Jason E. Andersen

While sitting on your porch on summer evenings, you can often see little dots of light floating around your yard. Lightning bugs!

Bonus Fun Fact: Lightning bugs spend a year or more in the soil as larvae. They spend their time hunting snails, worms, and other insects. During this time, they are susceptible to pesticides in the soil, which is believed to be a major contributor to population declines of these symbols of summer.

Bonus Bonus Fun Fact: There are over 2,000 species of lightning bugs worldwide.

Bonus Bonus Bonus Fun Fact: In the Midwest and much of the South, we often call these insects lightning bugs. However, in the West and New England, they are called fireflies. To each their own!