Camden Lifestyle Magazine Issue 02 "The Outdoors"

CREATURES OF THE LIGHT
Blinking fireflies, or as we know them in low country, “lightning bugs”, are icons of Georgia summer nights.
C
collecting fireflies is a childhood memory that
many of us share here in the South. Their glowing
lights begin to appear in the twilight around the
time school ends each year, signaling the start
of summer vacation. But is the fire going out?
Researchers and advocates say the insect is on the decline as
more of its habitats are consumed by development, leaving fewer
marshes and meadows to illuminate. Its struggle is further
compounded by light pollution, pesticides, and weed killers.
“If fireflies are disappearing that means we’re losing a lot more
than fireflies. They can be an indicator of the quality of the wetlands.
As the wetlands go, so go the fireflies” said Nancy Hinkle,
an entomologist at UGA. The empirical proof is beginning
to mount, though, biologists are hunting down rare fireflies
and in 2018 even discovered new species, but there is a handful
of fireflies described by early 20th-century entomologists that
can no longer be found. Habitat loss due to development and
pesticide misuse probably are some reasons. Also, since fireflies
use light to communicate, too many bright lights at night street
lights, outdoor signs, porch lights may confuse the insects and
make it harder for them to find a mate.
What lights up this precious Georgia bug? Producing organs at
the rear of their abdomens contain two chemicals luciferin and
luciferase that are combined to generate light in a process that’s
nearly 100-percent energy-efficient, so no heat is generated.
The light may be greenish, orange or yellow. To many of us,
fireflies or lightning bugs are icons of a Georgia summer night.
Without flashing fireflies, summer evenings are not the same.
Georgia has more firefly species than any other state, 56 species,
each having its own distinct flash. Males flash while flying;
wingless females sit on vegetation and emit their own light signals,
which the males cue on. The other night, I sat on my back
porch to see if any fireflies were blinking in the yard. I detected
only five or six, but I was glad even for that small number. For
several summers now, once-abundant fireflies have been scarce
or absent altogether in many South Georgia counties. Fireflies
are picky about where they live and many are not able to recover
when their habitats are destroyed or rearranged.
So what can you do to help fireflies make a comeback?
• Install water features in your garden.
• Allow logs to rot. 95% of their lives are in larval stages and
they live in rotting logs, soil/mud/leaf litter.
• Refrain from using lawn chemicals.
• Plant a garden and trees.
• Don’t over-mow your lawn, and don’t rake leaves! You are
raking up firefly larvae and discarding them.