My friend has a swampy yard in Metro West that often has them...he's seen two so far this year. Wait unail after the next big rain or August, whichever comes first.

We've been seeing them here (only a few miles from defrost) for about 2 or 3 weeks. For us they haven't seemed to be effected by the drought, but we live along a river with plenty of wet areas besides, so the bugs can find moisture as needed. IME now is the best time to see them. We see fewer as the summer progresses, and by August they are mostly done. The lights are used for mating, and ours do their thing early in the season. I'd go ahead and do your hunt now, but find a spot that has water readily available. Since the kids are interested now, now is the time to go on a hunt. No guarantees of success, but if you really want to you could do some scouting ahead of time.

For me one reason I love fireflies is that the summer I turned 4, we went on a trip that included a visit to a cousin of my dad's in rural Iowa. Since at that age I was almost never awake after dark and I lived in the suburbs, it was a real treat to spend my birthday evening running around the yard with a jar to catch fireflies, something I'd never done before.

I rarely see them here in suburban Lexington, MA and still miss them after 45 years away from Baltimore, where they made summer, even in the city, magical. I figured they just weren't this far north. Too bad my kids didn't grow up with them. On the other hand, spring peepers and wood frog choruses were unknown to me until my years in New England.

I saw lots of them any summer evening when I was growing up here in Providence, but haven't seen a single one in years.

In the 15 years I've lived in the Boston area, I've never seen one! I also thought it was too far north for them. I LOVED chasing after them as a kid in NJ. Wish I could find some for my own kids to chase after!

They are endangered I think, or at least their populations have declined drastically. Scientists suspect ambient light has interfered with their own light which is part of their mating ritual. We used to have hordes of fireflies on any given summer night; now only a few.

I hope if you let your kids capture them, you also ensure that they let them go afterwards! As a kid I would punch holes in a jar lid, add grass with a few water droplets to the jar, and keep the fireflies within as a night light, then let them go the next morning.

Because of this thread, I made it a point to go out and look. Seems in recent years I haven't seen any. I'm happy to say that in the last 4 or five nights I've seen a fair amount of them. They were active during our local fireworks display. They probably looked at each other and wondered "who is THAT?" "Some show-off."

Thanks for the data points, everyone! We're going to go out looking next week and I'll let you know if we see anything. We will just be observing, not taking them home in jars (even as a child that seemed cruel to me).

I'm about 45 min north of Boston and I saw a few fireflies last week - there's a lot of wetland around this area. I also saw lots of them in NH at the very beginning of June near Conway. Have fun on your firefly hunt!

By the way, this Museum of Science project allows you to track fireflies and help scientists figure out the reasons behind their decline!

https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/

We moved to NH this year, but when we lived in Stoughton the past 5 years I'd regularly see them most summer nights. We lived near several sports fields and woods so there was plenty of in undeveloped land nearby. I usually see them near open areas of tall grass/meadows. I actually saw one two nights ago here in southern NH.

I saw one the other night, and was quite surprised as I haven't noticed any since we moved here to SE coastal MA several years ago. Just one ...at the overgrown edge of the back yard, and it was the night after our day of heavy rain.

So sad to hear they're endangered....

While talking to the neighbors outside last night, I saw fireflies around the lawn. There seemed to be quite a few of them!

I took my kids to a "night fliers" program at Belmont Habitat tonight. We saw probably 30-50 fireflies! Though definitely not swarms of them; they said they had noticed a population decline too. We also saw some bats, moths, and heard some bullfrogs. I recommend their programs if any of you are in the area.

Thought you might find this brief article in Smithsonian of interest.

"(13) Other factors that may be contributing to firefly decline include light pollution and habitat destruction—if a field where fireflies live is paved over, the fireflies don’t migrate to another field, they just disappear forever."

This is so sad. We are glad to have a field that will never be paved over, at least in our and our son's lifetimes.

NJ in the house.

Yes, I agree they seem limited this year. I am thinking that is due to drought conditions. I have a lot of woods around me which can also be periodically inundated with water..., not this year. A few years back, we had a lot of tree debris in the area due to a hurricane (don't remember if it was Sandy or Irene). That season I saw a show of fireflies as I have never seen in my life! It looked positively magical!

I think I recall reading some association between the population and the presence of dead or decaying trees. Since reading that, I decided to use the fallen tree trunks and branches to border my island plantings (and increase their potential habitat), but you still need WATER for them and this year, that is lacking (though not quite as bad at your situation in Ma. and upstate NY..

There was a recent Concord (NH) Monitor article about fireflies. Seems to be related to lack of water. Writer interviewed a firefly expert who has just written a book "Silent Sparks" http://www.concordmonitor.com/granitegeek-3383812

I thought of this thread last night...we were out in our yard and saw about 15 fireflies in a very small area! The most we've ever seen before, in 10 years in our house, is one or two (and most summers it's zero). I think the rainy spring helped their populations. It was pretty cool. Anyone else notice this?

http://www.pennlive.com/wildaboutpa/2017/07/why_are_we_seeing_so_many_fire.html

@lalala, I noticed a lot more fireflies than usual last summer in the White Mountains of NH. It's funny, as I'm reading your post, my husband and I are heading to NH for the weekend and I'm anticipating seeing a lot of fireflies tonight because of the amount of rain we have experienced this year. I'm really excited to see them again! I hope we have lots and lots of them!

We have had them consistently in our fields for about a month or so. I love that when I am turning off lights and closing the house for the night I see them blinking out in the back.