It's Lightning Bug Season
Rebecca McMackin, director of horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park and Pawel Pieluszynski, Brooklyn Bridge Park’s wetland gardener, share how they make Brooklyn Bridge Park attractive to wildlife, like the fireflies now appearing at dusk on the Bridgeview Lawn.
Â
You could call a group of fireflies an "illumination"
— Bill Bruno🇺🇦 (@Bailyn_DeTVille) July 8, 2022
@BrianLehrer I just went to the firefly sanctuary in New Canaan, Ct. It was spectacular!
— Donna Weinstock (@DonnaW5) July 8, 2022
Insect life cycles are often based on temperature, so in warm years, emergence can happen earlier. But right around early July is pretty normal for us.
— Rebecca McMackin (@McmackinRebecca) July 8, 2022
You can actually use this amazing app (iNaturalist) to go observe observations and get a sense of their emergence timing.
Different species of firefly will display at different times of the evening. But sometimes it can take ages for males to pick which female to mate with. They have to, because some female fireflies (of different species) will trick and then eat them!
— Rebecca McMackin (@McmackinRebecca) July 8, 2022
It can be difficult, since both groups love moist environments. But while mosquitoes need (even tiny patches of) open water to breed, fireflies just need wet ground and leaves. So it is possible to have wet areas with no open water but keep an eye on open water is important.
— Rebecca McMackin (@McmackinRebecca) July 8, 2022
The fireflies are the same size as individuals (as much as I would LOVE giant beetles in our park) but populations may be larger due to environmental factors like the wet spring we had.
— Rebecca McMackin (@McmackinRebecca) July 8, 2022
THE BEST!
— Rebecca McMackin (@McmackinRebecca) July 8, 2022
