Firefly populations are declining globally due to light pollution disrupting mating signals, habitat loss, and pesticide exposure, raising welfare questions about one of summer's most beloved insects.
Whether fireflies experience suffering in ways morally relevant to welfare is deeply uncertain given their small, simple nervous systems. However, the disruption of their mating behaviors by light pollution has clear consequences: populations decline as individuals fail to find mates and reproduction collapses. If insects have any capacity for something analogous to frustration - signaling and receiving no response, expending energy on unreciprocated communication - fireflies experiencing failed mating might experience this. The aesthetic and ecological value of firefly populations is unambiguous regardless of their sentience status. The preventable nature of light pollution-driven decline makes conservation straightforward: darker nights would restore mating success and reverse population declines.