When I was little, I remember catching lightening bugs in the summer and putting them in a jar. Dad would punch little holes in the lid so they could get some air to breathe. Of course some would die and now I feel kind of bad about that. Fast forward to today and I don’t want to have anything to do with bugs of any sort even ones that glow. I know there’s some tourist attraction here in the US maybe North Carolina where you there are many of them and you walk through and it’s supposed to be a magical experience. Not sure I could handle that today. Do you call them lightning bugs or fireflies? Did you catch them in the summers? Do your kids like catching them? Would you like to go see the firefly attraction?
I did the same... now I just feel bad, but my kids did it too! Most of the time, I let them go after a bit, or the boys would at my urging. It's like a part of the summer here in NJ for kids! They are mostly in the trees, and suburbs. I don't see them when I'm at the beach. I don't know if I would like a whole crazy amount of them.... I'd pry freak a little, especially if they got stuck in my hair. UGHH.... I've always called them Lightning Bugs.
Lightning Bugs ... as a child, I, and later my kids, put them in glass jars with holes punched in the lid and we always let them go at the end of the evening. For my grandkids we had plastic bug jars that we used. I don't see many lightning bugs in this area any more. Oh, we used to catch crayfish/crawfish/crawdads as kids too. We'd go wading in the creek and turn over the rocks looking for them. My granddaughter was an expert at finding/catching them. She had one for over a year. Once it got loose and I found it in the kitchen. It was waving and snapping it's pinchers at me.
Lightning bugs. Yep, would catch and put in a glass jar then let them go before going inside for the night. I mostly remember my cousins and I doing this when we had our family picnic/volleyball gatherings on the 3 holidays during the summer. It was an all day event and for those of us that didn't play in the volleyball games, the days got long. Catching lightning bugs in early evening was a fun distraction.
We would catch them at camp and I thought they were the coolest things ever. . Don't see them around much anymore.... my kids never seemed as interested in them as I did. Guess technology took over the great outdoors ... sigh....
We call them both names. I haven't seen a huge amount of fireflies in our area for a while, but then again, our town has grown like crazy over the past 40 years. We went to Missouri for a family reunion and stayed out in the country, and there were TONS of fireflies/lightning bugs out in front of the house. It was sort of magical, the way the blink on and off with varying patterns.
So we don't have fireflies (what I call them) here in WA state. The first time I've ever even seen them was last month when we were in Washington DC for my daughter's 8th grade field trip. We were at the Korean War Memorial & it was just starting to get dark and we saw some. The tour guide was getting annoyed that we were all so distracted until the teacher pointed out that this was the first time for most of us to see them. They are SO cool- but yea, hard pass on running through them. Eww.
Now that you said that I realize that I don't see them anymore. This neighborhood has been built up in the last 55 years. There were lots of empty lots and even a cornfield when I was a kid and now it is all houses. There was an empty lot next to our house when we had these gatherings. We alternated the picnics at 3 houses. Ours, an uncle on the outskirts of town and an uncle in town with a large yard. We only ever saw the lightning bugs at our house and house on the outskirts of town. There were fields across the road from that house. The third house was surrounded by other houses.
I don't recall every seeing a firefly but as a kid I used to catch all kinds of little itty bitty crawly things and put them in jars with grass and twigs, then punch holes in the mason jar lid. Now it feels so cruel that I did that. As for walking thru a field of anything alive seems creepy to me. I think I was traumatized as a kid when I had to walk thru a field of beetles (when camping) to get to the outhouse. I will never get over it...yuck.
We called them lightning bugs and we did the same thing with the jar. No, I wouldn't want to walk through hundreds of them - they're still bugs.
Lightning bugs We always had them in jars and so did my kiddos. And the mean boys would smash them on the sidewalk and leave a little glowing trail lol. I can walk through plenty of them just going out my front door at night, but I'm not sure I'd choose to go be completely surrounded by them lol
We call them both names. We live in WCU and get many of them this time of year. It is magical to see them flashing all over your yard. Sometimes ours sort of synchronize. We just catch them in our hands and then let them go. @weaselwatchr This may be what you are talking about: https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/fireflies.htm It's about 1.5 hours from us. I've had a few friends who have gone.
“Most of their lifecycle is spent in the larval stage (1-2 years), where they feed on snails, worms, and smaller insects in the leaf litter on the forest floor.” This probably explains why I’m not seeing many lightning bugs anymore … not much leaf litter or forest near me anymore.
We mostly call them fireflies around here and we definitely did the same catching them when we were kids. My kids used to love that too, but it gets dark SO late here in the summer (after 10:00 pm in the middle of summer), that it had to be a special occasion for us to let them stay up late enough to catch them. Usually 4th of July or if we were camping. I still get excited when I see the first ones in the summer. They are so fascinating.
I did that a couple of times as a kid. Or maybe I should say I tried...I don't remember actually catching many. Where we live now (Washington, DC suburb) you occasionally see fireflies but not enough to make anyone think they'd be able to catch them in a jar. My kids were never that interested, but I think it's because when they were young enough to be into bugs it got dark too late for them to be outside. (And also, my kids call themselves indoor cats, LOL. We're an indoorsy family.) I don't think it would bother me to be in a place with a lot of fireflies. I also remember catching tadpoles and caterpillars. We let the tadpoles go before we left the park, but a few caterpillars died on my watch even when I gave them a lovely new home in a box lined with random leaves.
Lightning bugs is what I call them naturally, but I say both lightning bugs & fireflies when I'm showing my toddler/teaching here. She's a bug girl so I bet will collect them in jars when she's bigger.