Save the Lightning Bugs

I live in the boonies where there are lots of woods and pastures, but I grew up in a woodsy subdivision in a suburban area. As a kid, I caught lightning bugs and put them in a pickle or mayonnaise jar. (Remember that smell of lightning bugs in a pickle jar??) It never took but a few minutes to catch enough to fill a jar. Now, even though lightning bugs, AKA fireflies, exist here in large populations, I don't think I have more here than I did 75 miles south of here as a kid, and I think, due to all the grassy pastures in this area, I should have more. I've read a few articles on the subject of fireflies and I'm not alone in thinking that there are fewer lightning bugs now than there were 40 years ago.

Old timers and youngsters alike enjoy being outside and watching or catching lightning bugs in the summer. It is almost a ritual among kids, and a sign that the day is drawing to a close. If we were playing outside, we knew, without a watch or cellphone, that it was time to go home when we saw the first lightning bug flash. These little buggers seem to transport us back in time into a majestic world-a world without troubles or worry. It doesn't matter how old you are, if you catch a few lightning bugs, you feel like a kid again. Watching a jar light up a dark room is as memorizing as a watching a bonfire or watching aquarium fish. It is magical, and I would bet that doing this on a regular basis, like petting your dog, would lower blood pressure.

We moved here in October and that first summer was one that I will never forget. We had not bushhogged the pasture yet, and since the property had been rented before we moved in, I can say that it had probably been more than a year, perhaps as many as four years, since the pasture had been cut at all. Obviously, during that time, fireflies reproduced and their populations exploded. One night, after a summer rain at dusk, we went out to inspect the electric fence for shorts. Out in the pasture, just above the waist high grass, were millions of lightning bugs, and to my amazement, they blinked in unison. It was an unforgettable sight, one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

That experience made me do a bit of research on the insect that I thought I knew so well. During the daytime, fireflies, their larvae and nymphs live in the grass or soil (for larvae) where they can extract the moisture they need to survive. Drought conditions can really affect firefly populations. Until I moved to this rural location, I had never seen the larval stage of the firefly beetle. They are commonly known as "glowworms" and you can see them in the grass near dusk. Their bioluminescence lingers a bit, giving them the 'glowing' appearance. Because these beetles and their offspring spend the daylight hours on the ground, they become victims of lawnmowing and lawn chemicals, pesticides and herbicides. In neighborhoods where the lawns are kept short and green, you may not see lightning bugs at all. These little guys find their mates by flashing. The males fly around and flash and the females flash back from a branch or tall grass perch. If you caught only the flying lightning bugs, chances are you caught predominantly males. The behavior of flashing in unison is apparently part of that mating behavior as it has been observed in Smoky Mountain National Park in the month of June. Some scientists believe that light pollution from patios and street light hampers mating due to light overload, leading to confusion in locating the opposite sex.

If you want to learn more about lightning bugs, try this link:

https://www.mos.org/fireflywatch/about_firefly_watch

If you homeschool, there is also a great science project for the kids.