That’s causing them to be more visible in Southwest Ohio. But the long-term situation for fireflies isn’t a good one, experts say.
Ben Pfeiffer, founder of Firefly Conservation and Research, said the next generation will still see fireflies, they’ will just be harder to find.
The main reason for the decline is habitat loss, according to Pfeiffer.
Riparian areas — narrow strips of vegetation along a waterway — make up less than 2% of all land types in the Southwestern United States. These areas support the highest density and abundance of plants and animals of any habitat type, according to the U.S. National Park Service.
“When those areas disappear or are replaced with turf grass or they’re mowed down, then it eliminates that habitat and fireflies disappear,” Pfeiffer said.
Light pollution, pesticide use, climate change and suburban developments are also contributing factors.
Artificial light disturbs mating processes because the beetles can’t see each other’s glow when their habitat is washed out with bright lights. They will either stop mating or won’t return to that area the following year.
“But the reality is that we have less fireflies because we want it that way,” Pfeiffer said.
Incentives to disrupt a particular wild area and turn it into land that’s either agricultural, suburban or commercial are too strong to counteract the forces of people fighting for conservation.
“When the incentives change to preserve land and to restore habitats, that’s when we can shift the tide toward (stemming) firefly decline, not increasing,” Pfeiffer said.
The issue goes beyond fireflies, though.
Climate warming could cause 15-37% of species to possibly face extinction by 2050, according to the World Animal Foundation, or WAF.
WAF also found that animals and plants are dying out 1,000 times faster because of environmental damage from human beings.
“If we just look at insects, we’re seeing a mass die off of our unique species,” Pfeiffer said. “And so fireflies are just one, (but) they’re the most visible poster child for (the) decline in insects.”
Thomas O. Crist, an ecology, invertebrate and biodiversity professor at Miami University, said the decrease in insects is somewhat controversial within the scientific community.
He said there is a lot of strong evidence for insect declines for well-studied groups like butterflies, but fireflies require knowledge of flash patterns to determine species, making it harder to track.
“It’s not a uniform decline across all species, all groups, but in general, most species are showing declines in abundance over time,” Crist said.
Socially, Pfeiffer said fireflies act as an accessible way for people to get excited about their natural environment.
Environmentally, they act as nature’s pest control and help with plant pollination while also being food for birds and other prey.
What can be done
Pfeiffer said the good news is fireflies are doing well in areas where they’re protected and the most common type, the common eastern firefly or big dipper, will be fine since it’s tolerant to different habitat types.
“One of the good ways to help (is to) get to know their local species of fireflies, because once they do, then they’ll know what to protect,” Pfeiffer said.
People can also turn off outside lights and contribute to organizations that protect land such as FCR’s firefly habitat certification program and Arc of Appalachia, which is a land trust that purchases land to protect it from development.
Contributing to Firefly Watch, which is citizen-based research spanning the past six years, can also help. In roughly 7,000 locations in the U.S., 16,500 submissions have tracked fireflies in fields, forests, lawns and wetlands.
“I think people are just really shocked when they learn that fireflies are disappearing across the United States and across the world as well,” Pfeiffer said. “And you know, just like in the same way that people enjoy butterflies and some other types of insects, fireflies are an iconic part of how we experience our outside world.”
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