by Phil Klingelhofer
Gardeners often don’t realize that gardens make for great firefly habitat, helping to replace their lost natural habitat. The common firefly—the Big Dipper Firefly (Photinus pyralis)—readily takes to an organic habitat. The trick is to make your garden as inviting as possible for fireflies to take up residence.
Gardens are meccas for food fireflies eat. If you have fought off snails, slugs, various insects, and worms, then fireflies can lend a hand by helping to control these pests.
Fireflies spend up to 95% of their lives in larval stages. They live in soil/mud/leaf litter and spend from one to two years growing until finally pupating to become adults. This entire time they eat anything they can find.
As adults, they only live two to four weeks. Females that have mated successfully need a place to lay eggs. They will lay eggs in many spots, but gardens offer an oasis with a source of soil moisture good for larval development.
Some inventive tips for attracting fireflies:
- Don’t rake leaves and put them on the curb. You are raking up firefly larvae and throwing them away.
- Collect paper bags of leaves to make “Bag Compost.” Collect 5-15 bags.
- Wet bags down in a shady lawn area. Keep moist/wet for 3-6 months or up to a year.
- Bags will attract snails/slugs. This is food for growing fireflies.
- In Spring, put bag compost in your garden. Put it in mounds and work it into your soil.
- Repeat each year. It might take as long as 5 years, or as quick as that same year, to get fireflies in your garden.
For more information, see: the Firefly.org website.
If you want a deep dive into the biology of fireflies, see: Virginia Master Naturalist webinar on fireflies.
So please don’t put all your fallen leaves out by the street for collection. Save them and grow your own fireflies!