But have you considered that instead of fireflies, we have HOAs that will fine you if you don't fact a perfect lawn?
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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Source? :(
Please I need to know!
PS: Donate to them.
I’m so glad you posted this! As a current donor, I was about to do so myself.
Thank you for spreading awareness and helping keep our summers just a little more magical!
They were everywhere when I was a kid. I haven’t seen one in years.
They were so delightful, and I miss them.
YMMV but i still see lots right around dusk at the edges of wetland areas. Not denying they are threatened but there are still some places they are able to live and those places should be protected. Wetlands do a lot more for us ecologically and hydrologically speaking than just fireflies anyway and are one of the most important ecosystems to be protected.
We just moved to a house with over an acre and a creek that runs through the back yard and we have them all over the place right now.
My dog had never seen them before and i caught him this week trying to eat them. One would flash and he'd chomp towards it, then another would and he seemed confused on how it got over there so fast and hed chomp that direction. It was precious
I have cats just under a year old, this is their first summer with eyes open. We've had a few fireflies get into the house, and watching them go nuts once they notice this weird flashing bug has been the highlight of my night lately. All 5 of them running in a little pack, eyes wide. Every time they light up, all the cats stop and just stare. It blows their little minds, and I love it.
Sweet little murder beasts
Don’t rake your leaves
I stopped mowing super regularly and my yard is full of em
Let the weeds grow
Same
They’re back, and they’re happy with my mess of a lawn.
I don’t think my lawn will ever look like a golf course, there was an above ground pool at one point so one area is packed densely and full of gravel sized rocks.
We threw down some clover, there’s wild strawberry, one spot has mint (I’ve been told trying to remove it is a sisyphusian task). It’s cozy now, and I guess the fireflies like cozy, and I like watching them from my patio.
This is fantastic and good advice, but I also remember them in great numbers 20+ years ago, and people were mowing their lawns then, too.
Mowing isn’t the issue; Raking leaves is. Fireflies lay eggs in the fall, on dead leaves. Since suburban HOAs require leaves to be raked and trashed, it removes the fireflies’ breeding grounds. If you don’t like leaves on your lawn, just fucking mulch them with your lawn mower instead of raking them. A perfectly raked yard is an ecological wasteland.
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Yea, theres a big overgrown patch behind the house and we have them all over. It's nice to see. I like to sit out and watch them while the sun goes down. It's relaxing. Theres a bunch of other critters that come out around that time to so it's interesting. I watched a couple of raccoons take apart my neighbors bird feeder last night.
Another bug I haven't seen in forever is grasshoppers. I used to catch buckets of those things when I was a kid and I don't think I've seen more than a couple in years.
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While it's better than keeping a barren monoculture lawn, keep in mind that letting things grow with no intervention will get you a lot of invasive species. If you want healthier habitat for your critters try to keep an eye on what's growing and replace the bad stuff with native options.
I'm working on it :)
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Yeah, fireflies lay eggs on dead leaves. The ultra-clean suburban yards are killing firefly populations, because people keep raking up the fireflies breeding material and throwing it away in plastic trash bags. A perfectly kept lawn is an ecological wasteland, and suburban trends have expanded that wasteland for miles at a time. It’s no wonder fireflies have struggled to survive.
Want to see fireflies? Stop raking your lawn. If you don’t like the way the leaves look, mulch them with a lawn mower early in the season, so they can blend in with the grass. But don’t just fucking rake them up and throw them away.
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I've seen two this year.
I've seen More bald eagles land in the yard year than I have seen lightning bugs.
How often are you in a place and time and state of mind to stop and see the fireflies though? The problem is both ecological and cultural IMO.
I don’t think my state of mind has anything to do with whether or not I see fireflies, but the times and places I go haven’t really changed over the last 15 to 20 years. The number of fireflies I see at those times and in those places, on the other hand, has dramatically changed.
I don't think I've ever seen one. I now feel sad that I may never.
I don't think I've ever seen fireflies, probably because of the Latitude I live at.
2009 radio compensated for it heavily, though.
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They were everywhere in the mid-Atlantic 20 years ago.
I saw one little blinky buddy on my back door last night. I looked out, he was the only one. I shut my porch light off in hopes that he would wonder off and find some friends.
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Fight this by not bagging your leaves. Leave some for our buddies! https://blog.nwf.org/2024/09/leave-the-leaves-to-save-fireflies/
Leaf* some
The dad then joins his son laying on the floor and crying
I miss seeing these everywhere in the summer as a kid. Guess I just aged myself lol, but I did see some in the park last night. Nowhere near as many as years ago though.
I've seen them once in my life, in Smoky Mountains, about 10 years ago. It was pretty much spiritual experience. The darkness came alive. I cried when I saw their luciferase smeared over windshield and glowing long after the creature was dead. I knew lots of lore about them, saw them in mass culture - never realizing I never saw one myself, even though I take care to notice all living things around, from bacteria and yeast to mycchorizal networks.
I live in Europe.
Aww bless. That's where I live. My yard is still full of em at night, I've made sure of it.
Fireflies are fascinating and beautiful creatures. Another user mentioned donating to xerces society which is a great idea. Another thing that you can do if you are fortunate enough to own land is to replace your lawn (non-native, mowed grass) with native plants and leave the fallen leaves undisturbed.
I replaced my entire lawn with species native to my region and my entire yard is currently covered in multiple species of fireflies. It's so magical to see all the different colors and flashing patterns. Mind you, I live in the city so it's only my yard that is really providing for them. All my neighbors' yards have either no fireflies or a few.
You don't have to replace your entire lawn like I did. Just setting aside some space for our wildlife neighbors is better than nothing. Remember plants are the foundation of almost every food web. For me, it's magical to go outside and see the new blooms and growth, look for new creatures that show up, and just walk the little paths in my small yard. In an age of ecologic collapse and climate change it gives me some sense that I can have a measurable, positive impact and that really helps me mentally.
I do not have a lawn, I have several ha of forest and grassland. I have about 25 nest boxes for wild birds, occupied 2/3 (last year I had a huge owl living in one!) and countless other nests, several snakes, snails and frogs, lynx and I see bear tracks and scats now and then. I keep bees and allow wasps to build wherever they like, there are lots of bumblebees everywhere and birds sure have something to eat. I mulch a lot and keep loads of rotting leaves. I mow with scythe when I absolutely have to clear small area. I know there are fireflies in Finland.
Never saw a single blink.
I don't know European firefly species ranges. I'm fortunate enough to live in a region with multiple species ranges overlap. What species are in your region and what are their ranges?
Regardless, your land sounds beautiful. Thanks for being a good neighbor to the wildlife!
What a beautiful paragraph to read. Thank you for sharing
That's really nice of you to say. Thank you for your kindness!
Alexa, play Owl City - Fireflies
More seriously, I'm pleased to see I'm not the only person who views this as a terrible loss.
I convinced my inlaws to stop bagging or raking their leaves a few years ago, and they're everywhere now. Not as many as if the whole neighborhood has done it, but more than when I met them.
Upon further investigation, it appears that only SOME species of fireflies are at risk of extinction. Others are so common they are of "least concern".
If foreign propaganda bots are bombarding us with doomer memes to instill apathy and depression in the younger generation, this fits.
Maybe, but I haven't seen one in decades in our area. Used to see them every summer. I've thought about that for a while, even before this.
Same here, but if I drive a few miles out of the city, they're out and about.
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Wikipedia says the species near me (southern Ontario) are of Least Concern for extinction:
Used to catch them growing up. There would be thousands of them periodically blinking in the yard and across the field every night. I was pretty and serene.
I saw one just the other night when I let my dogs out before going to bed. It was so surprising that I had to wait a minute and verify I wasn't just seeing things. It was a real life lightning bug. It was a happy sad moment.
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This is a wild concept to me. I see hundreds if not thousands every night in the summer.
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I had wondered why we always seemed to have some fireflies here and it turned out my hatred of raking and leaving the leaves under the bushes helped a lot!
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