• Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Firefly: a lightning bug

    Lightning bug: a firefly

    Fire bug: an arsonist

    Lightning fly: ??? The electric eel of the dragonfly world?

    “Is that bat glowing?”

    That’s no bat. Run!"

    [Electrical crackling sounds]

  • Album@lemmy.ca
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    12 days ago

    Different areas have different lightning bugs too. The ones in southern ontario are not the same as the ones in the midwest US.

  • galaxia@lemmy.zip
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    12 days ago

    We used to have so many of them when I was a kid. Their numbers are dwindling. 😭

    • BalderSion@real.lemmy.fan
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      12 days ago

      The yard spray folks come around every spring offering me a deal because they are spraying all my neighbor’s yards. I’m the only yard with lighting bugs in the neighborhood.

      A Silent Spring was supposed to be a warning, not a how-to.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        I feel a little bad for the pest control guy that showed up at my house last spring. I majored in Biology, but did not graduate, my partner has their Masters in Biology and wrote their thesis on ecological damage from heavy metals.

        Yeah, my yard looks a little unmanaged, sure, you can see bugs all over the milkweed, that’s intentional. My yard was visited by thousands of bees (and sadly) a dozen or so butterflies daily. Because we had the insects and native plants, we had lots of small birds, and becuase we had lots of small birds, we were lucky enough to have a local Cooper’s Hawk as a regular visitor nearly every day.

        The guy offered to do indoor services for spiders and termites. I told him I don’t have any of those because I have a bunch of basement centipedes. He said he could spray for those, and I was like “Why? They’re harmless and they’re the reason I don’t have dangerous spiders and termites in the house”.

        • quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 days ago

          My neighbours use to warn me about ticks every summer and how they proliferate in the grass. Since my yard has been a safe haven for lizards I haven’t found a single tick.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        The less I maintain my yard the more lightning bugs we get.

        We do not maintain our back yard very well. I refuse to let these amazing insects disappear. We also seed for pollinators as well.

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          12 days ago

          I tried to go this route with my small backyard. Unfortunately invasive vines (creeping Charlie and English ivy) got entrenched in very short order and outcompeted almost everything else. Pulling up the vines left nearly bare earth that eroded very quickly. If I ever get the money and the time, I’m going to have to add soil and seed and tend to it properly. For the time being, I left most of last season’s leaves (mostly oak) and put down netting is some of the worst areas to try and keep the wind from stripping it bare(er). I’m hoping this leads to better water retention and soil conditions, and not just hiding spots for more vines. 😕

          • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            If possible, spread some local seed packs for pollinators on the bare dirt. Should be able to find some for your region/state. Better than letting the regular weeds take over.

            • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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              12 days ago

              That’s the problem, nothing has taken over. It’s just bare cracked clay because the soil is gone. My target for seeding is white clover, which technically isn’t local but it’s been around so long it might as well be. I can’t let things grow too long unless I want to check for ticks every time I go outside. Clover seems to be a nice compromise. I’ve long ago given up the fight against dandelions, much to the neighbors’ chagrin.

              The yard is unfortunately pretty far down the priority list, which is annoying because it’s probably one of the more satisfying projects once it’s stabilized. But lack of funds and spoons dictates the effort must go elsewhere.

      • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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        12 days ago

        I saw that the other day too. It’s just that 35 years ago, everyone still raked their lawns. Same as 35 years before that.

        • SippyCup@feddit.nl
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          12 days ago

          We are in the middle of an insect apocalypse.

          Remember when you were little how many fucking moths there were? Couldn’t keep the porch light on at night or they’d get in the house and you’d be finding moth carcasses all summer.

          Now there’s just a few. Hardly see any anymore.

          Same for house flies, and bees. I used to have to go and spray for wasps every spring, I don’t remember the last one I saw.

          • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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            12 days ago

            Grasshoppers too. I used to fill buckets with them as a kid. I haven’t seen more than a few in the last decade.

          • 5too@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            Remember when you needed a bug shield to drive on the highway?

            • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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              12 days ago

              Yes and yes (to the person you replied to). All I’m saying is that that narrative seems to be coalescing around “it’s because people raked leaves.” Does that play a part? Probably. But there’s no way it’s just that. It’s far too pervasive to be “personal actions.” The root cause has to be systemic.

              • samus12345@lemm.ee
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                12 days ago

                People have been raking leaves the whole time, so that’s definitely not why.

              • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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                11 days ago

                Raking leaves, expanding suburban sprawl (and therefore lawns), and the over-use of poisons, pesticides and fertilizers.

              • SippyCup@feddit.nl
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                12 days ago

                It’s not just the leaves, it’s humans fucking with the environment, on a macro and micro scale. But that’s harder to convey in a single panel

                • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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                  12 days ago

                  Agreed. But as someone who grew up with the Crying Indian, I am very wary of this kind of oversimplification. It was always, “make sure to cut the rings from the six pack of cans so the turtles don’t get stuck,” and not, “stop manufacturing death traps,” or, Primus forbid, “stop treating the ocean and waterways in general like free waste disposal.” It’s still being actively astroturfed to this day (see also plastic straws). Case in point: a few years ago there was an “accidental chemical waste discharge” into a tributary of a major regional river that is used as a water source for much of the area. This was posted about in a lightly trafficked regional subreddit where a “hot” post might accumulate a few dozen upvotes over the course of a day and a handful of comments. This one reached over a hundred comments within hours.

                  It’s only x gallons, the river moves y gallons every minute. Nobody would have noticed until the media made a big deal."

                  The same stuff is used in cosmetics and people put it on their face every day. It’s harmless.

                  And so on.

                  Messaging is important. The corporate class understands this. Hence trying to shift blame for every single systemic issue onto individuals. Plastic straws. You don’t have the right to swim in clean water. Plastic bags. Fuel efficiency. Overnight delivery. Vote with your wallet. Overproduction. Recycling. And now raking leaves.

                  Want all that in a single panel? Zoom out from the raked lawn and show the silhouette of a factory belching smoke into the air and vomiting waste into a river in the background.

              • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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                12 days ago

                It’s also humans continually expanding and building in previously undeveloped areas. It crowds out other species.

                30 years ago it didnt matter if you raked your leaves because there were still plenty of areas for lightning bugs to migrate in from. But when everyone’s surrounded by miles of suburbs the lightning bugs have further to go for you to see them

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      I never lived anywhere near them, never seen a bioluminescent creature in my life despite my wish to do so.

      But when I was about 6 years old, I have a weird memory of my parents driving out to the deep desert with me and we parked off some dirt road and my dad got out of the truck for maybe a half hour. My mom seemed nervous. I saw a green light at the base of a bush about 15 feet away from the vehicle, just a tiny little bright green light, solid color, middle of nowhere.

      I asked my mom what it was and she said “it’s a glowworm” and I asked if we could go look at it and she snapped “NO don’t go outside!” and I was absolutely boggled what was going on. My dad came back, they drove out of there without a word. One of those life mysteries we all have tucked away in our memory banks. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t dreaming, but it’s getting back there in years, probably was early 80’s now. (This was the Sonoran desert in winter, there are no “glow worms” out there, and no bugs generally coming out in the cold anyway. I lived there for decades, there are no bioluminescent critters there.)

      • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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        10 days ago

        You already messed up on the second sentence man, its ten million, not ten thousand

        • Hagdos@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          Well, shit

          edit: in my defense, |i’ve never seen a single firefly, so ten thousand would be enough for me not to believe my eyes

  • thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Growing up, they were indigenous where I lived. After I moved away, it was so surreal no not see random lights in the back yard during the summer nights.

  • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    No fireflies where I live, but that doesn’t mean my childhood was free of a beautiful insect swarm.

    My area had a bad outbreak of cockchafers I got to enjoy.

      • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Despite the name and status as a pest (they are literally European scarabs), I feel nostalgic whenever I see one. Farmers ruthlessly fought them, so there hasn’t been a swarming event here in at least 20 years.

        • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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          12 days ago

          Lightning bugs swarm??? That’s simultaneously awesome and terrifying, or maybe terrifyingly awesome. Now I want to see a lightning bug swarm even more than an intense meteor storm.

          • tooclose104@lemmy.ca
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            12 days ago

            Lightning bugs, aka Fireflies, are harmless. Their little butts just emit flashes of light from internal chemical reaction, like a short lived glow stick. If you encounter a field with a bunch of them, it’s real pretty.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            Great Smoky Mountains National Park has a “Lightning Bug Lottery” every year, a certain number of passes are randomly given out to applicants to see the park at night during peak breeding season for fireflies. Supposedly they will all sync up their lights and converge in a huge group on one tree.

            I’ve seen a smaller event once in my hometown. Just a whole tree was sparkling for a few minutes. I think the most amazing thing about it is the light doesn’t really show up well on a camera, so you kinda have to just put your phone down and enjoy it with your eyes. The only place you can keep that moment is in your mind.

  • dumples@midwest.social
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    12 days ago

    I saw a few lightning bugs in my yard last year. My life goal have them consistently in my yard. Good thing this dovetails nicely with my other life goals of getting butterflies, bumblebees and birds in my yards

    • jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works
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      12 days ago

      Make sure not to bag and toss all the leaves in the fall - leave a bunch in a pile in the corner of your yard. Thats where they like to stay at night

      • dumples@midwest.social
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        12 days ago

        We got piles on my gardens which will get covered for composting in place for the rest of the year. Also our wildflower garden is pretty much untouched except a yearly mow to remove baby trees. So plenty of spots for bugs

  • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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    12 days ago

    Also, people are born every day, and some just go on with their lives never learning about random facts like these. Every day, someone is one of the lucky 10k.

  • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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    12 days ago

    coming from australia, this is super real… we have such a unique set of animals and plants that it’s all just so normal to us, but then you travel overseas and everything is like what you see on tv and in movies

    i’m mid 30s, and last year i saw snow falling for the first time in chicago… snow falling is beautiful, and to most of the world it’s just normal - to australians, it just never happens

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    12 days ago

    It’s been more than 20 years since my wife moved to the west cost and she still laments the lack of fireflies. Where-as, whenever I’ve been out east, I’m caught off guard by them… then I start singing Roxanne.

    You don’t have to put on the gold light