A tiktok with more than six million likes says that lightning bugs will soon be extinct. Experts grow back.
Missouri, the United States – Midwest’s summer night lights have grown up in recent decades.
The brilliant films of fireflies, or insects of lightning, trigger nostalgia and childhood memories deeply held for countless people. But the darling insect faces growing problems.
A 5 -side viewer on your side told the VERIFY team that she had not seen ininstutive insects in her court for years. A recent Tiktok video, appreciated by more than six million people, also said “we are the latest generation” to see fireflies.
We have dug the facts to find out if the bugs are really threatened.
The question
Is it true that fireflies disappear?
Our sources
- The Director of the Maison des Papillons des Collections Chris Hartley
- The Missouri Ministry of Conservation Ministry, Dan Zarlenga,
The answer
No, fireflies / lightning insects do not disappear, but their populations decrease, specifically in areas highly populated by humans.
What we found
There are thousands of species of fireflies around the world, and their populations decrease, according to our experts.
In 2024, US officials proposed to list a kind of firefly as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act for the first time in the history of the country.
The decline in insects is mainly due to a large loss of habitat, driven by suburban lawns and the use of insecticide, according to Hartley.
“They need an area where the leaves cover the ground for several years,” Hartley told 5 on your side. “The Luciole larva lives under leaves for two, sometimes even three years.”
The creation of a safe refuge for insects can help pollinators to return, in particular the creation of a part of yards which are always covered by the leaves, reducing the use of insecticides and slowing down artificial light overnight.
Despite a bug species proposed for the “threatened” category, experts say that insects are not faced with immediate extinction, despite what extremely popular Tiktok video claims. The common oriental firefly, the species most commonly observed in the Missouri, is listed as a species of “less worrying” by environmentalists.
We can CHECK: False, fireflies do not disappear, but their populations decrease.
