A treasured part of every summer garden is the fireflies in it and if you are not familiar with the term fireflies, what we are referring to are simply lightning bugs. What makes these insects unique is their ability to produce light on their body as they fly through at night and when they find their way into your backyard, most gardeners are left puzzled with the thoughts if fireflies are to be considered either as a friend or as a foe. This article would help you learn about fireflies and also answers the question “Are Fireflies Beneficial To Gardens”.
Gardeners would be able to feel quite confident when they get to find out more about these lightning bugs as well as their life cycle. Learning if these flies are beneficial to any garden they find their way into and also how to encourage this flies to visit your garden frequently.
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Are Fireflies Beneficial To Gardens
The adult fireflies are the common types of these flies which you would find almost everywhere in your garden and just for you to know how true this is, there are people living in larger cities who have also attested to the fact that they have encountered adult fireflies lots of times when the sun is about to set. The ones that you can easily identify are the adult fireflies and to be very specific, these male lightning bulbs are the ones that you always see in your backyard or in your garden as their glow is used in seeking out female bugs.
The female bugs respond through giving out their own signal and even though you would find more of adult fireflies in your garden or around you, larval fireflies exist as well. Just as any other insect, the garden would feel the impact of the visits of these lightning bugs in so many ways but this is however dependent on their growth cycle. The plant nectar in your garden is what adult fireflies feed on and even though these lightning bugs also play a role when it comes to pollination, it is, however, unlikely to count on them when it comes to pest control and management.
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The fact is even though these fireflies are not trusted or reliable to fend off some garden insects pests, there are still other ways which fireflies are beneficial to every garden they find themselves.
Do Lightning Bugs Kill Garden Pests
When talking about using fireflies to prevent or control the attack of some garden insect pest, it is the firefly larvae that most garden professionals are talking about. They can also be referred to as glow worms and where they are mostly found is either in the upper levels of the soil or on the ground. The firefly larvae also tends to glow just like the adult lightning bugs do and with that being said, you should also known that these types of bugs are actually very hard to find.
Where they hide mostly are in garden debris or in leaves and why they are in the larval form, what they feed on mostly are insects which can be found in the soil such as caterpillars, snails and slugs. It is quite easy to invite firefly larvae and the male lightning bug into your garden and one way you can get to achieve that is through limiting or stopping the use of chemical treatments on your plants. Furthermore, growing some plants which produce rich nectar are other ways you can get to invite fireflies into your garden.
Where you would also find fireflies or lightning bugs mostly are in soil areas whose ground has not been disturbed or garden beds.
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