Say goodbye to one of the dreamiest things about childhood. In the Midwest, fireflies are dying off.For many Americans, it's hard to imagine summer nights without the magical glow of dozens of bioluminescent bodies fluttering above the grasses and fields, and lighting up the dark skies above.
Every child who has grown up in rural America has seen the magic of fireflies in the night sky, but future generations of children may not get to experience this for themselves because the enjoyable insects are in decline across the country.
Earlier this year, the United Nations released an alarming report warning that one million species are at risk of extinction because of humans.
And insect species are definitely on the list. Not just fireflies, but many insects, putting the entire food chain at risk of collapse.
Unfortunately, humans are the reason why insects, including fireflies, are on the decline.
EcoWatch reports:
By spraying toxic pesticides, polluting our air and water, degrading the landscape, and emitting ever more carbon, we’ve essentially captured nature in a big glass Mason jar, screwed the lid tight, and neglected to punch holes in the top.
In fact, the loss of fireflies would also impact the medical community and many of the patients it treats every day.
Scientists say that the estimated 2,000 species of fireflies have been declining for years. Losing these glowing creatures, also known as “lightning bugs” in some parts of the U.S., robs future generations of one of the simplest and most pleasurable joys of childhood. It also robs doctors and researchers of a valuable diagnostic tool. By injecting chemicals found in a firefly’s tail into human cells, researchers can detect diseases like cancer and muscular dystrophy.
Fireflies are so important that the Selangor Declaration of 2010 warned that their loss would be a clear sign that the environment is unhealthy.
On a broader scale, losing plant and animal species at an accelerated rate threatens "the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide," warn the UN researchers. Up to $577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss alone.
“Fireflies are indicators of the health of the environment and are declining across the world as a result of degradation and loss of suitable habitat, pollution of river systems, increased use of pesticides in agro-ecosystems and increased light pollution in areas of human habitation,” the declaration said. “The decline of fireflies is a cause for concern and reflects the global trend of increasing biodiversity loss.”
These friendly insects are beneficial to humans and are a joy to observe. They mean us absolutely no harm, yet we are killing them.
Of course, we know it's not enough to address the extinction crisis bird by bird. The UN report recommends a transformative societal shift toward an economic model where we value nature by restoring, conserving, and using it sustainably. That's why Earthjustice is also tackling the extinction crisis at a broader level.
In the courts, we're defending core conservation laws like the Endangered Species Act, which has a 99 percent success rate in stopping species' extinction. On the Hill, we're supporting bold ideas like the Green New Deal, which lays out a vision for systemic change that matches the scale of the environmental crisis.
The places where fireflies "thrive"—fields, forests, marshes, and mangroves—are being systematically destroyed as "waves of development replace them with shopping malls and shrimp farms, parking lots and palm oil plantations," writes Lewis. Manmade light pollution interferes with firefly reproduction: their courtship rituals are based on being able to detect "luminous signals"—something that's apparently difficult to do when conflicting "background illumination" from street lamps is present.
High levels of commercial pesticides, meant to kill harmful insects, inevitably kills beneficial insects like fireflies, too, writes Lewis. Even mild insecticides used on residential lawns and gardens have a detrimental effect, cutting off the food supply (that would be earthworms!) of baby fireflies.
Even more shocking is the fact that there's a commercial market for "wild caught" fireflies overseas. In China, theme parks have been catching and releasing the sparkly insects as an attraction, but those populations don't live long. Online sales of "harvested" fireflies are also on the rise in China. In the U.S. fireflies are harvested en masse to extract their light-producing chemicals, and that this practice is still going on.
Wondering what you can do to help? While it's highly unlikely you'll be able to raise and repopulate a species in your backyard, as this man did with California pipevine swallowtail butterflies, there are conservation efforts to be made on an individual level.
For making one's yard more firefly friendly, including:
Use outdoor lighting only where necessary, to minimize light pollution.
Install only lights that comply with International Dark Sky Associationstandards.
Keep small piles of branches and leaves (a "good environment" for larval fireflies).
Let the grass in one section of your yard grow a bit taller, allowing the soil to maintain moisture; fireflies lay eggs in moist places.
That being said, if we want our children and grandchildren to be able to see the glow of hundreds of fireflies on a cool summer night, we are going to have to take immediate action to make the environment suitable for their survival and take the necessary steps to fight climate change.
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