Something is Wrong....and its not good.

Something is wrong, and its not good. A plethora of little critters that used to be here are no longer around. I find that kind of bothersome.

When I was a kid the summer nights were a wonderland of fireflies. We called them "lightening bugs." It was great fun to catch these little nocturnal beetles and fill a fruit jar with them making enough light to walk on a trail in the darkness. We used to have an abundance of little lizards with horn like projections on the head we called "horny toads." We would catch them, make a small harness of string and lead them around, or carry them in our pockets to scare the girls. The evenings used to be filled with the melodic sounds of the whippoorwill. There was an abundance of a variety small harmless garden snakes. Hop toads were everywhere, especially at night time catching all kinds of insects. There used to be an abundance of quail. I spent many pleasurable hours hunting quail with my father-in-law. He had a championship bird dog and was a part time bird dog trainer.

What is bothersome is: I haven't seen a firefly in several years. The last one I remember seeing was flitting around in the pasture west of our house one evening. I had the pleasure of showing it to my granddaughter when she was about four years old. I haven't seen a "horny toad" in years. I heard a whippoorwill a few times after we moved here sixteen years ago. Haven't heard one here since. I did hear one about ten years ago when visiting my cousin in the Ozarks in Arkansas. The only snakes I see these days are a few copperheads and a few rat snakes, but I'm seeing fewer and fewer copperheads. I still see an occasional hop toad, but they are few and far in between. I haven't seen a quail since my neighbor bought a clutch of eggs, hatched out about two dozen quail, and when mature he turned them loose hoping to get them restarted in our area. We never saw them again.

So, what is happening to all these little critters? Does their disappearance forebode of something more catastrophic in the future? Are they the canary in the mine? Is it the fire ant menace that is decimating all the little critters? Has the use of insecticides destroyed the insects they feed on? More questions than answers.

I wonder, and its bothersome.