Wet weather with rain along the eastern US summer 2025 has one advantage. Fireflies love it.
“The fireflies and their prey (snails, slugs and worms) require water, so we can increase fireflies populations in the summer, especially in years when rainfall is high in spring,” said Candice Fallon, a conservation biologist with the Society for Conserving Invertebrates.
And a warm, humid night, 70 degrees or warm, is ideal for seeing the flashing light that evokes nostalgia for many Americans, Virginia Tech Entomologist Eric Day told USA Today.
It’s certainly hard to know, but it seems that whimsical bugs are actually thriving in some areas.
What is known: The horror of the impending end of the fireflies is misguided, Day said.
“I think fireflies are threatened due to habitat loss, but some areas are adapted in different regions and are not extinct,” Day said.
In fact, of the 175 species of fireflies in the United States, only 18 of them have been extinct and “blackmailed” Fallon said. So, while it’s not good news for those few species, “I don’t think we’re going to lose fireflies in our lives,” she told USA Today.
Will there be a population of fireflies in the summer of 2025?
“From anecdotal reports, it appears that at least the Midwest and Northeast are seeing a record number of fireflies,” Fallon said in an email to USA Today.
She added, “We’ve heard from some parts of the country that we’re seeing an increase in fireflies this year, but in other parts of the country we’ve heard the opposite.”
Day agreed, noting that it was all location-dependent and that rural areas usually have fewer urban and suburban areas while they saw more fireflies.
Why do people care about fireflies?
Whether you call them fireflies or lightning, these illuminated insects are a sure sign of a lazy hot summer evening. Many remember the thrill of chasing them as children and trying to catch them in glass jars.
“Fireflies evoke memories for people,” Day told USA Today. “They were back to our childhood and reminded us of other times.”
“They are one of the most pleasant insects to meet… It’s good to see fireflies,” he added.
Are fireflies blackmailed or endangered species?
Day said that in general, the answer to that is yes in urban areas, but not so much in rural areas.
Fallon explained further. “There are currently no firefly species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Species Act, but one species (Bethany Beach Fireflies) is listed as an endangered species, and two other (InterFlorida Fireflies and Southwest Spring Fireflies) have been reviewed for the listing.”
Overall, the threatened fireflies are found in 16 states, all the way from Arizona to New York (see map below).
Similarly, Fallon said two additional species have been petitioned (mysterious lantern fireflies and loop 5 fireflies), but the US Fish and Wildlife Service has yet to release its 90-day survey results on those species (determine if a full listing is guaranteed), Fallon explained.
What are the main threats to fireflies?
According to Fallon, “Fireflies populations are threatened by habitat loss and degradation, mild pollution (which makes it difficult for fireflies to communicate with each other), pesticide use (which can kill them) (which can kill prey), and climate change (including drought, sea level rise, and storms).”
How does climate change affect fireflies?
“Droughts related to climate change are a major threat to fireflies, especially in the arid west, as fireflies require water,” Fallon told USA Today. “In one place, once perennial streams have been depleted, while in other areas wetlands and other wetlands have also disappeared. These former one perenir water sources are extremely important to fireflies, and their losses can lead to losses to the local population.”
Fallon added that rising sea levels and increasing storm surges have had a negative impact on fireflies on the East Coast. In many coastal regions, fireflies habitat is already hemmed by human development on one side, and the other sea is hemmed. When sea levels rise, patches in these habitats disappear.
“In the case of increased stormwater severity and frequency, flooding of firefly habitats with salt water can increase the salinity of the site, alter the structure of nutrients, and prevent firefighting from inhabiting it,” Fallon said.
