But have you considered that instead of fireflies, we have HOAs that will fine you if you don't fact a perfect lawn?

Source? :(

Please I need to know!

Fight this by not bagging your leaves. Leave some for our buddies! https://blog.nwf.org/2024/09/leave-the-leaves-to-save-fireflies/

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.

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.

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.

!nativeplantgardening@mander.xyz

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.

Wikipedia says the species near me (southern Ontario) are of Least Concern for extinction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photuris_lucicrescens

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.

This is a wild concept to me. I see hundreds if not thousands every night in the summer.

Stop raking your leaves

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!

Pasolini wrote a famous essay in 1975, "The Disappearance of the Fireflies," which, at that time, was already starting to become very noticeable. Of course, the essay was really about capitalism.
Personally, outside my childhood in the countryside, I noticed fireflies in the outskirts of a largish city some 20 years ago, then nothing for a very long time, and then I saw a few when I lived for a brief period of time in a really remote place, like an hour from the nearest highway. No trains anywhere near, too.

Off-topic, but if you don't know Pasolini, I urge you to read his last interview which seems particularly gloomy as it appears to foreshadow his own death just a few hours after.
One memorable quote:

I listen to the politicians – all the politicians – with all their little presumptions and I turn into a mad man as they prove they do not know which country they are talking about, they are as far away as the moon. And together with them there are the men of letters, the sociologists and the experts in any kind of field.

Man I feel lucky, there are a ton of lightning bugs in my yard