Tiny "Beetle Lanterns"

   Since I spend so much time outside, I see a lot of things that others do not.  Mother Nature provides a lot of interesting courses of study if we only take the time to venture out.  Today, a tiny beetle caught my eye and the eye of Bat, the cat.  Bat has an infinity for bugs of any kind and will eat them if given a half of chance.  While I normally like this as he keeps a lot of caterpillars from eating the garden, I shooed him away and then "disguised" my beetle.  This one, I wanted to live.  The beetle was a lightning bug or for those not from the Deep South...a firefly or glow worm.  The beetles are in a steep decline due to humans so I figure that as a human, I needed to do my part in rectifying the situation.  No cat was going to devour my lightning bug!  By disguising, I mean I moved several potted plants around the fern where the bug was perched for the day.

  Lightning bugs, fireflies and glow worms are all the same thing.  The critters' numbers are sharply declining due to chemicals sprayed on lawns and due to "light pollution".  They need darkness to find a mate by means of their own glow.  Street lights, porch lights, solar path lights, house lights...in fact, any type of lights diminish their ability to find each other.  The bugs simply do not reproduce and soon will totally disappear from an area.  

  On the Bayou, we have no street lights nor outdoor lights other than the stars in the sky!  Personally, I do not use chemicals in the garden and, happily, the city has not been sending out their "mosquito patrols" at night.  (Those mass sprayings killed everything.)  Seeing the lightning bug this morning made me smile as I know that my gardening style may have saved a life albeit a bug's life.  Perhaps if my grandlittles are ever here during the summer months, we can watch the beetles as they light up the woods with their "tiny lanterns".  

If not a bat...then a bug!

Ez and I headed down to the pier on our evening walk.  The sunset was not so spectacular and the gnats were somewhat AWFUL!  This made the event a tad uncomfortable forcing us to head back to the Little Bayou House.  On the way back up the pier, I noticed several bats flying low over our heads.  I was so glad to see my little night friends as they might gulp down a goodly number of the pesky bugs!  Besides....it is almost Halloween!  Bats need to be flying about the yard!  Actually, I love bats.  They are some of the best friends a gnat-hater can have!  Seeing the bats, made me have the illogical thought that perhaps I could photograph them!  Hmmm...it is not like bats fly that fast...ha!  These little critters can fly faster than my camera lens could work!  They zigged this way and zagged that way..up and down..right and left!  Nope...no pictures of bats even though I gave it my best shot!

Still the photographs proved interesting.  I was so focused on the bats that I did not notice the tiny lights moving about the marsh grass.  After taking a dozen or so mis-shots of bats and not capturing even a single one, I held the camera down and let my eyes refocus in the dark.  It was then that I noticed the lights!  Fireflies!  Lightning Bugs!  Glow Worms! Moon Bugs!  Whatever you want to call them, they were out this evening.  Not many..just a few but at least there were some!  Also..is it just my imagination or is it a tad late in the summer for them to be out and about?  Anyway, I thought that the picture-taking should be redirected toward the Lightning Buts instead of the bats.  Those bats who might just take a liking to the Lightning Bugs instead of the tiny gnats!    I snapped a few pictures before continuing the trek back up the hill.

Once inside, I examined my photographs.  I was elated to find that I did manage to get a few shots of the Lightning Bugs.  They are not the greatest of pictures but at least they do show one thing.  I have Lightning Bugs!  These little guys are becoming quite scarce as of late.  In the early part of the summer, I spied very few.  Each night there might have been a dozen.  This saddened me.  The woods used to be a glowing mass at one time but now with all of the insecticides being used by the neighbors, the numbers have dwindled.  Another problem is the clearing of properties which upsets their habitats.   The overuse of glaring lights at night also creates massive problems for the little bug.  Their blinking is a way of finding a mate.  When other lights interfere with this process..no little ones are born.  Some day...I may not be the only one that misses the blinking lights of the Lightning Bugs.  Some day...perhaps folks will take notice of their decline and find ways of helping.  Some day...it might be too late.