Stopped mowing our farm, lightning bugs are back in swarms. It’s great.
Comment on Lightning bugs
weariedfae@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Their decline has been so sad. I moved somewhere with fireflies in 2007. The first year they were everywhere. The second year less so and they were completely gone by 2010. I always tried to leave longer grassy areas for them but they were just… gone. It was so so so sad. I didn’t grow up with them and that first summer was enchanted and magical.
I have great memories of walking down the road on a hot night with thousands of slowly blinking balls of light. The person who lives in that place now probably doesn’t even know that fireflies are supposed to be in the area.
SupraMario@lemmy.world 5 months ago
dingus@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I haven’t seen a firefly since I was a small child. I’ve never really thought about them before, but it is kind of sad not seeing them. Generally I hate bugs, but fireflies are pretty.
CptEnder@lemmy.world 5 months ago
We used to catch them in jars as kids growing up in rural south. Tired to see who could get the most, then release them and watch them all make a show.
krellor@fedia.io 5 months ago
Lightning bugs have a multi-year lifecycle that includes living in fallen leaf matter, hunting for other bugs, before emerging in like 2-3 years. So they need places that don't haul away all of the fallen leaves/plant matter or use broad spectrum pesticides.
I've always kept all the leaves in rows along our fences for the lightning bugs to live in, which is also popular with the song birds hunting for bugs. That and don't do the broad pesticide treatments.
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
It seems insane to me that Americans use pesticides on their own garden and lawn. Do you not walk on there? have your kids and pets play outside? What are you even trying to kill with the poison?
GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Ain’t just Americans
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 5 months ago
For us it’s fire ants. They’ll destroy your yard if you let them.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 5 months ago
If you’re having a problem with fire ants it’s likely due to overuse of broad spectrum pesticides. Fire ants have tons of natural predators, but they are usually taken out by broad spectrum pesticides a lot more effectively than the ants.
So you end up killing most of the earworms, spiders, dragonflies, and beetles, while only killing off some of the fire ants. This generally just gives the ants more room to expand
I would switch from broad spectrum pesticides and just purchase some nematodes you can spray as needed.
frezik@midwest.social 5 months ago
How do you make your lawn a color of green that doesn’t exist in nature? Checkmate, Eurotrash.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
it’s called “plants other than grass” and works really well, most swedish lawns remain green for most of the year and require jackshit care other than mowing every now and then.
numberfour002@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Although plenty of people do it, most aren’t treating their whole yard or entire garden in pesticides on a regular basis. Most people who are using pesticides are just spot treating here and there, maybe spraying their home’s foundation to keep out ants and termites and things of that nature.
People who use pesticides in their lawns will have different reasons and different approaches, but some common reasons (real and imagined, I’m not defending the practice) are typically to control pests like fire ants, Japanese beetles, yellow jacket wasps, termites, fleas and other parasites, and many other things that are region specific.
And honestly, some people just don’t like bugs. I think that’s ridiculous, but it’s way more common than you might think. Any tiny creature in their house warrants the nuclear option. A wasp nest on the underside of a deck terrifies them.
krashmo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t mind most insects but wasps can go fuck themselves. They are one of very few living things I will go out of my way to kill when I see them. Ticks and bedbugs are the other two.
Zink@programming.dev 5 months ago
Why do you have such a problem with pesticide manufacturer profits? No wonder you don’t understand American culture!
( /s - I have a family and tons of animals and a very ragged lived-in yard)
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah, mulching your leaves instead of bagging them is really what makes a difference for fireflies. And since suburbanization and HOAs often require (or at least heavily encourage) bagging leaves, it means the fireflies have nowhere to mature.