Fireflies — whose shimmering, magical glows light up summer nights — are in trouble, threatened by habitat destruction, light pollution, and pesticide use.
Fireflies — whose shimmering, magical glows light up summer nights — are in trouble, threatened by habitat destruction, light pollution, and pesticide use. With 18 species now considered at risk of extinction in North America alone, recovery efforts are only just beginning.
For millions of people around the globe, fireflies have been a big part of the magic of spring and early summer nights. They certainly were in our family. When my children were young, our field in central Massachusetts blazed with fireflies.
Before our firefly expeditions in the 1980s I’d recite “All About Fireflies All About,” in which David McCord celebrates “little lanterns sailing by, like stars across a mimic sky.” We would catch fireflies in butterfly nets, and Scott and Beth would keep them in glass jars by or in their beds. The following morning I made sure they released them where we caught them. In 2023 I saw three fireflies in our field.
Children should pursue fireflies early and often. Never will they forget coursing through high grass, sweeping little lanterns from that mimic sky.
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Photo Credit: monicore via Pixabay
