I remember when I was a child living in Atlixco and Cholula. There were so many fireflies that you can actually catch them with a jar. The rain in summer was a sign that fireflies were about to arrive. Just after sunset you could start spotting them in the garden. One by one the garden started to fill with light, natural light. They used to guide our way in the darkness.
Then suddenly one summer they didn’t come out. There was no light in the garden, there was nothing to guide us in the dark. There was no sign of them.
Three years ago, they reappeared in our garden thanks to the native plants we were growing, and the majority of plants that we had in the garden. They like dark humid gardens. So that is what we did: a humid dark garden. There are still not enough beetles in the garden, this year I counted five fireflies in the garden.

I feel sad. Artificial light is not letting us see the stars, the moon or the fireflies.
I feel sad. Fireflies think that artificial lights are female fireflies.
I feel sad. Now there is tourism to see the fireflies in the woods, in Tlaxcala. Tourist step on the female fireflies. They turn on their cell phone light because they don’t want to “fall”.
I feel sad cause I rather see humans fall than fireflies.

It is so easy to turn off our garden lights after sunset. Why do we always need to light our gardens? When we are not even in them? We are inside at night. Why do we feel the need to keep the light on at night?

Fireflies need darkness in order to survive. But humans instead of turning artificial light off, they are turning fireflies off.