I see fewer and fewer every year. Cicadas are in full force, though.


Don't see the red headed woodpecker anymore. Had four of 'em last year. Every other bird, blue jays, cardinals. red breasted woodpecker, finches, etc, are here and many.

just noticed

always saw them during the summer at night

I see them pretty regularly. Went to the firefly event in the Smokys this year. They all have blue lights and sync up. It's beautiful to see. You have to win a ticket on raffle now which is bull. When I was a kid we would just hike over to them

they're striking

I still see them on my property. But not as many as I remember from when I was younger in DR.

I saw tons of fireflies/lightning bugs last year here in NC, none this year. Weird.

i blame fireants, those things take over and eat everything. they have decimated the ground nesting birds like pheasants also

Who cares, you can just go on youtube or ******** and watch them there. Who needs nature.

Yes I've noticed this. Sad as f*ck if they got wiped out

I still see them in my yard, and I see way more of them if I happen to be at a nearby somewhat wooded park in the evening, but it definitely seems like fewer of them than during childhood. A few years ago, I got an AirBnb in the Catskills area and the number of them outside at night was insane. It was like seeing the stars in a remote area when it seems like everywhere you look ends in a point of light.

TFW collecting them in a jar as a kid to have a bug lantern.

I noticed they are absent in the Midwest also.

Would you say fire ants are the jews of the bug world?

That could be a contributing factor, although I never heard that or really considered it. I know a lot of the decline in pheasant, grouse, etc., was the abandonment of traditional farming practices in favor of squeezing every penny out of the land by planting all the way to the edge, sometimes within like two feet of the road all around. Previously, the practicalities of older equipment meant that there was a buffer area around/between fields where there was just tall grass. Those birds could nest/hide in that grass and also make their way out into the fields to grab bugs, seeds, and so on. I'm in favor of the efforts to reintroduce them and try to get numbers back up, but my understanding is that they have a hard time getting birds that start out in captivity to last very long once released. Probably need to heavily protect a solid wild population somewhere and then gradually move them to other places.