Don’t believe those viral TikToks — you are not the last generation to see fireflies

Fireflies are not disappearing from the planet anytime soon. But if you had seen TikTok posts about them since mid-June, you might have believed that they were.

In June, when the charismatic bugs started lighting up across Minnesota and many other places, TikTok videos declaring that “we are the last generation to see fireflies” went viral and spread to Facebook and Instagram, among other platforms.

The most popular of these posts have garnered up to 6 million likes. Thousands of users are reposting or reacting to this news on their own accounts. According to Google Trends, “are we the last generation to see fireflies” was one of the most common search engine queries in the United States from June 15-21.

Scientists are confident that we are not the last generation to see fireflies. Even though that perception is outrunning efforts to debunk it, environmental educators still see an upside to this social media trend. People are finally showing they care about insects.

“We’re fully confident that this is not the last generation to see fireflies, unless something really catastrophic happens,” said Candace Fallon, senior conservation biologist and firefly lead at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization that monitors and manages insect conservation.

But there’s a grain of truth in this social media frenzy: Fireflies are facing many environmental threats, and certain species of fireflies are threatened with extinction, said Fallon.

In 2021, Fallon worked with firefly specialists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the New Mexico BioPark Society to assess the extinction risks for a majority of U.S. fireflies.

The team found that at least 18 out of the 132 species assessed in the U.S. and Canada are threatened with extinction. Up to a third of firefly species are estimated to be at risk of extinction if scientists were able to gather sufficient information for data deficient species, Fallon said.

While there are some threatened species in the Midwest, including the pointy lobed firefly and cypress firefly, none of them is based in Minnesota. This year, a wet spring also led to reports of population booms among fireflies in the summer, said Fallon.

Some TikTok users who dedicate their platform to explaining science are aware of the nuance surrounding fireflies’ population status. But those debunking false claims are often playing catch-up. Even celebrity science communicator Hank Green has only been able to gain around 168,000 likes for his TikTok debunking the statement, a small fraction compared with the likes racked up for misinformed posts.

Sabrina Celis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at the University of Minnesota, is worried about how easily the public may believe what they see. When users search the term “fireflies” on TikTok, what pops up are posts restating the “last generation” statement instead of science-backed content, she said.

But there’s an upside to the attention.

Angie Hong, water education senior specialist for the Washington Conservation District in Minnesota, saw an opportunity to capitalize on the media boom to promote firefly conservation. On July 2, she posted a video on Instagram and TikTok that talked about the wonder of fireflies and how people can help them.

While likes and shares do not necessarily translate into real efforts to protect fireflies, Hong believes that smaller educational efforts will snowball into meaningful contributions over time.

“When you’re sharing scary information and not giving people any action steps, it just contributes to a lot of anxiety, and people tune out, because they feel like they can’t do anything about it,” she said.

Hong suggests incorporating native plants in yards to bolster firefly habitats. She emphasizes that native gardening can also reduce stormwater runoff and help other pollinators, benefitting the entire ecosystem.

To reduce light pollution, which interferes with communication between fireflies, Fallon recommends that the public close curtains at night, turn off unnecessary lights, and install timers or motion sensors on certain lights.

Learning how to talk about science with general audiences has become a more important part of academic training for younger scientists like herself, said Celis.

But effective communication is just one part of combating misinformation, Celis said. She recommends that people fact-check their statements before reposting information and that social media companies take initiative combating misinformation.