Where Can I Go To See Fireflies?

It struck me as a mid-30s adult that it is slightly tragic that I have never seen fireflies. I've spent most of my life living on the west coast of the U.S. or in central Europe, which I guess is just not firefly territory. (I've also never seen cockroach either, to be fair.)

Does anyone have any recommendations of where I can go in to see some fireflies? I'm not opposed to small town America, as that's pretty much where I grew up, but easy to get to would be nice.

Probably not helpful, but there's a dirt road in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Canada just south of Sunday Lake called Rose Rd that's loaded with them at the right time of year - usually about two weeks in June. Always called them "Lightning Bugs". I grew up nearby and used to fill up the occasional bottle or two of the poor things.

@sinusoidal: How is Nova Scotia? A good place to visit? What little I know of it comes from hearsay and reading Hark! A Vagrant comics.

Got ya covered.

google says this is where they are in the US

I think that's a pretty worthy trade-off for never having to see a cockroach.

I don't know how its possible to have gone 30+ years never seeing a roach. I mean, how could you never have at least had some gnarly friend living in a nasty apartment?

As for lighting bugs, they were always around my suburban Philadelphia home growing up, but they don't seem as common anymore. That could totally be my imagination.

@berniesbc: Most of my dirty bachelor university living and nasty friend having period was in the Pacific NW, where we just seem to have few (no?) cockroaches. Plenty of raccoons, possums, and even mountain lions, however. Oh, and those damn nutria.

Most of the east coast of the US is my guess. I remember seeing loads at my cousin's in maryland as a kid but I have even seen them outside apartment buildings in the projects in manhattan.

@sinusoidal said:

You're a monster!

@razielcuts: Also, you...

@viking_funeral: It would probably help to know where you are now. The University of Wisconsin Arboretum is filthy with them starting in about mid-July, but that might be 3/4 of the way across the country for you.

@viking_funeral said:

Nova Scotia is fucking great. Most of the province is beautiful scenery. People are very friendly. The biggest problem with drivers in Nova Scotia is that they're too polite. The capital city, Halifax, has (had? I haven't been there in 12 years..) a great music scene. I really miss it sometimes. There's nothing like a Nova Scotia kitchen party with a bunch of fiddles, guitars and mandolins banging out some jigs and reels. If there were any decent jobs, I'd probably be there now.

I used to mash out some rhythm guitar with this guy and a bunch of others in an Irish (style) pub:

Get tons of them in the Chicagoland area suburbs. If you're ever out in Batavia, the land around Fermi-lab is mostly grass land and during the summer, the fields are lit up with fireflies. It's very pretty and there's not a lot of light pollution there. It's 30-40 minutes from O'hare by car and you could make it a trip to see Fermi-lab, Batavia, St. Charles, they have really nice downtown areas. It all is built along the Fox river and you could bike/hike from Batavia to St. Charles. Also not far from American Science and Surplus Store which is a cool place if you're into just weird things. You can even buy tank parts there.

Or, they're just giant mutated glowing mosquitoes.

OP burying the lede with the never having seen a cockroach thing. That's insane to me.

I live in St. Louis, Missouri and we have them in fields and yards here in July. I have lived here for about 40 years and have seen them almost every year since I was a kid.

Play The Last of Us.

Why would you experience something in real life when you can play a videogame?

There was about 10 years there where they seemed to be disappearing where I live outside Pittsburgh. I remember hearing something about how they were getting confused by artificial light or something, but last few years they're back blinking again. Also, they are like the easiest most fun bug to catch in the whole world, it's like lemme swat my hand in the direction of where that light was two seconds ago and more often than not you'll catch them.

I've always wondered where I'd go to NOT see fireflies in the summer. But I've lived on the east coast (mostly North Carolina) my entire life. They're everywhere around here during the mid to late summer period, when nights are warm.

Try places with big open fields and tall grass, a park, or maybe some rural towns near you. Google has some tips on what kind of places they like, so find a spot near you that meets these criteria and hope they are there.

I live in TX and we get them here around summer time. I know from experience they also show up in IL, KY, and TN.

New Jersey reporting in. Can't imagine growing up without whacking lightning bugs with a wiffleball bat, or catching them and pulling their glowy bits out so you could smear luminescence on random objects. Kids are twisted little fucks, aren't they?

Also, keep in mind, fireflies come out in the summer, so don't spend time looking for them out of season.

Again, super not useful but my farm (in Wisconsin) has fireflies in the summer. The like moist, grassy areas near the edge of woods.

There are fireflies on the west coast, they just don't light up like on the east coast. I live in WA, and from what I understand, here and Oregon have many of them, but they don't light up (at least in WA, and now that I read about it more, there are some that do in Oregon). I've never been to the East coast of the U.S. so I've never seen the lit up ones either.

Probably most rural areas of the continental US, with the exceptions I would guess of... part of the west coast and the southwest?

@lawgamer: Switzerland.

Most of my fam is west coast, so I rarely see the rest of the U.S. unless I'm on business, and then it's in and out.

I live in the rural area south of Chicago, and we have them above the fields in July and August.

New York in the summer during sunset/dusk. We called them lightning bugs.

Males from a few species, such as Photinus carolinus in the US found in the Smoky Mountains (North Carolina and Tennessee) synchronize their flashing. Scientists are not sure why they do this but they think this helps them attract mates in masse and then leave the sorting up to the females.

These days you see them less and less and I don't think I have seen one in a decade, but I don't go out to marshy fields at night...you know, because of the Boogeyman. Chase me once, shame on the Boogeyman; but chase me twice...shame on me!

I grew up about 20 miles west of Boston and the field behind my house had fireflies most nights during the summertime.

I live in North Carolina, outside of Charlotte, and I used to see them all the time. These days I see very few, if any.

But then, I'm also not usually outside at peak firefly viewing times and if I am, it's usually to go to a store or something.

Rural Kansas. Eureka, Kansas to be exact.

I live in New Hampshire and they're annoying as shit when camping. It could certainly be worse, though.