Around the country, firefly populations have reached historically low numbers. At one time, they lit up the night with their blinking mating calls. Today, these luminescent insects are quietly disappearing, as their habitats and food supply have been greatly impacted.
In Louisiana, pesticides, habitat loss in the form of urban development, invasive insects, lack of maintaining leaf litter beds and light pollution have been the major causes of the decline in firefly population, said LSU AgCenter entomologist Aaron Ashbrook.
The Town of Jean Lafitte reached out to Ashbrook and fellow AgCenter entomologist Christine Gambino to help to reestablish firefly populations that were once so prevalent in its Wetland Trace boardwalk trail…