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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

I didn't realize all fireflies didn't tend to synchronized. Fun read. Fireflies are one of the only "bugs" from the south that I miss. Cicadas, I suppose, have a bit of a soft spot with me. Everything else... nope.

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Cicadas are so bizarre. A couple of summers ago I was around Des Moines and Ames, IA and was completely baffled by the strange noise that seemed to be everywhere and yet impossible to localize. After a few days I heard someone talking about the cicadas and learned something new!

Come visit Japan in August; the cicadas are so loud throughout most of the country that you have to raise your voice to be heard.

Then one day they suddenly stop. I hear a big noise but outside is completely silent to my mother.

Be careful standing underneath a tree involved in ._cicida rain_.

Hahahaha no one warned me about this but luckily didn't get to _experience it_. :D

As I always tell my kids, aren't you glad they are the size they are instead of the size of a car!

How far north are you? We get them around Albany, NY. The big thing is having a forest-meadow boundary, where fallen leaves aren't removed. If you're surrounded by grass lawns & concrete where people rake & remove the leaves fireflies could lay their eggs in, you won't get fireflies.

Fair, it is not "north" that is my limiting factor. It is being in the Pacific North West. As another poster has said, we have some glowing bugs. Nothing like fireflies, though.

And I hasten to add, plenty of other amazing creatures.

what area are you located in now? We have fireflies in Michigan, cicadas as well

Pacific Northwest. And fair, I should have said east coast, not just south.

There are fireflies in every state except Hawaii. There are more east of the Mississippi and in the south generally, but anywhere with water has some (including river valleys in arid states).

I had to google this. If you count non-flashing bugs as fireflies, sure. Nothing like the typical experience in my backyard when I lived in Alabama. They are very different bugs.

Still, neat, to be sure. Indeed, my point in the original post was that I find the wildlife out here in the PNW to be very fun and I like all of the wildlife we have. Banana slugs, as a fun example.

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