And how we need to protect them
It's World Firefly Day! So let's talk about what fireflies really need to thrive.
To truly protect fireflies, we have to think in seasons, not just summer nights. Everyone loves the glow. But fireflies spend most of their lives underground, hidden in the damp soil and leaf litter, glowing softly where almost no one sees.
The firefly life cycle has four distinct stages—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—and each one depends on a different part of the landscape.
🥚 Eggs and early larvae (late summer to fall): After mating, adult females lay eggs in moist soil or leaf litter. A few weeks later, tiny larvae hatch and begin their underground lives.
🐛 Larvae (fall into spring): This is the longest stage. Firefly larvae live in soil, leaf litter, and under logs for 1–2 years, hunting slugs, snails and worms under the cover of darkness. They overwinter in the ground.
🍤 Pupae (late spring to early summer): When conditions are right, larvae pupate, glowing faintly to ward off predators while undergoing their final transformation.
✨ Adult fireflies (early to mid-summer): This is the moment we wait for. Adult fireflies emerge, take flight, and use their light to find a mate (except diurnal species, which use pheromones). Most adults live just a few short weeks, but if conditions were right, they'll have mated and laid eggs.
So what do fireflies need from us?
🌙 Darkness
🌱 Undisturbed soils
🍂 Leaf litter and logs
🚫 No chemicals
🕰 Time
If we want to keep fireflies in our summer skies, we have to protect the quiet, hidden places that hold the rest of their story.
I designed this poster to illuminate the life cycle of fireflies and what they need to thrive!
"Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill."
Harper Lee,author To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee,author To Kill a Mockingbird