To submit your own report email burger@burger.com
Please include your city/town and state, and the date of your sighting. Include as many details as you can, such as numbers of fireflies, location (rural/city/wooded area, etc), temperature, time, and so on. Thanks for helping with this project.
Below are reports from Ohio, listed in date order, alphabetically by city.
Columbus:
July 2, 2002: A reader reports: I live in Columbus, Ohio. I was raised here and moved away while still an
adolscent. We recently moved back and one of my fondest memories were the
fireflys. We can now sit in the back yard at dusk and watch the show begin.
Someone else referred to them as little fairies, and that's what they remind
me of. The beautiful little dance they do is like something out of a fairy
tale. They spray here for mosquitos, which I smelled about a week ago, but it
didn't seem to affect the fireflys at all. We have massive amounts and they
all seem to be rising up from the grass every night at dusk. The weather
conditions are HOT AND HUMID! I'm so glad they are still here. It's such a
wonderful ending to every day to take a few moments to watch their flight.
Hope you can get them back in Houston.
June 29, 2002: Hi--I live in Columbus, Ohio, very near downtown and we have a lot of
fireflies near our apartment and thousands of them in our nearby park
(Goodale Park near I-670). Thanks for your firefly facts!
Cuyahoga County:
June 30, 2002: A reader notes: Just though I would share my firefly sighting with you. I live on the most
eastern edge of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. on the edge of Greater Cleveland. We
always seem to have fireflys in the summer, however, I don't know if they
are as plentiful as they used to be. We saw them last night, June 29th, for
the first time this year. This evening, while watering my plants, I noticed
them. Like little fairies in the garden. The evening is warm and humid.
We do not use herbicides because I would rather have a few weeds than
destroy our environment, our health and the lives of the precious creatures
who live in our garden.
Fredericksburg:
June 13, 1999: A reader reports: Just a note to let you know that where I live, Fredericksburg, Ohio, fireflies are plentiful. As a
matter of fact the Amish children collect them to raise money to buy
trampolines to play on. I am not sure where they send them, but I understand
the fireflies are used for medical purposes.
Hamilton:
June 11, 2005:
Nikki Muntz notes: I live in Hamilton, Ohio. Tonight (6/11/05) my children and I caught about 40 fireflies. We live on a 1/4 acre corner lot, considered city, although we're
not by any means a major city. We are about 20 miles from Cincinnati. Last
week we only found 5 fireflies, to our disappointment. The weather this week
has been in the 80s, humid, with pop up showers. I don't know if that has
anything to do with the increased number found or if it's just that time of
year. We let loose all the fireflies we find the following morning so they
won't die and maybe we can catch them again for more fun the next night. I
hope my three girls will always remember spending summertime catching fireflies
with mom.
Lancaster:
June 23, 2002: A reader notes: Hello. We seem to still have plenty of fireflys here around Logan, Ohio and Lancaster, Ohio. I enjoyed catching them as a child, and now that my first grandson is on the way, I'm sure I will enjoy catching them with him. We live around the hills in Ohio. We have caves and lots of woods.I don't know if that has anything to do with how many of them (fireflys) are around from year to year. Also, this year has been very hot so far. I hope they stay around.
Logan:
June 23, 2002: A reader notes: Hello. We seem to still have plenty of fireflys here around Logan, Ohio and Lancaster, Ohio. I enjoyed catching them as a child, and now that my first grandson is on the way, I'm sure I will enjoy catching them with him. We live around the hills in Ohio. We have caves and lots of woods.I don't know if that has anything to do with how many of them (fireflys) are around from year to year. Also, this year has been very hot so far. I hope they stay around.
Medina:
June 27, 1999: A reader notes: We lived in Medina, Ohio, from 1990 until 1994. Our property backed up to a wooded area and we saw masses of fireflies in the evenings. It looked like twinkle lights in the trees and was so beautiful! I look for fireflies here
in White Lake, Michigan where we live now and occasionally I see one. I am interested
in bringing fireflies back to this area. I am a native Michigander and I
remember seeing many fireflies when I was a child. We live by a wooded area
now and I would love to see the twinkle lights again!
Toledo:
July 4, 1999: A reader notes: We live in a western suburb of Toledo, Ohio, (approx. 41 30'N 83 40'W) and enjoy taking the evening air in our back yard and watching fireflies. We live in a wooded residential area with plenty of shrubs and bushes. As noticed by my wife, Sally, and commented upon my many of our neighbors, this year has brought us more fireflies than we have ever seen. We've had a very warm spring and it's been very humid.
Last night (3 July 1999) while returning from farm country west of town just after dark, the display was spectacular over the bean and corn fields and particularly bright in the darker ditches along the road.
I've only seen a couple of obviously synchronous displays but because of the spacing of them, I assume that they are just random co-incidence displays.
Thank you for the web page - a lot of interesting material and useful links!