Summer is here. Where are the fireflies?
Turning off the lights is one of the single greatest things you can do for your local ecosystem, bar none. Speaking specifically to fireflies, they like to lay eggs in thick grass and leaf litter as well - keeping leaf mould piles, leaving areas of grass unmowed, and using mowed grass as mulch can help to provide these amazing creatures with additional opportunities for survival in your area.
This makes me want to get a slingshot. There’s a street light right outside my bedroom window. Its so bright it feels like daylight. I hate it so much but it never occurred to me that its also harming the local ecosystem.
Consider checking out the resources at darksky.org to see some of the ways other municipalities have been convinced to do better on this front. Timers, bulb changes, and bulb housing can all bring huge improvements to how the lighting impacts the local wildlife.
I’m definitely doing my part there with my lawn. Sadly, I’m not in a zone where fireflies live, but hopefully my efforts at rejecting lawnoculture are helping other local insect populations.
They surely are! There are many, many species of “beneficial” insect that need that kind of safe harborage. If you haven’t yet, have a look at your regional NRCS office (US based Natural Resource Conservation Service) or similar governmental agency if you’re based elsewhere. They’re likely to have research data on species of concern, those at-risk, or other threatened status as well as ways to make spaces hospitable to them - all specific to your area.
I haven’t seen one in years, and I miss them so much.
I’m noticing them more at my house in a small city this Summer more than I have previously. We went camping in the woods over the weekend and I saw a ton of them out there. I was on shrooms but my friends that weren’t confirmed they were flashing like crazy.
I saw the first one of the summer for me and got excited, but it ended up being the only one I saw that night. Good to know we can help just by turning off outdoor lights.
Having moved from Delaware, where lightning bugs were plentiful in July, to Minnesota, where they’re rare (the dominant species here doesn’t actually light up), I didn’t realize they were at such risk.
Good article to raise awareness. Shout out for the presentation/design, too.
We have them in our yard, bur far fewer than I used to see.