Letter: Fireflies, May 6

To the Editor: 
I just came in to the house – it’s 9:30pm and I live in a heavily wooded area in Irvington – there are fireflies out tonight! Isn’t it very very early? So odd … so I googled it and your website came up – thought I’d ask!
Thanks,
Kathleen
Irvington

Hi Kathleen, 
Thanks so much for writing, and how exciting! You are not the first to mention seeing fireflies recently; a friend said they saw a flash in the woods here in Dutchess County about a week ago! Fireflies typically begin emerging in our area around the third week of May into June, but warm wet springs will trigger them to emerge a bit earlier (and we’ve certainly had our share of warm, wet weather lately!). The larvae will feed on slugs and other wet-weather crawlers that emerge with the rains which will help sustain them through all their summer shows :)

Thanks again, and enjoy!
Niki

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