Many of you know that I anxiously await the fireflies that come each year here in New England. The few weeks that they light up the Summer nights with their blinking are some of my favorite weeks of the years. My children have grown up being excited to look for their blinks all over the yard. Every year it’s something special that we celebrate.
It started that we only had them in a couple of places in our yard. They would come out of the tall grasses in a couple of areas in our yard and they also love the willow trees. Across the street from us is a field that just fills with them every year. You stand at the top of the hill and look down onto the field and it’s really surreal as thousands of blinking lights are flying around and blinking. In my opinion it’s one of the most magical things that you can see.
I was sad to read recently that fireflies have been declining. It makes sense as they need moist and humid areas that have a lot of long grass for them to next in. With the development of land because of our population increasing their natural habitats have been developed. There’s also been a large trend for a long time now to have these perfectly manicured short lawns. This is one of the worst things for the fireflies, bees and many other friends in nature like the bunnies.
Over the past several years we have been intentionally growing flower patches in the yard and leaving the lawn long along the borders and in some other chosen areas. It’s pretty really as it brings us all different types of wildflowers for the bees and it gives both the fireflies and the bunnies a place to nest. You should see all the baby bunnies that we have! It’s simple to do as we just mow around some patches in the yard. You can watch the wildflowers change as the season progresses.
We also don’t use pesticides. Pesticides do so much damage to so many like the fireflies, butterflies, lady bugs and so many more. I know it’s tempting when you are trying to attain that perfect lawn but it always comes at a price. For instance one of our neighbors treats his lawn all the time. I think they look pretty much the same honestly! However when you look at our yards at night there is a huge difference. My back yard is full of fireflies and on the other side of the fence in their back yard you will only find a handful.
One other simple thing that bothers them is light polution. It makes it hard for them to communicate with their flashing lights. It’s as simple as turning off as many lights as you can at night when they are here. We shut off all the lights in our house the other night and you should have seen them surround us! It was amazing! I didn’t realize just how much light a simple kitchen light was putting into our backyard.
Eliminating pesticides and leaving long grass areas and turning off lights where you can will go a long way to help their population. If you live in an area where you have them you no doubt will want to try to help their population so future generations can enjoy them as well. If you don’t have fireflies these methods will help the bees which is another important population we are trying to help.
I hope you have a magickal day!
Much Love and Many Blessings,
Jasmeine Moonsong
