Seeing Fewer Fireflies in Your Maine Yard? Here’s Why That Trend is Likely to Continue

It was one of our most favorite pastimes when we were kids, wasn't it? Going out just after dusk on those warm Maine evenings and waiting for a seemingly massive sea of fireflies to emerge into the night sky.

I remember vividly going outside with my younger sister with our Mason jars to see how many fireflies we could collect.

And now, sadly, it seems there has been a sharp decrease in the population of fireflies, not just in Maine, but almost everywhere.

Fortunately for my conscience, it doesn't appear that it's my fault for catching too many of them when I was a kid. I'm kind of glad that a sharp drop in numbers for a particular species isn't directly my fault, because usually things are, indeed, my fault.

According to an article published by the Kennebec Journal, some scientists and bug lovers alike are growing more concerned over the seemingly depleting numbers of this beloved insect.

Don Salvatore, the retired co-founder of Firefly Watch, told the Kennebec Journal in part, “People know three things about fireflies. They come out at night, they flash, and people love them. And only one of those is exclusively true. The public doesn’t realize some come out during the day and not all of them flash.”

So where exactly are they all going?

Well, because there has never been a large-scale and accurate study done on these particular bugs, primarily because they're not pollinators, no one is 100% certain.

However, in the KJ's reporting, it seems that there is a mass consensus among "people in the know" that influences of pesticide use, climate change and habitat loss are likely the largest factors.

Candace Fallon, a senior conservation biologist with Xerces Society, said in the article that there is a struggle to accurately track the numbers,

“We have almost no numbers, which is really frustrating and really dangerous for fireflies," Fallon said in the KJ. "Without historical reference points, we can’t say how they’re doing now, even if we had the grant money to buy the cameras and equipment needed for accurate counts. But that’s the story of insects, generally.”

Though there are more than 2,000 species of fireflies worldwide, it is speculated that Maine is home to 15 of them, 11 of which produce the classic "flashing light," according to the KJ. However, not enough is known about them all, and they haven't been well-tracked enough, to know how significant the population decrease has been in recent years.

Some folks in the comment section of the KJ article voiced their concerns and what they have been doing to try and help preserve and bolster the firefly population.

Mdenis46 wrote,

"Last fall, we left the gardens alone, instead of tilling them, hoping to attract more butterflies. That worked fine except for monarchs, but the number of fireflies is significantly down from what it was."

Fabricator2 said,

"Over the past 4 years we've let many parts of our yard grow tall and we've made a leaf litter pile. We've seen more fireflies. It seems that we can't keep mowing down their homes and expect them to stick around. They are a lovely sight."

ArcherBunker took a different approach, saying in part,

"They don't know very much about them so let's just blame the so-called "Climate Changer" They think they know everything about that."