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I did this last year and saw twice as many fireflies.
Which means I saw six total all summer.
The suburbs suck.
Yeah this is drinking straws vs private jets.
Growing up in the suburbs we raked all the leaves and packed them in plastic bags which were then picked up as trash (no recycling back then). We had hundreds of fireflies everywhere.
Today I’m on 3.5 acres, half of which I don’t mow at all and the other half I don’t rake the leaves. But there are still fewer fireflies than 40 years ago.
There are fewer everything. I’ve commented on the ecosystem collapse many time, don’t have the energy any longer.
At least my yard is coming back. Our house is the reason the block has frogs, dragonflies, etc.
Same here. Used to get whole families of deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, squirrels etc eating our gardens goodies. Nowadays its lucky to catch a single magpie nibbling on an apple. Animals today are so damn picky. /s
The decline in insect populations is so bad even Jeremy Clarkson is trying to fight it.
That’s how you know it’s really bad.
Isn’t he a farmer now or something?
It’s all the pesticides we use in gardens and agriculture. It’s in our air water everywhere decimating all kinds of insects.
A doubling is still a big deal, though. You made a difference! Imagine if that were to keep up throughout the neighborhood.
It’s a far cry from when I lived in the woods and could walk around on a dark night just from the light of fireflies.
When I was a child in the 70s we’d visit my great-grandparents in Indianapolis and the lightning bugs were like that. Image, a heavily polluted, major metro area had more lightning bugs than anywhere I’ve seen since.
I’m living in the same place I grew up and when I was a kid we could catch a couple dozen a night, enough to fill a jar and read by.
I had a sergeant who sneaked up on some troopies based on the light from the unshielded radium pips on someone’s wristwatch.
(Why yes. He was 22me regiment; why do you ask?)
But, point is, you didn’t take a flashlight because the light was enough, and your eyes adjusted and made it enough, because it was enough.
Anyway, 10 years of doubling is 1000x. 6ooo fireflies would be cool.
If I’m still in the suburbs in a decade I’ll kill myself.
I’m fucking back off to the boonies at the first opportunity
That could very well just be early stages. Very few fireflies means not many to reproduce
conversely, I saw tons last year in the suburbs!
this year was wasps, though
Still cleanup sidewalks and walkways please, those leaves can be slippery little guys
I’ve got bad news. From my very limited knowledge of fire fires they don’t bread all that fast and colonies don’t travel very far.
So you might increase the fireflies you currently have you shouldn’t expect new fireflies.
they don’t bread all that fast
Well they’re toast, then.
Thanks for pointing out the one and only typo I made. Just the one typo. No need for anyone to re-read my comment. There was just that one typo and we all had a Good laugh about it.
It still helps. And they might not travel far but they do travel so it’s good to have a destination.
The best part is that even if it doesn’t work the entire point is that you aren’t doing extra work. Literally just do nothing and at worst nothing will happen but at best you’ll start seeing more and more improvement, if slowly at first.
Hmm “next summer” “spend two years on and underground” doesn’t quite fit together.
sure it does.
the fireflies that are already alive have a better chance to make it to next year if they have appropriate conditions to live in
The last time I saw them was around 30 years ago. What should I do then?
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But how will all the people making their rounds twice a day in parks with leafblowers at this time of year earn their living, then? Doing something meaningful? I don’t think so!
I don’t know about the insect population in my backyard but I do know that it is a safe haven for wall lizards, they don’t even hide anymore when I’m there.
I thought Joel already took care of those losers…
