• FIREFLIES ... why not in the west?

    From marlie.paulson@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 11 19:04:49 2017
    I have lived in oregon for 42 years. Born, and raised. There are NO FIRE FLIES HERE.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JD@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 17 16:27:27 2017
    In article <ff2f4026-4d10-458f-ae6c-0e2c7f14b78a@googlegroups.com>, marlie.paulson@gmail.com says...

    I have lived in oregon for 42 years. Born, and raised. There are NO FIRE FLIES
    HERE.

    Good Question:

    Almost no species of fireflies in the U.S. are found west of Kansas. They seem to prefer soft warm moist soil. Although there are also warm and humid areas to the West, but no fireflies. No one is sure why they don’t appear in Oregon. Perhaps they do but in limited numbers. They are dwindling all over the U.S. because of loss of habitat, pesticides and fertilizers, suburban sprawl, and light pollution.

    Light pollution can have an affect on fireflies. Bright artificial lights at night interrupts fireflies ability to signal each other, it may disrupt mating which would mean fewer fireflies would be born each year. However, even natural full-moon light will sometime prevent an appearance at night.

    Fireflies are generally carnivorous and eat other small soft-bodies creatures found in the soil. Some species may eat pollen and nectar from plants, other species of bugs, or possibly nothing at all because of a short lifespan.

    Human predation may be another cause of fewer fireflies in some parts of the U.S. Some companies in Tennessee pay people to capture them for their bioluminescent chemicals that are used in medical research.

    I have used them when fishing at night to light up a fishing cork by placing several drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide on them and attaching their macerated glowing remains to the cork.

    Resources:

    http://www.firefly.org/firefly-resources.html

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)