My wife and I love walking our pair of miniature schnauzers on warm evenings. Lately, we've been walking by yards well-populated with clover, complete with honeybees. That caused a memory to jump into the forefront: catching bugs and putting them in jars with holes punched in the lid.
I'm happy to see the honeybees, because they are in trouble. Their numbers have dramatically dwindled, a combination of mite infestation accompanied by irresponsible pesticide use.
My yard in Miami, Oklahoma was covered with clover flowers. It was an adventure stepping through them bare-footed, and stepping on the occasional bee was inevitable, the insect manifesting her displeasure by leaving her stinger embedded in a seven-year-old foot.
But the bees also provided hours of entertainment, when they were caught in the preferred method of dropping a wide-mouthed jar over the clover flower that was being visited, then lifting the jar and placing the perforated jar lid in place as the bee buzzed angrily inside.
It was possible to get as many as a half-dozen bees in a jar successfully. At that point, you would crack the lid open and drop a few clover flowers in there with them. Of course, the bees were by now in no mood to look for nectar. But they would still fascinate a kid as they crawled around the inside of the jar and occasionally attempt to take flight, only to encounter a glass or metallic barrier.
We would usually let them out after a couple of hours of entertainment.
Bees were fun to catch, but they weren't the only tiny prey we juvenile hunters sought on warm summer days. Ladybugs, rolly-polies, centipedes, millipedes, and most any other forms of life that could be found in the side yard might end up confined in our trusty wide-mouthed jar.
But the ultimate insect hunting was done after dark.
In Miami, about early June, the fireflies would begin illuminating the early evenings, and kids all over town would be on the hunt.
There was a thrill that would fill the soul of a child when he would look outside on a summer evening, just after sunset, and see fireflies rising up from the yard, flashing their magical lights on and off.
In short order, he would be outside with the jar, capturing the slow-flying beetles (we didn't realize they were beetles then, of course) and taking them inside to see their magical light show within the confines of his now-darkened bedroom.
There was simply no bigger rush than catching fireflies, at least to a kid in the sixties. It seemed to sum up all that was right with summer. No school, fireworks just around the corner, perhaps a vacation coming up, and life as carefree as it would ever be.
I caught a few more fireflies when my kids were small. Nowadays, I just look at them, and feel the same joy.
Work doesn't let out in the summer like school used to, and few of us would describe our lives as carefree. But we Boomer kids grew up in a great, optimistic era. We found great entertainment in simple things. And nowadays, we occasionally open up our mental photo albums and dust off a few treasured memories.
That's almost as much fun as catching bees.
Comments (7)
Oh what a memory. I never caught bees in a jar for some odd reason...guess I was scared as hell of them but I did catch fireflies...reminds me of a time in my life when I didn't have to go to work or do anything but sleep late and dread September when school opened back up again. Thanks for the memory..it was nice.
Posted by Boomer Chick | June 9, 2008 4:08 AM
Posted on June 9, 2008 04:08
Did you know that lightening bugs are considered a "sentinel" species? Air
pollution has taken them out in a lot of areas; cleaner air allows them to
live. I couldn't believe the number of flashes we saw in Dwight, IL, south
of Chicago--we haven't seen them in Houston in years, even in the outlying
areas where I live.
Posted by Deborah King | June 9, 2008 8:46 PM
Posted on June 9, 2008 20:46
Not only are honeybees threatened by mites & pesticides, they are also threatened by Colony Collapse Disorder which is suspected to be caused by an AIDS like virus which compromises the bee’s immune system. Elizabeth Kolbert wrote a great piece on this in the Aug. 6th 2007 issue of New Yorker see Stung and the IAPV virus has been detected in 96% of bees associated with collapsed colonies. see USDA CCD Report The virus can be transmitted by Varroa Mites but many (over 50%) of the affected colonies contained no mites. I note the photo with a bee on a White Clover is an accurate depiction of the busy bee at work, whereas most jars of Clover Honey depict Red Clover blossoms and sometimes a bee working them. An interesting fact about Red Clovers is that their nectar holding Corolla tube is too long for a honeybee’s proboscis to reach the nectar and thus honeybees only gather pollen from them and generally don’t bother with Red Clovers choosing the shorter corollae of the White or Yellow Clovers, bumblebees however can reach the nectar and are the major pollinators of Red Clover.
My father is a retired entomologist and introduced to me when I was a young lad ~10 years old, the art of insect collecting complete with net and cyanide impregnated kill jar. I would try to identify my exotic catch with his books and would go to him when stumped, eventually accumulating boxes of pinned, identified specimens. With his guidance I raised Cecropia and Hawk Moths from caterpillar to chrysalis to imago in a reclaimed aquarium then dutifully suffocated and mounted them in picture frames on cotton batten. The only insects I kept in a jar with holes punched in the top were grasshoppers and crickets for fishing bait and like you, fireflies (not very good as bait.)
I am looking forward to introducing my granddaughter to the joys of fireflies which are abundant in my back yard (but perhaps minus the collecting jar.) One drawback of living in the Northeast and venturing out to observe nature especially in the evening, one has to be wary of mosquitoes (they’re everywhere) which here are vectors for the West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis viruses.
As I write this I’m struck by a virulent parallel: Colony Collapse in Humans & Honeybees. In the past, Smallpox and the mosquito borne Yellow Fever viruses were responsible for human colonies collapsing, but a there’s a silver lining. The viral panoply likely holds the key to combating others of their ilk. Prevention of Smallpox, Yellow Fever & Polio viral infections was achieved by building antibodies from exposure to related but less devastating viral strains. The viral form is by and large a barely understood component of life and we are just scratching the surface of their nature and value. Our DNA shows sequences of endogenous retroviruses which seem to be significant in mammalian reproduction as well as implicated in a number of autoimmune diseases. I have no doubt that viruses (at least some) will one day be as important in treatment & prevention of diseases as antibiotics once were.
Posted by Burt | June 9, 2008 10:47 PM
Posted on June 9, 2008 22:47
I haven't seen a honey bee this year; and come to think of it, not in a few years.
Also, almost none of the "clover flowers" grow in my yard any more. I'm alarmed!! What is happening to the honeybee?
T_B
Posted by Tudor_Boy | June 10, 2008 5:38 AM
Posted on June 10, 2008 05:38
Ahh yeah! So many bee's, grasshopper, crickets, lightning bugs etc! And the bigger the jar, the less chance of getting stung? I remember when the 17 year locus/grasshoppers were huge! Also catching the 17 year cecadas! We also caught the black bumble bees! And for some reason, we were led to believe as kids that preying mantis was punishible if caught by attorities? But to to tell you the truth, they still give me the creeps and I hate to be around them even though the are harmeless and helpful! Oh yeah, don't forget about the caterpillars and slugs on the sidewalk! Life was grand as a child!
Posted by Rivers End | January 1, 2009 8:35 PM
Posted on January 1, 2009 20:35
Lightning Bugs glowing at twilight and dark. They were easy to catch, too. But oddly, after about a year, we never saw them again. Caterpillars, too. Same for many things around there. Development was closing in around us fast and affecting wild life. We caught brief glimpses of a rich diverse nature for a year or two before it was gone. Of course, our father destroyed much of the plant diversity that probably supported the variety of wildlife.
There was still lots of fields and another frog pond down the road as the one out back of us was gone after 2 years. We had woodpeckers for a few years. But the 70s brought an end to much of it around 74 or 75. And the 80s was the worst. Everything got ate up then. Urban sprawl is the worst, and probably most boomers anywhere near civilization saw some of it.
When one is born into so much beauty, it is tough to see it disappear. It was a great life in so many aspects and every one of them seem to be gone. How about a song, gang? Its from Simon and Garfunkel LP Bookends and son fog the same name.
Time it was and what a time it was; it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be
I had a photograph
Preserve your memories
There all that’s left you
Posted by Scott Irv | June 2, 2009 11:23 PM
Posted on June 2, 2009 23:23
I remember camping out in the backyard in my tent. we would always fill a jar with Lightning bugs(fireflies)for light ha ha.
Thanks for the great site,makes me remember how good we had it and the things we would never let our kids do!
Posted by David Chapman | June 14, 2009 9:16 PM
Posted on June 14, 2009 21:16