Lightning bug (firefly) report

[btulloh]

Something about the weather I suppose, but there are a lot more lightning bugs this year. I estimate that there are 4.382 times the average amount.

Anyone else seeing more than normal?

[Southside]

Been  A LOT, for about a week or so.  Seemed a bit early this year I thought.  Maybe has to do with the fact guys have not been able to spray?  

[Magicman]

Sadly we are now seeing our first hatch of "Lovebugs".  Nastiest things ever when they get smashed by your truck/car.  Lovebugs

They hatch out of the ground like Lightening Bugs and smell about the same too.

[btulloh]

I encountered love bugs in Florida. No redeeming value unless you like the front of your car covered in goo. Glad we don't have them here. 

I always enjoy the lightning bugs though. No downside.

[caveman]

I see a few lightning bugs every night and have been seeing them since January.  I read an article several years ago that suggested that the abundance of artificial light is negatively impacting the lightning bugs' range and numbers as the luminescence is how they attract their mates.


The lovebugs this year have been worse than normal.  They have been swarming here for at least a month.  The yellow flies (deer flies) are out in force as well.  Lately, while working in my shop or outside they will land on my legs or arms and I'll smack them or at least swat at them.  It is gratifying to see a pile of dead yellow flies at my feet.  What is not as gratifying is feeling a bug land on my leg and splatter it and realized by the smell and texture that it is a lovebug instead of a yellow fly.  

[btulloh]

I guess this is now the bug thread.   :D

Deer flies are the worst.  Fortunately there are very few here now and that's a good thing.  They love to bite and they seem to follow the bush hog like gulls following a fishing boat.

I haven't been to Florida during love bug season for a long time.  I suppose you get used to them if you're local, but as a visitor, they're hard to warm up to.  I would have thought that they would have solved or reduced the problem by introducing sterile love bugs into the population.  Maybe not.

[Southside]

What we used to call moose flies were far worse than deer flies, basically they are horse flies on steroids.  You don't want to get bitten by one of them.  If we don't have love bugs here then we have something that looks a lot like them.  Of course we also have stink bugs, same problem when you swat one on your neck.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   I grew up in NW Fla and the love bugs were a terrible plague. They are not something you get used to, just something you endure. As I remember May and September were the worst periods. They were always joined together mating and I never understood how they could fly like that. If a single one lit on you, you better be careful. :D

[Stephen1]

I found last year that bright orange and green, real bright, shirts keep deer flys and horse flys away. My buddy told me about it for 2 years and I didn't believe him.
I bought some T-shirts last year for the buisness and chose orange. They worked, now come june and july that is all I wear ;D

[caveman]

Now that this has evolved into the bug thread I will share a love bug story.  In about this time of year in 1996 I sprayed a 222 Aquasport Osprey my uncle and I were returning to service with white gelcoat.  Every love bug in the county landed on/in the wet, resin based paint.  Picking them out left fingerprints and divots so we left them to remain in the hardening gelcoat.  We ended up wet sanding love bug legs out for most of the following week. There was not a square inch of that hull that did not have a bug stuck to in it.  

[Wudman]

I guess this is now the bug thread.   :D

Deer flies are the worst.  Fortunately there are very few here now and that's a good thing.  They love to bite and they seem to follow the bush hog like gulls following a fishing boat.

The good thing about a deer fly is that he is big, slow, and noisy.  You have a pretty good chance of getting him on the way in.  If they ever develop the stealth technology of a salt marsh mosquito, they will be deadly. ;D
Wudman