#fireflies

[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: MARCH 10TH, 2026 | Video and Image IDs: A video and six photos of a spiny brown and grey larval Pyractomena firefly crawling around on a human hand, its head looking around curiously and its back end curling up and pushing forward almost like how one would use a cane/walking stick /End IDs.]

I've lived in this neighborhood for 20 years, and never seen one here, before.

In less than a decade, I've watched the proliferation of native planting, habitat planting, signs saying an area is for pollinators and no pesticides allowed, fewer and fewer monoculture grass lawns. Better raking and soil health practices. Businesses and schools are installing rain gardens and native plants all over my neighborhood, and it's slowly spilling out into more and more types of neighborhoods.

if you haven't been paying attention to gardens for the past decade you'd never notice it.

But it started slow and now it's speeding up rapidly.

Expectations here are shifting.

Early Fireflies - Jeremy Miranda , 2026

American , b. 1980 -