There is a lot I don’t know about insects, spiders, and bugs. I do know they are connected to memories, sometimes traumatic memories. I had no idea my family had so many connected memories about bugs and creepy crawlers until this Writing Topic was posted and I started reading their comments. Memories are part of the family glue.
I had forgotten about the yellow jackets in my sister’s long blonde hair. She had the blondest of locks. So did two of my brothers, though they have lost most of their hair now. Why is it that blonde hair turns darker with age?
It is traumatic to be stung by a bee when you are a kid. I have only one memory of a bee sting. I was playing on a red and green swing set, I think it was when we lived in Tennessee. For some dumb reason, I stuck my finger into a hole, maybe where a bolt used to be. Or where the hollowed out space of the metal tubing meets and joins. The pain was instant. So was the scream. There were yellow jackets in there. Or were they wasps?
What is the difference between a wasp and a yellow jacket? I remember the doodlebugs (I read that they are larvae). Last night I was trying so hard to remember the song. I think I remember the tune..doodlebug, doodlebug, come out to play – kind of like the k-i-s-s-i-n-g tune of “blank and blank, sittin’ in a tree”….that’s what I remember. And there is reference to the doodlebug’s house. But what are the words?
I remember part of the doodlebug ritual is swirling your index finger in the pile of sand hovering over the wrinkled gray ball of a bug. Swirling, swirling, swirling, like a finger in delectable cake batter. I have fond memories of doodlebugs. Not of ants. Fire ants were the worst. I watched the same Animals Gone Bad show oliverowl did last night. It talked about the history of fire ants, and killer bees, and the tree frogs that have invaded Hawaii.
The animals are acting the way they always have. It is humans that have changed. Humans in their quest for excellence, always end up messing with Nature – that one last good thing. Transporting one species in to eradicate another, messing up the balance of things. That’s what happened with the killer bees. An aggressive species of bee (I forget which one) was imported and mated with the honeybee.
Then there were the Asian carp, only a stone’s throw away from invading the Great Lakes. They respond to electricity and were leaping out of the water, huge carp, jumping in droves. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. They eat everything desirable that fish like perch need to survive. Carp are bottom feeders, mate like crazy, and are NOT good eatin’.
I remember my dad bringing a giant carp home from a fishing trip once. It was the largest fish I had ever seen. Where did the Asian carp come from? If memory serves, they were imported into Arkansas in the 1950’s to stock a river or lake? Memory fades.
When I was a kid, I used to walk up and down our driveway on Audubon Circle and snap ants off the end of a bullwhip given to me by my Uncle Bill. I loved that bullwhip. It had a worn wooden handle, dirt etched into the rough grain of the wood. Brads fastened the braided leather of the whip to the pine handle. It was way too long for my 9-year-old body. But I made it work anyhow.
To this day, I think that’s part of the reason I have such good eye-hand coordination – spending hours in the sultry summers, slow walking the driveway, rapt concentration, snapping ants at the end of a whip. I’m horrified at that now. I elect not to kill any sentient beings if I can help it. Every insect, critter, and creepy-crawler has a purpose on this planet.
But I’ve got to tell you, the bugs Down South are a force to be reckoned with. It’s not the casual sugar ant we get in Minnesota. Or the little black ants that invade a picnic by Lake Harriet. It’s the fierce pinchers and stingers of the fire ant, the venomous bite of the water moccasin, tenacious roaches (creatures who refuse to die and only show themselves at night), and the black widow spider I watched weave a 4-foot web between scratchy branches of Carolina pine.
I miss the fireflies, the aurora borealis of the insect world. I love fireflies. And never see them in Minnesota. I used to catch them in a glass jar, add a little Tennessee grass, poke holes in the metal lid with the hooked T of a manual can opener, and carry them into my room at night. Insects will be on this earth until the end of time. We might as well learn how to live with them.
In reality, the more we invade their spaces and build on their habitat, the more we will perceive them as a nuisance. They are mutable, adaptable, and evolve more quickly than humans (I just flashed on a memory of flying ants. Those things used to freak me out). Through eons of galactic evolution, insects and creepy crawlers are way ahead of the game. They are not afraid of change.
-related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! and big spider haiku
I remember fireflies in Minnesota. As kids we did the same as you: putting them in a jar with holes poked in it — something I’d never do now.
I remember them in particular down by Bear Creek, when the house my folks still live in was on the outskirts of Rochester. Maybe they are more common in the countryside?
My last memory of them there was the summer after high school. A friend and I had just discoverd the joys of smoking, it was dusk and the fireflies came out in the woods, and we were laughing as we chased them. There is something so magical about fireflies …
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We spent about a week at my inlaws in the Wadena area last summer and saw quite a few out in the boonies where they live. Not near as numerous as they are here in NE Indiana, however.
One of my greatest joys every summer is reliving those lazy days with my kids and their jars and grass and “lightning bugs” as they call them. Unfortunately, my son figured out they leave a very cool incandescent streak when you smoosh them. Ugh!
Brian
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ben, I don’t remember ever seeing them here. I need to check in with some other city dwellers here to see if they see them. Or maybe they are further south. I’m going to investigate this a little more. It would be nice to have fireflies be part of my life again. For me, they never lose their appeal.
Brian, we called them “lightning bugs” as kids, too. I just love that name. Yeah, smooshing them…I do remember a few neon streaks from accidental smooshes when getting them in and out of the jars. Do they call that collateral damage?
I’ve been offline since yesterday and am behind in reading and commenting. I’ll catch up a bit now and later this evening!
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QM, lightning bugs (I prefer that name over fireflies) are one of my favorites! I’m surprised that you don’t have them in MN. As ben pointed out there is simply something magical about them! We have plenty here & at camp. At home I love sitting on the upper deck & watch them as they move up into the treetops. They light up the trees as if it were Christmas morning! A sight to behold!
Brant enjoys catching them to, but he sets them free. A rule we have about any living creature. D
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diddy, I’m thinking we must have them here. But where? I wonder if the chemicals keep them away from the cities. Sounds like ben saw quite a few of them in southern Minnesota. Maybe by chance, or magic, one will visit me this year.
I remember at brother’s new house in Pennsylvania a few years ago, we had a fire back behind and there were swarms of fireflies at the edge of the woods. Total magic. They were as bright as the fire.
Hey, I liked your haiku about the buds on the fallen tree. How are they growing there? I imagine from the rich compost of what is left behind.
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QM, they do light up the trees! I wonder if water has a lot to with where the lightning bugs swarm? We have a creek here, had plenty at the farm where we had a pond, and the brother you speak of also has a stream along the edge of the woods, and we have many at camp along the river. But they probably don’t appear in the city as they need the earth & trees to sustain them.
Thanks, also, about the haiku. I was shocked to stumble upon the buds on the tree, as it did not uproot, but broke off due to the heavy weight of the ice. D
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You know how you’ve never seen a roadrunner, QM? Well, I’ve never seen a lightning bug (except as portrayed in movies).
I’m in California right now, and so far I’ve not seen any bugs at all, now that I think about it. Wait, we saw a lady bug walking on a piece of seaweed that had washed ashore. It would have been a nice photo, but the ladybug flew off too fast for me to take her picture.
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diddy, interesting, about the creeks and streams and the fireflies. I wonder if they migrate. Where do they go in winter? I need to do more research. 8) Ah, I understand about the tree buds. That ice storm. So the tree is still rooted. Hmmm.
yb, nope, never seen a roadrunner. And I can’t believe you’ve never seen a lightning bug. Wow. So they don’t have them in New Mexico? Maybe they really do need a wetter climate. Water and rain.
Lady bugs can be amazingly fast. They crawl so slowly. But fly at the speed of light. Well, almost…
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QM,
Here is an interesting tidbit I found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly) –
“The Pennsylvania Firefly (Photuris pennsylvanica) is the state insect of Pennsylvania, and the Common Eastern Firefly (Photinus pyralis) one of the state insects of Tennessee. At one point, Indiana seriously considered making the State’s insect a firefly, but the legislature never put the measure to a vote.”
So two of the states you called home in your life have fireflies as the state insect.
Here in an interesting link on Lightning bugs (Fireflys) – http://hymfiles.biosci.ohio-state.edu/projects/FFiles/index.html
I did find that you should not feed them to your reptile pets because the substances that make then glow can be toxic to your pet.
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R3, I SO LOVE that both Tennessee and Pennsylvania (as you mentioned, two of the states I’ve called home in my life) have Fireflys as the state insect. Great research. Maybe that’s one of the reasons fireflys have impacted me so much. Apparently, there were multitudes of them in both of those places. And as a kid, I spent a ton of time outside.
I need a little time to check out your links and images. I’ll respond to those when I get a chance to take a little more time. Thank you!
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