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Sunday, September 11, 2016

Think back: Did you see any fireflies this summer?

WASHINGTON — As “unofficial summer” ends, some in the area say they missed out this year on a warm weather joy that people have loved for years — the fleeting, warm glow of fireflies.

“Absolutely we’ve had mixed reports of firefly activity this year — some people in Maryland have said they’ve seen none whatsoever,” said Michael Raupp, professor of entomology at The University of Maryland. “My experience in Columbia, Maryland, was we had a pretty good year for fireflies.”

Fireflies flourish during summer, said Raupp.

“These guys got off the ground in June, they were strong through the Fourth of July,” said Raupp. “I saw my last firefly a couple of weeks ago, and certainly by September they’re gone.”

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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw some fireflys in my yard tonight out here at My Hermon about 8pm.

Anonymous said...

A few, but nothing compared to previous years & we've lived her for 12.

Anonymous said...

Not many this summer.

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing them when they first come out in the spring. I haven't really seen anything after that now that you mentioned it. We used to see them in the back field. Not this year.

Anonymous said...

My backyard was as full of them as ever.

Anonymous said...

I saw app 80% this season compared to the norm,but gnats more than made up for the shortage.

Anonymous said...

No fireflies,but it sure has been a bumper year for toads.

Anonymous said...

only noticed them when it was muggy out. I also noticed the butterflies returned this year.

Anonymous said...

Dragonflies seemed to be over abundant this year. Never seen so many.

Anonymous said...

Those chem-trails you say do't exist are killing them off... As it is killing everything else too...

Anonymous said...

"Chem Trails" LOL! They are no different than the exhaust trail from your automobile in the ice cold weather of winter (that you don't see during summer months). The jet plane "chem trails" are water vapor trails that are produced as jet airplanes fly through the icy temperatures of the upper atmosphere, and that's why you don't see them in the warmer altitudes that the jets fly through.

Anonymous said...

I didn't see near as many this year, as in recent years.

Anonymous said...

We saw none here in Salisbury, but we have had a bumper crop of butterflies, moths,knats, preying manis, and yes mosquitos.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I talked about it. There were hardly any. I remember when you could fill half a mason jar in 10 minutes when I was young. Father in law told me there were even more than that when he was young.

Anonymous said...

Have seen a bare minimum this yr ,but
don't see frogs around like I did
when we moved here in 85' .

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen any and we used to run around and catch them in the air.

Anonymous said...

Something else odd, there were hundreds of thousands of green head biting flies in Ocean City and the Delaware beaches. WTH is up with that?? I've never seen biting flies in OC or the Delaware Beaches. They were unusually bad in Assateague as well.