Gardening for Fireflies, Lightning Bugs, & Glow-worms

Participants are invited to go for a firefly hunt after the presentation

All about Fireflies

As children, we loved to catch fireflies or lightning bugs on warm, summer nights, but over the years we've watched as fewer and fewer of them light up our neighborhoods. Now, though, we have discovered the keys to bringing them back, and you can help! Join us to discover the hidden world of fireflies and the amazing diversity of their species, behaviors, and lifestyles. We'll learn why they are threatened, what they need to survive, and gardening techniques to create a firefly-friendly yard (including a special native plant that attracts fireflies).

About the Presenter

Matthew Speights is an avocational naturalist with interests in botany, entomology, and paleontology. As a young boy, he experienced the common dinosaur craze, but this grew from a phase into a permanent nature obsession that currently manifests through educational outreach, writing, and speaking about botany, orchid cultivation, terrarium construction, native gardening, entomology, and paleontology. Following the discovery of a previously unreported firefly species for Ohio, he has been occupied with educational outreach and field research on firefly distribution and conservation in the Midwest