Fireflies or Lighting Bugs? What’s the Proper Name for our Favorite Glowing Insect?
When you see them, what do you call them?
If you spend anytime outside in the Hudson Valley on a warm summer night, at one time or another you've looked out, and witnessed the flickering glowing lights coming off a tiny insect filling the area with a cool light.
One of my favorite memories growing up in the Catskill's was every summer around this time of year my family would always spend time sitting around outside after dinner. The adults would all have their favorite adult beverage and while they talked and drank, us kids would run around the yard trying to catch the little glowing bugs.
My mom would give us each a small-sized mason jar to put our catches in. She would poke a bunch of holes in the lid so they could breathe. Us kids would always see who could catch the most, with the winner getting something. I never won because I was the disturbed kid who would always "smoosh" the bugs on the sidewalk to make a streak of glowing yuck! LOL!
You know the bugs I'm talking about, right? We always called them lighting bugs. Up until recently, I thought that everyone called them lighting bugs, but after talking with my neighbor the other day, I guess I was wrong.
My neighbor was out with his daughter when I was walking my dog, and she was running around catching the bugs like I did back in the day. I stopped to say hi and he said "she loves catching fireflies". Fireflies? What is that? LOL!
According to News 10, folks that grew up in the western part of the United States refer to the bugs as fireflies, and folks like us who grew up in the east call them lighting bugs. They also said that there’s a theory that people who call the bugs lighting bugs live in an area that has a lot of lightning strikes.
What do you call them? Call or text us through the Wolf app.