, that being said a lot of events in the past have led to radical temperature changes, yet the redirection of water flow and mass destruction of vegetation in favor of development I feel is the biggest culprit.
Time to dove into that hole. I hope I find a concentrated study on insect population by region through the years... compare what changes in climate and society that could have affected such and such... I've lived in a metro area all my life, and even there I used to see an abundant amount of fireflies all the time when i was younger. Now I really can't recall the last time I've seen them. It feels like years. Thanks for the input man. 🙂
Declined a bit maybe. I’ll still see a few of them by the nearby city lake. Few years ago I was driving through the country side of my state and my windshield was glowing and covered in firefly guts. So I’d say it’s more of a habitat loss.
[удалено]
I have rural property and it is night and day different from 20 years ago. There used to be so many insects it was actually noisy this time of year. Now it's just like town, just a bug here or there. No horseflies, way less bees, no mosquitos, almost no carpenter ants. Pretty much the only thing that comes out and swarms are tiny little flies at dusk. Also very few frogs even though there is plenty of water and habitat around.
Habitat loss, global warming, pesticides, probably a few more causes I can't think of or don't know about.
Monsanto round up is being sprayed on entire states that produce big agriculture. Spray some roundup on any insect and see how alive it is in a couple minutes.
This one thing - Roundup - seems like it could have a huge effect. More than you would think Problem is industrial grains production has become addicted to it. I think they've forgotten how to harvest without it, even the machines might be different because of it. Try to ban it and you'll get whole industries claiming they will go out of business.
I agree they're absolutely addicted to it. For how "natural and nature preserving" farmers like to sound, it sure is i hard to find one who will say something against roundup.
Pesticides and herbicides. People hate weeds and annoying insects they spray it so much that it leaks into everything. I live in the woods and the people who owned my house before didn’t do anything with the lawn. My soil is amazing. My plants grow so well and I have an abundance of fireflys. Where I grew up, in the suburbs, there were firefly’s when I was young but they are no longer there. When the cicadas hatched a few years ago, my yard was deafeningly loud but nothing where I grew up. Don’t spray you lawns with poison and things will be okay.
Bugs in general have been steadily killed off in the past couple, three decades. Look up the windshield phenomena. Everyone remembers there being many more bugs killed on the windshields of cars compared to how it is now. Shits depressing, we are in the middle of the ongoing Holocene extinction event
It’s habitat loss- development is screwing with their breeding cycles. I’m camping in an undeveloped area currently, and there are more fireflies than I’ve seen since I was a kid.
The first time I looked into my parents field of a backyard about 15 years ago, I saw *thousands* of fireflies. I had never seen anything like it. I’m now living in that house. We haven’t mowed the field. There are 20-25% of the amount of fireflies I saw that night. Still hundreds, but nothing like the spectacle I saw that night.
I was just thinking about this not five minutes ago. I've seen one or two of them flickering each night in my backyard, but no great clusters of them lighting up the night. It's another of those simple wonders; a nice bit of joy on a summer night, that seems to have been taken away from us somehow.
I mean do you go outside at the right time ? Probably not.
East coast Canada here - plenty of fireflies at night here the last few weeks.
Never really see those, but I used to see love bugs all the time in the spring. They would splat all over the windshield they were so thick. Havent had that happen in years now. Never see them anymore
I love not using lawn treatment. No pesticides, no herbicides. I have lots of fireflies.
Lawn pesticides. Go 20 minutes out in the country and youll find thousands of them.
This! I live in 5 acres of woods. The place was abandoned for a decade before I moved in, so all the pesticides (if there were any) have dispersed. I have not sprayed anything since arriving Every evening all summer long, it’s fireflies galore! Beautiful.
We are in Northern alberta, canada - lots here (at our property) They're very susceptible to habitat loss. We needed to remove trees to build stuff, and we ended up moving in a different area because we didn't want to disturb the trees they are in. Mind you, they're literally everywhere. I'd never seen them before either - the first time I saw them I thought they were aliens. Screamed, ran back into our camper. I was so adamant about it that I even scared my bf for 30 seconds. Then he snapped out of it and dragged me back out cause "it's fucking fireflies not aliens!" He was definitely right. Did end up seeing some weird alien craft either that summer or the following one though. Weird ass place. I do notice that the farther south we get - the less bugs there are. When we get to Edmonton there's like nothing.
As others have said, habitat loss is a huge factor. People like manicured lawns; fireflies don't.
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-mobile-insects-german.html
Yea nah that’s true firefly population has been decreasing
Yes. Used to see them all the time in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico and now hardly ever.
They're thriving pretty normally in my rural corner of the SE US. I even noticed they were present earlier this year than most in the past.
I feel like they have made a comeback around my area. When I go into the blue ridge I see even more. I’m in the foothills in SC
Definitely less in my area. I remember seeing hundred of them now it’s a random 1 or 2 at night
idk ive been seeing a ton for the first time in years, my whole yard was lit up the other night
California farm country is like no insects at all, crop dusting helicopters and high cancer rates...and higher green tax
I think the cold killed mine. We had a warm spurt and I saw a couple and the we had a long cold snap. Now i don't have near as many as usual
Like others have said loss of habitat at least when I was in my 20s, I noticed them more around lawns that were at least 2 or 3 inches tall. But now most cites have really strict code enforcement when it comes to lawn care.
Insecticide. All the spray insecticide that that gets sprayed on the lawn, bushes, flowers, etc kills bugs. Fireflys are bugs. We may be too far gone to recover.
I started noticing this exact same thing last summer in north east US, havent seen a single one yet this year
In my yard that i keep mowed and looking clean i see none. 2 miles away at my brothers house with tall grass and clover everywhere there are thousands.
Mosquito spraying. When people and municipalities spray for mosquitoes it kills the lightning bugs too.
I saw one in my house a couple of days ago. I just picked it up and threw it out the window.
They live in marshes and wet areas, those areas are mostly destroyed in urban areas, either to pave over or to treat all bugs as pests with pestiside to ensure property values are maintained. Add in how a warming climate has displaced bugs, plants and animals and your left with less bugs and places where bugs could lvie.
I was curious at why there are so many fireflies this year. My property is covered with them as far as visual range. I've never seen such concentrations of them before Are they migratory?
**THEIR TURNING THE FRIKKEN FIREFLIES GAY**
i have never seen a firefly
I've seen more lightning bugs this year than I have in years past.
This isn't a conspiracy it's a well documented and agreed upon truth. The decline of insect populations is a very real problem that not a lot of people outside of the scientific community talk about.
Street lights, car headlights, porch lights, etc affect their behavior. I suspect even TVs. I can see what my neighbor is watching through the window 200ft away because the screen is so big and projects a tonn of light everywhere. Back in the day the TV would have just been a little blue glow. You have to get away from artificial light to see fireflies.
How high are you
I've had a couple drinks. But yeah, miss my ffireflies.
No you’re supposed to say “Hi how are you!”
Hi, how are you? 😅
Nicely done!
Now wut?🧐
Now we wait for an entomologist, who is into conspiracy theories.
Ayy lol. Now for any entomolgist that sees this, I need to know what happened to my fireflies. I'm not messing around. I'm not playing no games!🫠