Tag Archives: light pollution

Help Us Keep the Firefly Magic Alive!

Meet Yogi Firefly by SketchesInStillness

“The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you”

L.R. Knost

In 2020 the global pandemic of COVID-19 truly broke apart our world. This summer, when our days are filled with anxiety and despair, how can we find the courage to continue doing the work needed to repair the world?

Some people think fireflies are just tiny insects, but for me they’re so much more! They are luminous beings whose natural magic inspires optimism and hope even during the darkest times. That’s why we’ve chosen Hope Rising as the theme for World Firefly Day 2020.

While we celebrate on July 4-5 (also Independence Day in the U.S.), scientists around the world are working hard to develop a vaccine that will protect humanity from this deadly disease. At the same time, we’re working hard to preserve these hope-filled sparks for future generations to enjoy. Even though fireflies have simple needs – water, food, and shelter – they face major threats from loss of suitable habitat, light pollution, and widespread pesticide use.

Here are some simple things we all can do to help fireflies survive:

  • Protect their homes: help preserve the places where fireflies thrive.
  • Turn off the lights: too much light at night disrupts firefly courtship.
  • Don’t use pesticides in your lawn or garden: neonics and other insecticides harm juvenile fireflies.

And please help us spread the word by sharing more tips for creating more firefly-friendly places with others in your Home Owner’s Association, garden club, neighborhood, or town.

Because who’d want to live in a world without fireflies?

Learn more about how you can protect fireflies in Silent Sparks (Chapter 8 : Lights Out for Fireflies?)

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Firefly Magic in SE Asia # 1 – Thailand

While visiting Thailand and peninsular Malaysia this month, I got to see many exciting firefly education and conservation initiatives. Here’s a glimpse of some conservation action happening right now in Thailand:

  • Winding down to the sea, the Chao Phraya River curls around the unspoiled island of Bang Kachao, an area known as the green lung of Bangkok. Although mere minutes from downtown, Bang Kachao is home to a surprisingly robust population of the synchronous firefly Pteroptyx malaccae, whose males take up perches in particular display trees and all flash together in unison to attract females. My colleague Dr. Anchana Thancharoen has established a firefly education center that trains local volunteers to survey firefly populations along a raised bike path through the mangrove forest. Unlike in many other places, these particular fireflies seem unperturbed by the bright lights that illuminate the path – even some trees completely bathed in artificial light have fireflies. Perhaps this population has somehow managed to adapt to such high ambient light. Yet I wonder – without real darkness giving visual contrast to their flashes, can these males still manage to attract females?

  • Situated within the Phrom Yothi Military Camp in Thailand’s Prachinburi Province, Firefly Land hosts the terrestrial firefly Asymmetricata circumdata. Many tourists come to see their impressive mating displays on weekends. The government is working to protect the fireflies while still allowing people to enjoy the show. They recently installed a fence that prevents visitors from tromping through the fireflies’ habitat, and constructed a raised walkway leading to a covered viewing platform. They even turn off the street lights during the nightly courtship period!
Firefly art by Dr. Anchana Thancharoen

They Be Drowning in Light

Bright nights are making it hard for glow-worms to find a mate (female Lampyris noctiluca; photo by John Tyler)

Glow-worms & fireflies are uniquely susceptible to light pollution because our bright nights interfere with their ability to find mates. Fiona Benson’s poem beautifully captures the urgency of female glow-worm – “come find me – it is time – and almost dawn’ – and the male’s dilemma:

“all night he looks for her in petrol stations
villages and homesteads, the city’s neon signs:
where are you – it is time – and almost dawn.”

Love Poem, Lampyridae (Glowworms) by Fiona Benson

The female born again with little changed
except she has no mouth and may not eat,
except she has this urge to climb, and a light
she must raise and twist; the male born again
with little changed except he has no mouth,
except he has this urge to search, and wings –
oh she must twist and turn her tail’s green fire
like bait, its little stab of brightness in the night,
and he must search with wings through
    troubled air
to find her pinhole lure, its single, green,
seducing star …. All night she signals him in:
come find me – it is time – and almost dawn;
all night he looks for her in petrol stations
villages and homesteads, the city’s neon signs:
where are you – it is time – and almost dawn….

Once were humans wandered in the lanes,
led astray by fairies, foxfire, who found
their stranger selves and brought them home

Now the dark is drowned, but some things
you can only find beyond the light,
and it is time and almost dawn and love,
my love, there is no finding then.

Published in The Guardian, part of Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry collection celebrating the beauty of a vanishing insect world.


What’s good firefly habitat?

People often ask me this excellent question. Yet it doesn’t have a quick or easy answer. One reason is that different species live in different habitats. For instance, the salt marsh firefly Micronaspis floridana is restricted to intertidal regions along the Florida coast.  Another reason is that certain things matter to adult fireflies, whereas different things matter to the juveniles.

Micronaspis floridana

Some species have specialized habitat requirements (photo by Drew Fulton)

For adult fireflies, what’s most important is finding a dark place for their courtship displays. Artificial lights – streetlamps, outdoor security lights, even car headlights – can disrupt firefly courtship conversations.  Such bright backgrounds make it difficult for fireflies to see each other’s courtship signals. Another desirable habitat feature for adult females is easy access to suitable egg-laying sites, like moss, moist soil, or decaying wood.

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Remembering My Grandmother, with Fireflies

From Kumiko Kishimoto, in Okinawa –

When I was growing up in the 1950s, we lived at the west end of a village called Yabu-son, outside Nago. We kept our house wide open, even at night, especially during the hot summer. In the evenings after supper, my grandmother would sit with me and my siblings at the edge of wooden hallway, which ran alongside the south-east side of our house. As we sat enjoying cool breeze, we sang songs, talked about little things happened during the day, and memorized the multiplication table with Grandmother.

This northern part of Okinawa had no electricity until the mid-1950s,  so it really became pitch dark after sunset. In those days, my grandmother’s house was lit only by a single kerosene lamp which Mom used in the kitchen as she cleaned up after supper.

Kumiko's grandparents
Baby Kumiko (left), sits on her grandfather Morigen Kishimoto’s lap. Ushi, her grandmother, holds her brother Moriyuki (Okinawa, early 1950s)

As we sat with Grandmother, suddenly we’d spot the first firefly. They seemed to magically appear and light up the darkness around the house.  We’d catch as many as we could, and put them into Mason jars left over from the American soldiers. We were mesmerized by the glowing lights – they seemed like a symphony! Though it’s hard to explain, even now I remember how magical those lights were.

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How Can I Make My Yard More Firefly-Friendly?

Here are a few simple ways to attract your local fireflies (from Silent Sparks Chapter 8):

Create an inviting habitat

  • Let the grass in part of your lawn grow longer by mowing it less frequently. This will help the soil hold more moisture.
  • Leave some leaf litter and woody debris in parts of your yard – this makes good habitat for larval fireflies.
  • Fireflies need moist places to lay their eggs, so preserve any wetlands, streams, or ponds in your neighborhood.

Bring back the night

  • When installing or re-thinking your outdoor lighting, use only what you need to get the job done.
  • Use Dark-Sky compliant, shielded lighting fixtures; these direct light downward, where it’s most useful for safety and security. Use bulbs as low-wattage as possible to provide just the light you need.
  • Turn off outdoor lights when they’re not needed, or put them on timers or motion sensors.

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