J.R. Johnson

Yesterday I took a brief break to check on my butterfly weed (blooming happily!) and noticed an interesting beetle by the door.

“Ooh,” I asked myself, “could that be a firefly?”

It could. It was.

Last night, between brightly-colored expressions of Canadian joy (aka celebratory fireworks), we spotted brightly-colored expressions of firefly joy above the cedar hedge. The lone Lampyridae had a hard time competing, but he gave it his best shot.

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I have great memories of family nights outside in the garden when I was a kid, watching hundreds of fireflies looking for love. It was magic.

We don’t have hundreds now, but I’m working to make our yard as firefly-friendly as I can, particularly around mating season (aka now). Here’s how:

Save The Fireflies

Some of the things you can do:

• turn off outdoor lights (who can get any action when that giant porch light is acting like the worst wingman ever?)
• leave logs and leaves on the ground (I’ve totally got this covered)
• add water (we have birdbaths, so check)
• say no thanks to pesticides (no problemo, that stuff’s nasty)
• let your lawn grow (skip mowing this weekend? yes please!)
• add trees (I’ll see what I can do to keep the ones we have happy)

Time to recapture a bit of that summer magic.

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