Lightning bugs are plentiful and have been around for the past two weeks or so. Although they seem to be increasing.

I have seen a few dragonflies, but not many. They seem to come around here when it is really hot. Maybe they will be increasing here soon.

I ususally don't see many bats. But I don't really pay much attention, so i am not sure if they are around or not.

I am inundated with baby toads right now. Soon to be large toads if they keep eating.

I have noticed very few Junebugs which is very unusual. They are usually as thick as flies this time of year. Maybe Spring rains drowned out the grubs. That's OK with me.

Bruce

I don't have bats around our house in OKC, but I do fish a lot at the Lexington Wildlife Management area and there's usually tons of bats accompanying my fishing from March through June. Admittedly, I've noticed fewer this year. Neat creatures. Although kind of distracting when trying to fish down there. Hey that reminds me, I've noticed lots of little red berries growing wild down there, and they look a lot like raspberry plants (have all the features of a bramble plant). I assumed they were wild, unripe blackberries. There's a lot of deer in the wildlife area and I'm sure they love those berries.

staying as cool as possible while weeding,
Dale

Matt,

We've had about average numbers of everything, although not necessarily at the "right" times.

Hummingbirds were earlier than usual, but Purple Martins were a little later than usual.

Grasshoppers began hatching in late January, which is normal here.

Our HUGE june bug hatch was in April, probably around the 15-20th, and then the massive rainfall at the end of the month (11.87" in one day) seemed to wipe out a bunch of them.

Flea beetles were about 2 months late. For a long time, I thought we weren't going to have any at all, but then they arrived.

Colorado potato beetles were exceptionally late.

For once, cucumber beetles are late and so are squash bugs. (Maybe the rains drowned them!)

Butterflies and moths a little late but they are here.

Lightning bugs here since mid-May.

Toads and frogs galore.

The cicadas and other things that make a racket all night long started about 6 weeks early and I don't know what that is all about.

The bat population seems light so far this year.

The mosquito outbreak was insanely awful after 18 or 19" of rain fell in Love County in a 4 or 5 week period from the end of April through the end of May. Since the rains stopped and the July heat arrived in early June, the skeeters have virtually disappeared.

Dragon flies and damsel flies have begun to make a comeback after they virtually disappeared last year when all the ponds and creeks dried up here.

Snakes have been a mixed bag. I had a pretty early encounter with a rattlesnake/hawk war in the back yard when I returned from a fire one day. Then, no snakes for ages. Then, one in the henhouse (it died 'cause the eggs are not for the snakes). Then a couple in the pond and one in the garden and another in the yard this week. I am about sick of snakes.

Ooodles of turtles, including a big one living in and around the lily pond and one living under the chicken coop.

A few bobcats, foxes and coyotes. Tons of cottontail rabbits and deer. There's way too many raccoons and they are feasting on the corn.

Not very many ticks or fleas. Some chiggers.

Lots of flies, bees and other pollinators. Tons of wasps.

That's the "wild thing" report from southcentral Love County, very close to and surrounded by the Red River!

Dawn

Bruce,

I agree with you on the junebugs. numbers have been way down this year. last year I was getting really good whacking them out of the air into the yard with my broom. Kinda fun. Not so this year, but I like not having them around.

Dragon flies and damsel flies here for last week or so. Saw my first hummingbird a couple of days ago. Lightning bugs have been around since late may/early june. June bugs....are mysteriously almost non existent. Grasshoppers seem to be croping up everywhere. Haven't seen a snake at all. Baby frogs all over the place...we have one in the garden who's found his favorite spot up around my zuccini planter....the kids named him Huey and he's funny because he follows my hose when I water instead of running away from it....he will however, scurry away from me if I don't stand still. lol... that's the report from Claremore.

Mandy

Lightning bugs. very few.
Dragonfliews. none.
Bats. very few.
Toads & Frogs. ALL OVER THE PLACE.
June bugs. none.
Hummingbirds. lots.
Orioles. a few.
Grasshoppers. none.
Butterflies. very few.
Mosquitos. few.
Flies. TO MANY.
Wasps. a lot.
Wood bees. lots.

Most everything is fairly normal here, including tons of mosquitos. We have them 12 months of the year. I know because I am the family mosquito magnet.

I wish we had no squash bugs this year. They're here by the thousands as usual and most of my squash are already dying.

And the flies... Oh, the flies!! I haven't slept in weeks due to the flies.

Lightning bugs: There have never been very many here. I remember as a kid, you couldn't walk anywhere without getting a mouthful of them. There were billions of them within sight. These days? Yeah, there are some but they sure aren't very thick. Hubby says the same thing and we grew up in different states.

Diane

Dragonflies just became numerous in the past week.

Toads and frogs are plentiful.

Plenty more ticks than I want, but the place isn't crawling with them. No chiggers.

Squash bugs showed up two weeks ago. I have killed six and crushed probably around 100 eggs. No young ones yet, which means my egg-crushing has been thorough. No sight of SVB yet.

Lightning bugs - I've seen a few, but not many.

Bats - I can't tell them from swallows. There's something that swoops around acrobatically around dusk.

Mosquitos haven't been bad.

Those of you with few mosquitos......I know where yours are. Send me your address and I'll ship them back. Please!

Everything else seems about normal to me except that I haven't seen a lot of toads. I moved some rocks today and uncovered one, so he will be looking for a new home tonight.

I have seen a few bees and one bit me on the foot the other evening. I was walking through my neighbors clover with sandals on and I think he got trapped between the bottom of my blue jeans and the top of my shoe. I had a couple of small bumps, but they don't bother me to much. We have a lot of wasps.

I have had a lot of squash blooms that made inch and a half squash that then dried up and fell off so I assume they are not getting polinated. I had that same problem last year. The big squash plant seems to be doing OK but those blooms are as big as your hand so surely they will be polinated. I saw one squash bug and it fell off as I tried to kill it. Two days later, I found it in exactly the same place and probably removed around 60 eggs within a foot of her location. It got away from me the first time because I was trying to get a better view. It was more elongated that I thought it should be, but there was no doubt about the eggs.

I have never seen a bat at my house, but we have a bank in town that has bat boxes all around it. I have had a bat box (still in it's original box) for several years but can never decide where to put it. I have so many large trees that I probably wouldn't notice bats IF they were here.

When we lived in the Ardmore area, we could sit near that old dairy building across from the Sheriff's office and see thousands in the early evening. It looked like they were just flowing out the top of that old building.

I would imagine that the balance of bugs is changed here by all of the people that spray their yards for ticks in the spring. Ticks seem to be a problem every year.

There are lots of nice things about living on the lake, but the bugs seem to like it here too.

I'm smack dab in the middle of OKC and my bats are back this year. However, they have yet to inhabit the bat house I put up for them last year... ungrateful little creatures :)