• @shalafi
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    English
    1629 days ago

    Fireflies are especially susceptible to pesticides (which includes herbicides). When I moved here 18 years ago, I’d see one or two occasionally, zero now. Read an article about them disappearing worldwide, over 10 years ago.

    We didn’t have them when I was a kid in OK, but when I’d visit my great grandparents in Indianapolis, you could snatch as many as you liked out of the air, and that was smack in the middle of the city.

    Fire ants and houseflies are thriving though!

    • BubbleMonkey
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      fedilink
      529 days ago

      Growing up (90s), in the middle of a dense suburban/semi-urban area, my mom would melt holes into the top of peanut butter jars with an awl, and we’d put some grass and shit in them and fill them with dozens of fireflies to make fairy lanterns. She would let them out when we fell asleep and said the fairies only stay until dawn, which I was never up for.

      I saw a firefly the other day and was absolutely thrilled. It’s been so so long since I’ve seen them. Then again it was during the day so it might have been something else…