# What did happen to the fireflies of Montreal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 1, 2015, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978 "2015-05-01T10:28:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/1 "2015-05-01T10:28:40Z")
[Just wondering.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSpFr_PXb74) Habitat loss? Pollution? Explosion in the firefly-eating predator population? Didn’t seem GQ-worthy, though. Also, if any of you feel like rambling about fireflies in general, that might be nice, otherwise this thread might turn out rather short. Are there fireflies where you live? Is it true that people catch them in jars? How bright do they get? Can you take a jar of fireflies and use it as a reading light? There are no fireflies around these parts. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen one. Curious critters, making me curious. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Enn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dave_enn/32/426_2.png) [@Dave\_Enn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Enn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/2 "2015-05-01T12:22:10Z")
Fireflies eat slugs and snails. If your local habitat includes plants that slugs like to eat, it shouldn’t take long before you have a firefly orgy/light show every early summer. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/3 "2015-05-01T12:54:13Z")
When TheKid was little, our apartment overlooked a meadow. In the summer, we would sit on her bed and watch them flit around. It was almost mesmerizing - to the point where she would fall asleep in under 10 minutes (usually a major struggle for her). Last summer we had a bunch of fireflies at the cabin. We’d sit on the deck and watch them down around the shoreline. As when she was a sprite, she fell asleep in minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/4 "2015-05-01T15:13:39Z")
You know, now that you mention it, I guess I haven’t seen a firefly in years. And my garden has plenty of slugs. But each slug is the size of hundreds of fireflies. I guess I always imagined that there is too much weed 'n feed used in my neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/5 "2015-05-01T15:32:40Z")
places previously with large populations have had drops, larger than what might be yearly variations. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/6 "2015-05-01T16:05:58Z")
When I was a lad, I watched fireflies until I learned the pattern of flashes. Once I had it down, I could call them to my hand with a penlight whenever they were out. I didn’t catch them, though, just brought them close enough to look at. I haven’t seen many fireflies since I moved to Texas, but I did see some in a nearby park last year. Maybe I should go looking, and see if I can still summon them. ---
**Author:** ![Gothic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gothic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gothic)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/7 "2015-05-01T17:10:55Z")
They flew to Toronto because of separatism? Light pollution sounds plausible. > **[Why Are Fireflies Disappearing? Information on the Decline of Fireflies |...](https://www.firefly.org/why-are-fireflies-disappearing.html)** > > Why are fireflies disappearing? Habitat loss, pesticides, and light pollution. Learn more on why fireflies are disappearing across the world. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Enn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dave_enn/32/426_2.png) [@Dave\_Enn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Enn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/8 "2015-05-01T17:21:38Z")
> [@Gothic](#): > > They flew to Toronto because of separatism? … Maybe if you referred to them as lucioles, they’d stay in Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/9 "2015-05-01T17:23:53Z")
They seem to be on the wane here (NE) too. When I was a kid, the warm summer nights had plenty of fireflies…I saw very few last summer (probably because the summer was so cold). ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/10 "2015-05-01T19:18:06Z")
They’re here in Central Texas. I’ve been braving the 'skeeters to watch them come up out of the grass and dot&dash away ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/11 "2015-05-01T23:25:58Z")
I live out in the suburbs of Montreal and see fireflies sometimes. I haven’t been out looking for them lately and I don’t know if they’re out at this time of year anyway. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-happen-to-the-fireflies-of-montreal/718978/12 "2015-05-02T03:38:56Z")
We’ve got them here, but not nearly in the quantities we had when I was a kid, in the 50s. Back then, we could easily catch them in our hands and . . . well, we were dumb kids.