For Firefly Nights 2025 we offered seven programs to the public. Overall things went smoothly, none of our programs were rained out (a few close calls) and we didn’t have to cancel the last few due to the water being too low. Instead, the water was higher than average through most of the season by about a foot and a half. Generally we have high water in the spring that slowly dwindles towards summer, this year the swamp was lower than average in the spring and incredibly high in the summer.

As for the fireflies, the different species appeared around the same time as previous years, but what was different was their density in certain areas. For the last two years there was a region in the forest section of the boardwalk that was rife with the Snappy Sync Fireflies (Photuris frontalis), but this year it was almost entirely devoid of nightlife (rather, nightlights). What had changed? There was snow this winter, and there was also flooding last fall, which impacted both areas.

Instead the synchronizing fireflies seemed stronger in the parking lot, of all places, but the advantage there is that you have more room to roam and observe them, even though they feel a little more distant compared to the boardwalk. When you're on the boardwalk and they're active, they’re all around you, but in the parking lot they tend to rarely venture onto the open road itself and instead linger along the low dense growth all around it.

So why the change in location? Hard to say, of course, since I only have 2 years of observations collected so far. The parking lot didn’t flood like the forest did, but at the same time the forest also flooded in 2023 and that didn’t seem to impact the presence of the syncing fireflies off the boardwalk in 2024. The snow also fell in the parking lot, but there were still fireflies present there this year.

I do think the water had a beneficial effect for the lantern fireflies, the ones that make a trail of light over a few seconds. These mysterious bugs definitely want to be over the water, and I noticed as lower regions of the forest became flooded they’d move in further to areas I hadn’t seen them before. Also clustered along the edge between the swamp and the forest was a type of firefly that had a very distinct yellow flash (as with most fireflies the color is only visible up close) that would flash a random 3 to 5 times before pausing for around 12 seconds, a pretty long interval and easy to miss.

Another new addition to the glowing pantheon at Beidler Forest (not just including fireflies but also foxfire fungus and photoreactive pitch) are railroad worms. I found these while taking photographs of the fireflies in the parking lot. These worms, likely adult females, are actually beetles. They glow consistently throughout the night, and move very little, making them easy to find when they were out. Like the fireflies, they lingered on the edges of the forest along the road, and were fairly regular with one every twenty feet or so. They eat primarily millipedes, which would make them a boon to any garden in addition to their lovely glow effect.

I have no idea how to encourage railroad worms to spend time in your backyard, but I suspect that like fireflies, light pollution is a big deterrent, alongside habitat loss and indiscriminate spraying for mosquitoes. With the accelerating increase in development in both Dorchester and Berkeley counties, the nights aren’t going to be as dark, anymore. I hope at least that the nocturnal glowbugs that call this sanctuary their home don’t have their nighttime revelries impacted, but only time will tell.