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The Slice: A new way to light up the Spokane sky
I’m usually not a big fan of tampering with the ecosystem.
But I hate to think of Spokane area kids growing up without ever encountering lightning bugs. They really are akin to summertime magic.
So I have a proposal.
What if everyone in our area who will head back East this summer humanely captures a few fireflies and then carefully transports them back to the Inland Northwest?
Frankly, I don’t even know if that would be legal. But I am not aware that fireflies could be considered an invasive species. I don’t know of them harboring insect diseases that could harm our honey bees. And I suspect our Spokane area birds would dispatch them in short order. You can almost hear the robins now.
“Hey, get a load of these new bugs. They’re super easy to spot … they’ve even got flashing lights on the back. The perfect snack!”
Relocating fireflies to the Northwest has been attempted before. But in the instances I know about, none of the light-creating insects survived long.
Back in July of 2009, I had discussed fireflies a time or two in The Slice. And that prompted an email from a friend, which I wrote about. Here’s an excerpt from that column.
A little more than 20 years ago, when her son was about 5, she wanted him to experience lightning bugs. So, while on a trip that took her to Philadelphia, she captured some of these special insects with the idea of escorting them back to Spokane.
“I carried them on the plane in a glass jar with holes in the lid and prayed that they would make it,” she wrote.
They did. And her son still hasn’t forgotten about it.
That’s what I’m taking about.
We would not necessarily have to declare a special Spokane Release Night, say, in late August.
When you got back home after your trip to Illinois or Michigan, you could simply gather neighborhood children at twilight and then let the well-traveled lightning bugs free to do their thing.
Who wouldn’t want to check out the wide-eyed looks on those kids’ faces?
And I would like to think Spokane area kids would be more appreciative of these flying marvels of nature than were some of us who grew up back East.
After all, swatting them in mid-air with Wiffle ball bats was never the most eco-friendly way to salute their glowing charm.
Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Good day to keep pets indoors.