The fireflies seem oblivious to us. Their lights are to call a mate to their side and to warn predators that they are not at all good to eat. The fact that we find them beautiful is sheer luck on our part. There are none that I know of here in California, they are native to areas east of The Rocky Mountains. But I remember them well from childhood meadows in Maryland and Virginia. And now, I hear, their lights are starting to fade. What a loss if for the next generation, lightning bugs are only a myth.

Their evolutionary mistake was to dwell in meadows. Right beside the ticks, mosquitos and chiggers. I remember that chasing fireflies was always followed by a thorough adult inspection for any surprise travelers that I had picked up from the grass. So when we spray the meadows for the pests, there go the fireflies. And while the pests come back, the fireflies are faltering.

I have little idea what to do about it, other than keep our yard a place where the wildlife that arrives there can live as it should. That won't do anything for the fireflies though, so for what it's worth I have started this page to put in a quiet plea for their continuance.

Fireflies were part of childhood.most everywhere we were stationed (except Germany) we had the little 'flying lanterns'. Here in TX though their size has amazed us. Even though it is mid October there are still some hearty fliers. A scotty we had a few years back would stay out to play with them until we took the flashlight out and played firefly with her. Such wonderful pictures..have to send you some one day..only the camera at our house is 'retarded'

I'm interested in butterfly gardening - in Northern California on the coast. There have not been as many butterflies as I think there should be. Perhaps it's a miracle that there are any at all.

I remember fireflies in Massachusetts in the late 40s but do not recall seeing any here during the last 30 years. I purchased a children's book (junior high level) in a thrift store which is very interesting: Fireflies in Nature and the Laboratory by Lynn & Gray Poole, 1965, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY. it contains information on collecting and selling fireflies to The Johns Hopkins University. Other companies that buy them are: Sigma Chemical Co., Worthington Biochemical Co and Schwartz Bio-Research Co. "Scientists need fireflies so they can learn what makes them light up. This will help explain how living things store and use energy. Also, the firefly's lighting system can be used by biochemists in many kinds of important research." ($$$$) Personally I think these scientists should learn to raise the insects they need for their "important research" themselves and not steal them from Mother Nature.

This book has chapters on other luminous creatures from around the world and illustrations like the one you have that you are trying to obtain permission to use.

I was born and raised in Orange County, CA. For the longest time my only impression of fireflies was from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.

From 1990 to 1993 I worked at Lost Valley Scout Reservation, a Boy Scout Camp near Warner Springs, CA. One particularly wet summer ('92 or '93) I found several glow worms around camp. They were tiny (0.5 cm), had pink squishy bodies with little green lights on their tails, and were very sedentary. I didn't see any adult fireflies, though.

I've since moved to West Lafayette, IN and see plenty of fireflies. This year they were around from mid-June through August. This last weekend I went to Shades State Park and saw lots of glow worms. These were different than the ones I'd seen in California: they were black and segmented and crawled around a lot.

P.S. I just moved here two years ago from Berkeley and I never knew there were EVER fireflies in California...

And you're quite right - they're native east of the Rockies. I remember them from the East Coast and was saddened to hear they were faltering. But lately, I've been hearing of many pockets here and there where they are going strong! CK

FROM MOM: There are an abundance of fireflies all up and down our street in the evenings. The boys are fascinated with them and wanted to know what, how, and when answers all at once. That is what prompted our search and contact with you. We are a homeschooling family and take any opportunity to learn something new. Thank you, I too remember the glow in the evening sky when I was little and the wonder and joy of it all.

Mikel and I went searching at our library and found a couple of books on fireflies. The first one is rather old (1956) but a wonderful book for young children. It goes through the entire life cycle of the firefly. FIREFLY by Paul McCutcheon Sears, Illustrated by Glen Rounds, Copyright 1956 by Holiday House.

The second one is FIREFLIES in Nature and the Laboratory by Lynn and Gray Poole, Illustrated by Christine Sapieha. When looking for info on habitats I came across this paragraph. "They (fireflies) grow and mature only in some states. Most fireflies are found east of the Mississippi River, a few are ever seen west of the Rocky Mountains. One rarely, if ever, finds a firefly in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, or in west Texas. The Climates of those regions of the US are not right for egg-laying and the other developmental stages leading to firefly maturity."

Maybe there is hope for us yet! Hope this helps a little.

Late one evening, I was pretty upset over some triviality and walked off alone onto the clifftop path. It was quite light as the moon was full, reflecting off a very calm sea. I walked quite a way along the path and my tensions eased. When alone I always talk to the scenery, the birds and the Angels. At the top of a rise in the path, I went to the cliff edge, lay down on the grass and enjoyed the scenery, the beauty, the quiet.

I had a sudden urge to say to myself, am I doing the right thing, am I on the right spiritual path? I would like to see an answer manifest. (Usually when I did this, I asked the stars, and invariably if the answer was okay to my heart, I would see a shooting star at that instant). Anyway, I asked the question, and, suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a very bright strong green light in the grass. I jumped up, ran across to this bright green light. Reached down and picked up a rather large glow worm. My heart, mind and soul rose to tremendous heights. Replacing the creature, I skipped and sang my way back to the campsite. I had never seen a glow worm before or since. No need.

I just left San Francisco Bay Area. I remember chasing the "lightening bugs" at my grandmother's as a child. My brothers put them in a jar and watched them glow on the table from their beds! I lived in Southern Ca and San Francisco Bay Area for 40 years and NEVER saw one once! Now that I'm back I'd love to do what I can to encourage their survival...flowers, shrubs to plant??? They are such a wonderful delight...make me smile. Thanks for the info and caring.

I'm here because I'm concerned about the loss of fireflies in our neighborhood. I grew up with such an abundance of them, but they have been gone for years now. Although there were an amazing few last year, just before the spraying of fruitflies began. After that we lost caterpillars, butterflies and birds were fewer. Once the spraying stopped those came back. Plenty of birds and bugs this year, not alot of butterflies yet, but abundance of caterpillars promises to put that right. But, what joy it would be to see the mysterious fireflies in abundance again. Will it ever be? I'd love to hear firefly reports.

I grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; that's right, the Manhattan Project. We used to spend many nights in the summer catching fireflies. This was serious business with big nets and strategies for sweeping a field, because the local laboratories would buy them by the pound. We caught them by the thousands, collected them into plastic containers and froze them. Five or six pounds at a time. This was a normal part of my childhood and it is only later, looking back as an adult, that it seems really strange. But then, I can remember sitting on top of the test dud of LittleBoy outside the Museum of Atomic Energy and riding it like that airman in Dr. Strangelove. Oak Ridge, the town built by the Men in Black.

It's all true, even playing on the test dud of the first atom bomb. This was all a long time ago when I was a wee tike. I lived next door to a Mr. Anderson who organized the kids in the neighborhood for this task, but it was a county-wide activity as the labs posted the request publicly.

There was much speculation as to why they wanted the fireflies, but the most common one was that they were figuring out the how and why of the light, possibly to create phosphorescent dyes and low voltage light sources. You must understand that Oak Ridge was from its inception a strange and high security minded town. There were always rumors about what was going on at the labs and a "you don't talk about it" mentality left over from the war. You lived in a sort of conspiracy laden look-over-your-shoulder environment and strange requests like collecting as many fireflies as possible were rather commonplace. Mr. Anderson always took the kids out for ice cream after a good night of bug catching which was fun.

Two memories I have: when you get that many fireflies in one place they have a very distinctive smell which I can still "feel" in the sense-of-smell part of my brain, and I got my first kiss during one of these bug safaris on a warm summer evening after Debbie and I had purposely-by-accident wandered away in search of more "starflies" as she and I called them.

John A.S. Skeel, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Life is one of the greatest powers that this planet will ever produce. When I was a child I saw fireflies as amazing bugs: glow and fly. A few years ago I saw intricate animals graced with flight and has harnessed a glowing brilliance they have made from millions of years of evolutional development. To me now fireflies are beautiful, they are inspiring, and they bring you to tears when they leave for the season. For them I have always save a place in my garden and always will.

It's upsetting to think that the fireflies have died out of California forever. I'm a firm believer that it's not true. There's a lot of evidence to back it up as well. Like most species of insects, fireflies are highly adaptive to the environment that they live in. There in California there are alot of chemicals expelled to protect crop yields. It's possible that the chemicals have activated a long dormant gene that tells them to adapt and survive by migrating to safer areas and then returning slowly so as to create a stronger, better adapted firefly.

The fire flies have migrated south to an unaltered area mostly in northern Mexico, they are now quit common where as years ago they were not. They are adapting to the new environment, slowly returning to the northern areas. Each new generations will get further north until they will achieve their maximum climatic latitude, stopping only because they cannot survive the longer winters.

The unfortunate side of this is, that it may take them from ten to ten thousand years to to achieve this. This behavioral anomaly is in every creature on the planet including the plants and trees. One of the ways to speed up their return is to have plants and micro environments that they can easily survive in.

• Check with your local state horticultural extension service for advice on the plants that they feed on the most.
• Second, never use if possible any chemical that has a mass damaging effect on the environment.
• Third, only use natural insect deterrents, plants that expel insects.

With their return as your goal and a little state help it will happen and they will be back.

Fireflies in Houston by Donald Burger

The Firefly Files.

Text and images Copyright 1998 Cyndi Kirkpatrick. All rights reserved