(no subject)

[camwyn]

Those of you reading this who live in the Boston area, can you tell me whether you ever get fireflies up here? Lightning bugs, whatever. I've been keeping an eye out for them around dusk for weeks now and I haven't seen a one near me. I haven't heard crickets, either, or any other noisemaking insect. Definitely no cicadas, which is weird since I thought we were in the area where the brood is making its 17-year emergence. There's just no insect noises at all near where I live, and it's very strange.

Which isn't to say there are no insects. I encountered a few mosquitoes near my house. I saw a bumblebee near the train station a while back. I scooped up a moth that was flailing in a trench in the sidewalk near the train station this morning and put it over the fence into a more dirt-and-plant intensive area where it wouldn't get stepped on. (Very pretty moth, too. White and black spatter, like cookies and cream ice cream, and fuzzy.) I've found dead ladybird beetles in my windows, and small black beetles of unknown type, and there've been little clothing-moths the size of a grain of rice or a little larger every so often. I've seen some dragonflies, too- I always keep an eye out for them- and I have never lived anywhere with so many anthills in between cracks of the pavement or hiding among the grass on the lawns. There are spiderwebs on the railings leading up to my house and in the space between the bulkhead doors and the entrance to the cellar, so the spiders must be feeding on something. (Although I hardly ever see the spiders themselves.) I think I've even seen a little red mite or two.

But I don't remember seeing any honeybees, or yellow jackets, or wasps- although I could be wrong about the honeybees, there may have been some this spring that I just didn't see. I don't remember seeing houseflies, for pity's sake, or cabbage butterflies. Maybe one zebra swallowtail- no, never mind, that wasn't in my area, that was up by Newburyport. I saw something gnatlike this morning- didn't fly like a mosquito but I couldn't tell what it was.

Where are the noisemaking insects? And what are the flying insectivores feeding on, if there are no flying insects making themselves obvious? What are the birds feeding on- or are all the species up here seed-eaters and fish-eaters and birds of prey? The border between my town and East Boston is a swamp, for crying out loud. What's going on with the local insects?

Comments

[derien]

Maybe the city sprays for insects, to attempt to keep the mosquitoes down? If so it would make sense to me that the last creature they'd actually kill off would be the mosquito.

[camwyn]

It's possible, but we're talking about a small town where the town manager allowed our grant from the MBTA to defray the costs of running the ferry to Boston to expire. I'm not sure what kind of budget they'd have for spraying for bugs... and the other thing that gets me is the birds. There's plenty of them, and I don't think all of them are seed eaters (although I could be wrong, as I'm not really an avid birder and haven't done my research). We've got plenty of spiders even if the birds are all seed eaters... spiders have to eat something, and I don't think they're eating the hojillionty ants.

[jothra]

My stairwell at work was full of houseflies today. Some must have just hatched.

I saw some waspy thing in Davis square the other day. And I've seen butterflies and heard crickets in the park.

I dunno about fireflies though. I haven't been out there after dark. I WILL INVESTIGATE.

[shati]

I ate them.

[camwyn]

I should have known.

[shati]

More seriously, I don't think I've ever seen a firefly in Massachusetts. Cicadas and yellowjackets, yes (fuck yellowjackets), lots of bumble bees and some honeybees, crickets, yes but usually further from the city. More hornets than anything else as far as wasps go. And a shit ton of house centipedes and carpenter ants in all the old-ass wooden structures around here, which I've been resigned to ever since I read that centipedes eat cockroach larvae.

I know there are fireflies in MA, so there might be more in less populated areas, or areas with more standing water? ETA: Wait, you said swamp. Do I know where you live?

[camwyn]

Winthrop.

[shati]

...yeah, okay, standing water. (It's a salt marsh, right? Do fireflies care?) Maybe just where there's less people (/plane noise?).

Now I need to ask my coworker in Melrose if she sees fireflies. Argh, now I'm curious! I'm looking at the Museum of Science's Firefly Watch page and everything!

[camwyn]

It's a salt marsh, yeah. I'm not sure what fireflies think of salt water. I think mosquitoes need fresh water, but there must be other insects that live in the salt marshes. I had an ear out for noisemaking insects today and heard (and saw) a couple of houseflies. Briefly thought I heard typewriter-noise insects, but since that only happened once and only for a few seconds I'm guessing it wasn't really cicadas after all. Spotted one yellow-and-black insect that I think may have been a yellow jacket, as it wasn't moving like a honeybee. Still no crickets, either during morning hours or during night time hours. Enough birds to wake up a rooster, but no noisy bugs.

[genarti]

I think I've seen a couple of fireflies, literally only a couple, in the seven-odd years I've lived in Boston. Even in rural Vermont they're very rare, at least so far as I've ever seen. I remember when I was a kid in Ohio, standing on the back deck looking down the hill into our backyard which was just swarming with fireflies all of June. I've seen scattered fireflies here and there in a meadow, now and then, but nothing like that density. I always concluded it was just too cold for them to thrive up here, but that wasn't based on actual research or anything.

I've definitely seen bees and wasps and swallowtails and houseflies, though, so I'm not sure what's going on with your area.