Fire-flies, lightning bugs — where have they all gone?? When I was growing up, the edges of our backyard would come alive at dusk with their blinking lights. We used to try to catch them and keep them alive in our specially designed bug cages. These weren’t your typical jar-with-holes-in-the-lid contraptions — these were clear plastic containers, in the shape of an extra large flashlight, with removable green caps on each end – one having vents. Despite the deluxe accomodations, we never managed to keep them alive for extended periods. Can it be that our childish hunting impacted their population??
purlingswine
@thepugshack
purlingswine 
We had hoops of lightening bugs this past July. Didn’t you have any on Long Island? Could it be due to all that Anti- West Nile Virus Spraying? Owen is quite the fire fly hunter. He is surprisingly gentle with them. The only trouble was he was determined to carry them inside and set them free! LOL
We get af ew of them here in Smithtown. Maybe because we live across from the nature center, that’s 52 unsprayed acres of wild woodland.
we had a few here in suburban St. Paul… not a ton. My parents had quite a few in their smaller city, though…
I wondered the same thing. They used to abound in my grandma’s yard near St. Louis. On this trip, I hardly saw any. My daughter tried to catch the half dozen that turned up. Are they becoming extinct?