# No fireflies in Buffalo - why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110 "2004-07-21T01:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/1 "2004-07-21T01:36:05Z")
There are fireflies (or, as some people would call them lightning bugs) all over the Cleveland area. Fireflies are also supposedly common in Rochester, New York. The climate, vegetation and topography of the Buffalo area isn’t much different than that of Rochester or Cleveland, but sadly, there aren’t any fireflies blinking around the suburban – or exurban, or rural – night skies in the area. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/2 "2004-07-21T01:52:56Z")
Not to highjack, but maybe to expand the OP… What ecological niche do fireflies fill? My friends from overseas tell me that there are no lightening bugs there. They are facinated with sitting in my back yard and watching the show. What bugs fill the same niche over seas? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/3 "2004-07-21T02:21:30Z")
Toronto. They are just so dazzled by the lights they head north, eh. There are fireflies but they are not nearly as dense as in other areas I’ve seen that had them. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/4 "2004-07-21T02:22:40Z")
Umm, make that last sentence “There are fireflies in Rochester …” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/5 "2004-07-21T02:29:49Z")
[Fireflies are evidently becoming extinct](http://www.burger.com/fflink29.htm). It would seem that some of their species already are. ---
**Author:** ![MaceMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@MaceMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaceMan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/6 "2004-07-21T03:30:25Z")
Do you have a cite for the claim that there aren’t any fireflies there? Even in rural areas? I find it hard to believe, as they are all over New York state. I can personally vouch for a fairly large population in Syracuse and Utica, NY. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places? They tend to fly close to the ground, in grassy areas, in my experience. You won’t see them everywhere. If your claim about Buffalo is really true, then I’d be seriously concerned about pesticide use in that area. ---
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/7 "2004-07-21T03:51:24Z")
I live in New York City and see them on my lawn every evening. I second **MaceMan** suggestion of checking what insecticides are being sprayed in your area. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/8 "2004-07-21T04:09:56Z")
You’re not he only one who finds that firelflies in Buffalo are rare. [Fireflies](http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/nw94/fireflies.html) > [@](#): > > (This column first appeared in the September 5, 1994 Buffalo News.) > > My nephew Caleb Murphy is four years old but anyone would guess that he was eight. He is one of those children about whom my father would have commented, “They must feed him 5-10-5.” Caleb is also what most of us would describe as a roughneck: tough as nails, his middle name should be Mayhem. > > One evening two weeks ago he and I spent an hour dashing about my mother-in-law’s lawn in Hartselle, Alabama, chasing fireflies. Within minutes I was ready for a lawn chair but he never did tire. He’s clearly destined to bec ome an Auburn linebacker! > > These were my first fireflies of the summer. I had seen none around Buffalo, another loss due I suspect to our overgenerous use of broad-spectrum pesticides. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/9 "2004-07-21T04:15:10Z")
> [@MaceMan](#): > > Even in rural areas? I find it hard to believe, as they are all over New York state. In Buffalo (well, the suburbs), I’ve never seen fireflies. I did, however, see them about an hour and change south, in the more rural southern tier (Sardinia-ish). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/10 "2004-07-21T04:51:54Z")
> [@MaceMan](#): > > Do you have a cite for the claim that there aren’t any fireflies there? Even in rural areas? I find it hard to believe, as they are all over New York state. I was born and raised in Buffalo, attended college and graduate school there, and visit my parents in suburban Buffalo every few weeks. If it’s the pesticides, Inwonder what’s so different about pesticides used in the Buffalo area compared to what’s used in Rochester, Syracuse, Cleveland or NYC? The densely populated suburb where I live sprays as if pesticides are free, and the fireflies are still abundant. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/11 "2004-07-21T13:57:03Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > In Buffalo (well, the suburbs), I’ve never seen fireflies. I did, however, see them about an hour and change south, in the more rural southern tier (Sardinia-ish). Darnit, I was just about to vouch for fireflies in the Fredonia area (well, closer to Laona, and that actually makes a difference geologically as that is where the hills start, whereas Fredonia is more like Buffalo being on the coastal plains…) ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fireflies-in-buffalo-why/256110/12 "2004-07-21T15:47:39Z")
As long as we’re all chiming in…I’ve been in Orleans County (which is a very rural section of WNY) for twenty-two years and I’ve only seen one firefly in that time.