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I have received a number of inquiries about fireflies wondering if they are toxic, if it is safe for children to eat fireflies. There have been reports that fireflies contain toxic agents, lucibufagins, which result in animals which feed upon insects spitting out adult fireflies or having a toxic reaction when they eat fireflies (Poisonous North American fireflies are killing exotic zoo and pet lizards by Roger segelken, Cornell). For example, an American toad will spit out an adult firefly (Photinus pyralis) which has a bitter taste due to the self-defense compounds contained in the fireflies. In fact if you handle large numbers of Photinus fireflies you can smell this pungent chemical which appears as a milky white fluid that exudes from the insects if they are molested.
Some exotic lizards native to Australia will expire if they are fed adult Photinus fireflies. Exotic lizards and frogs have not been conditioned through millions of years of evolution to not eat fireflies native to North America and species of fireflies common to Australia likely do not contain toxic agents known as lucibufagins. Although, "We know of no data on LD50 determinations for lucibufagins, but have now learned that ingestion of Photinus can be fatal to Australian lizards of the genus Pogona, commonly known as "bearded dragons" (TWO CASES OF FIREFLY TOXICOSIS IN LIZARDS by MICHAEL KNIGHT, RICHARD GLOR, SCOTT R. SMEDLEY, ANDRES GONZALEZ), KRAIG ADLER, and THOMAS EISNER).
Inotherwords, it is not yet known what the lethal dosage of lucibufagins is for humans. But because fireflies of the genus Photinus certainly contain this self-defense toxin, parents should be aware of this fact, as should owners of exotic pets, and not let their children put fireflies in their mouths, ingest fireflies or feed them to any exotic pets.
So it is true that exotic lizards may expire if they are fed too many adult fireflies, and in some cases it only takes a single firefly to kill and exotic lizard. As for humans and especially children ingesting or eating fireflies, parents should not permit this. Certainly there have been documented reports that humans, including children, who put adult fireflies in their mouth will spit them out because of their bitter taste. Because this bitter taste is due to a toxic agent, lucibufagins, which serves in nature as a natural deterrent to ingest of fireflies, you may say that Photinus fireflies are child proof! Children react the same way to ingesting fireflies as do many birds and small animals in North America; they spit them out! But that does NOT mean parents should permit their children to ingest fireflies or, God forbid, do their own experiments to try to discover what dosage of fireflies will kill their kids! But there are some really crazy and/or stupid people out there and I would not be surprised to hear of some really sick person trying to do this just to kill or torture their children! So BEWARE, DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN, OR PETS EAT FIREFLIES! FIREFLIES ARE TOXIC.
Of course as long as adult fireflies are kept inside a jar they should be safe for children to observe. Countless numbers of children have captured fireflies, kept them in jars, and been fascinated by their spectacular exhibits of blinking and flashing. Yet young children have been known to put just about anything in their mouth so they should be supervised at all times and not allowed to put any insects in their mouths. Although many insects like fireflies have a bad taste and will be spit out when accidently put in the mouth, some insects can sting or give a bad bite. This is also true of spiders and scorpions and their bites can be fatal. Insect stings can also be fatal in people who are especially allergic. Plus many insects may transmit disease. Therefore especially young children should never be allowed to handle any insects and should be supervised by responsible adults when engaging in outdoor recreational or educational activities.
Teaching young children to not handle live insects is a good safety rule. When under supervision, as with an adult teacher or parent, insects like butterflies may be captured in insect nets and placed in jars for observation. But one must remember children and adults can be stung by ants, bees or wasps and bitten by spiders which are poisonous as are scorpions. In Florida there is even a variety of giant water bug which can give a very painful bite when picked up; these giant water bugs are often found under street lamps or artifical lamps and should be avoided by children and adults who do not know how to properly handle them.
So for safety sake it is always best to teach young children not to handle live insects. When they get older they can learn which insects, like butterflies or crickets, are generally safe to handle. For example, crickets are used as bait by fishermen and women of all ages and one is more likely to get stuck by a fish hook than killed by a cricket! However, any insect can carry disease, so I do not recommend children handle (directly touch and certainly not put into their mouths or ingest) any insect. For example, flies transmit disease and mosquitoes are vectors for many fatal diseases as Malaria, Yellow Fever and West Nile virus. Fleas and ticks also transmit disease and these can be easily contacted in woods, forests or meadows if children go hiking or exploring to collect other insects or just to play. Snails and other small animals carry parasites.
So adult supervision of children while camping, hiking of playing is always important as is good hygiene, which means parents should have their children bath or shower and maintaining a clean body after being in an area where fleas, ticks, mites or other parasites may occur. Ticks transmit Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever and fleas are a disease vector. So if your children come home from a romp in the urban jungle, park or nearby fields, forest and meadows, have them clean up. Remember there is wisdom in the old adage, "Cleanliness in next to Godliness."
Because of the fact insects are vectors for disease the general safety rule is that children or adults should not handle ANY insects. Always collect insects or spiders using a net, transfer them to a jar and kill the insects or spiders and preserve them in 70% alcohol before handling them. Certainly teach children to NEVER put insects or other foreign bodies into their mouth. This is a good safety rule despite the fact that there are some gourmet restaurants which now are making small fortunes preparing dishes of cooked ants, crickets, grasshoppers and even cockroaches and other tasty delights provided by insectaries. Although adult insects and their grubs have been eaten by apes and humans since before the dawn of civilization, with termites being perhaps the most sought after delicacy if you are a chimpanzee, letting children eat un-cooked insects, spiders, worms, fireflies or other small animals is not recommended.
Yes, it is true that fireflies contain toxic substances, lucibufagins, self-defense compounds. When children have put adult fireflies in their mouth they usually spit them out as they have a bitter taste. The same is true of many other insects like stink bugs or even some species of butterflies. On occasion in the spring or early summer I have been picking wild black berries and have accidently put a fowl tasting sting bug in my mouth. Even small stink bugs can have a very fowl taste! It is a reflex to spit out such fowl tasting insects and this has been observed when children put fireflies in their mouth. There are many insects which have a bitter or fowl taste and this may have survival benefit for the species under consideration. For example, Monarch butterflies contain a toxic agent which they acquire from feeding upon milkweed plants as larvae, and this has a bitter taste so the reaction is to not ingest these butterflies, such that birds, frogs and people will spit them out. This reaction is believed to contribute to the survival of the species, as frogs, birds and even people then learn not to inject these type of insects or any which resemble them which also gives protection to other non-toxic species, a trait called protective resemblance or protective coloration.
In nature there are many examples of protective resemblance and protective coloration, which also should alert you to the fact that handling insects, spiders and scorpions is not wise, especially for children or adults who do not know which species are harmful or how to properly handle them without getting stung, bitten or contacting a disease. Also in nature many harmful insects, spiders and even plants, are marked with bright colors, as if to warn predators of their toxic nature. A prime example is the Black Widow spider brightly marked with a red hour glass. Yet other insects and spiders may carry no such warning marks. For example, the brown recluse spider, which has a very toxic venomous bite, is colored dull grey or brown and does not have any bright coloring to let predators know it is quite poisonous.
Because children and even adults often do not know how to recognize poisonous from harmless insects, small animals or plants, it is a good general safety rule to NOT handle insects or such small animals as snakes, scorpions or spiders and to alway supervise children when they are playing indoors or outdoors. Of course there are many trained and experienced entomologist and naturalist who learned from experience which insects and/or small animals are safe to handle. Unfortunately some people have been seriously injured and there certainly have been fatalities, especially in cases of trying to handle highly venomous snakes, spider or scorpions or other perilous species.
One famed entomologist, Edward O. Wilson, lost sight in one eye as a child when he was fishing for Lagodon rhomboides, a type of pinfish which has sharp spines on its dorsal fin! He jerked the fish out of the water and ended up with a face full of painful spines, one which pierced his right eye! Thinking nothing of the event he later developed a cataract and the lens in his eye was removed. ("Paradise Beach" Naturalist. Edward O. Wilson. 1994. p. 13-14.) Although fireflies certainly do not have any sharp or poisonous spines, firefly larvae do possess a pair of sharp, syringe-like mandible, and although they do not bite people, are equipped with a highly caustic and venomous digestive enzyme which they inject into their prey, earthworms, snails and other soft bodies animals. But I do not recommend letting a firefly larvae bite your tongue or your child's tongue to see what happens as it will likely be turned to soup! So learning by this type of foolish experience is NOT recommended.
Many species of plants are also toxic and can even be fatal if injected, which is another reason to teach children not to put foreign objects in their mouths. Learning to recognize poison ivy, oak, sumac and stinging nettles that these may be avoided is also recommended and generally taught in scouting and first aid courses. In fact, scouting teaches many safety rules, high moral values, civic responsibility and has been a good experience for millions of boys and girls over the years.
It is every parent's responsibility as a care provider and guardian to teach their children good safety rules and to secure their homes. In fact, there are even services which do this now, which will come into your home and put covers on all the electric outlets and tamper resistant latches upon the counter doors and drawers. Certainly having your home secured and made safer for children is wise. But it is also important to teach children as early as possible not to inject foreign objects or substances. There have been many cases where infants or children have ingested a whole bottle of aspirin or prescription medication and would have to be rushed to the hospital and have their stomachs pumped. Such accidents have even resulted in the death of children. So teaching your children to NEVER ingest foreign objects or put foreign substances in their mouths and bodies can save their lives!
This is also wise as children need to be taught not to try everything someone gives them or offers, so that when someone offers them to try this or that pill, drug, grass (marijuana), LSD, or other chemical substance they refuse the offer. Usage of such illegal substances is becoming common among younger and younger children and there are even news report of pill parties, where children and teenagers bring whatever pills or medication (prescription drugs) they can find, and put them in a bowl so that anyone can try whatever they like. This is like playing Russian roulette with their lives and minds! It can have a fatal consequence and is just one more reason to teach your children at a young age to NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take foreign objects or substances into their mouth and body!
Also parents would be wise to learn First Aid, to take a First Aid course offered by the Red Cross. Then you will learn how to respond to emergency situations, how to do CPR and properly react if foreign objects are swallowed and enter the wind pipe causing someone to choke. Plus you will learn how to respond to many other emergency situations and accidents. In this regard certainly if you have children in your home it is wise to keep the poison control center phone number for your state posted and/or stored for speed dial in your telephone and to also learn common antidotes for poisons that may be in your home. Certainly keeping these under lock is also a good safety rule. You would not want a loaded gun sitting around your house with children playing would you? So why permit poisons or pills that can be fatal to be in the easy reach and access of un-supervised children?
Always ere on the side of caution. Since children and many parents do not know what plants or insects are harmful, teach children to not handle all insects and certainly to avoid eating or ingest of insects and plants. In fact, there are so many toxic plants, including mushrooms, this just is common sense. Do not allow children to put foreign objects, including insects and plants, into their mouths. But this also includes small object around the home as well as toys like Legos, marbles, etc.
It is equally important that when you have others providing care for your children you be sure they come highly recommended with written letters of recommendation, that they have First Aid Red Cross training, that they have passed a police background check and know how to handle an emergency situation. Ultimately as a parent you are responsible for the safety and welfare of your dependent children. So you can never be too careful. Teach your children to NOT put foreign objects or substances into their mouth or body. Give them a good education through participation in programs that may be offered by your church, the YMCA, scouting, through the school or other civil organizations. Then when your children are older they will know how to keep safe and out of harm's way, especially when it comes to such matters as using illegal chemical substance or trying anything someone else wants to turn them on to.
Recently their have been increased report of pill parties. Young people bring whatever pills they can find, whatever prescription medications they can put their hands on, and they put these in a bowl so that others attending the party can try at random any pill. This is like playing Russian roulette with their minds and lives! Certainly the results can be fatal and has been. This is one more reason that teaching your children NEVER to put foreign objects or substances into their bodies is a good discipline to instruct, such that you emphasis how other children and young people have died as a result.
I would include avoiding alcohol, tobacco products and other chemical substance in the lesson plan as certainly these are not healthy. Just look at how many lives have been destroyed by alcohol abuse and by cancer caused by using tobacco products. Look at all the lives destroyed by chemical substance abuse. Teaching children and young people to NEVER put such substances into their bodies teaches good health, longevity and a better quality of life. So certainly a parent cannot go wrong in teaching their children to avoid using such chemical substances, even and perhaps especially, when the parents use alcohol or other drugs themselves.
Often parents who abuse chemical substances are not setting the best example for their children, which can be a factor in children abusing chemical substances at an early age. I am speaking in general as I have know idea what choices you have made for yourself in this regard. All I am saying is that the earlier children and young people begin to use alcohol, tobacco or other chemical substances, the more probable it is that they will abuse those substances, may be hurt, injured or die in an accident associated with substance abuse or may have their life significantly impaired or shortened by illness and/or disease associated with substance abuse, which also includes increased risk of contacting such diseases as HIV/AIDS or other STD.
Perhaps teaching children NOT to eat fireflies because they are toxic and taste bitter, is a good lesson plan and will carry over that they do not ingest other foreign bodies or chemical substances. Certainly nature has endeavored to make Photinus fireflies child proof such that if you do teach your children to not ingest fireflies, they will learn that what you say is true, should they experiment and put a firefly in their mouth. So maybe giving this object lesson in advance will bring children who disobey or who are too curious or ignorant to realize that you as a parent who loves them are telling them the truth when you also instruct them NOT to experiment with alcohol, marijuana, pills, or other illegal drugs someone may offer them.
There are bitter or bad tasting medicines and foods which children do not like. There is also a product on the market called Bitter Apple that people use to teach their pets not to chew upon furniture or other objects such as shoes. So the fact that some substances taste bitter has been used, at least with animals, to teach them not to chew or put bitter tasting items into their mouths. So the idea that parents may use the toxic nature of fireflies and other insects as an object lesson in teaching their children to avoid substance abuse is not too far fetched. Millions of years of evolution has resulted in bitter and fowl tasting fireflies and is nature's way of teaching small animals, if not children, to avoid putting bugs and foreign object in their mouths, because they are bad for you. So perhaps humans can learn from this example taught by nature, that perhaps in the future pharmaceutical companies will make pills and capsules which children reject because they taste bad.
Of course there are many toxic agents and chemical substances which have a sweet or good taste or no taste whatsoever. Thus in the case of children, simply teaching to NEVER put foreign objects or chemical substance into their mouths or bodied is a good safety rule.
I hope this helps you to teach your children NOT to put any foreign objects in their mouth! This certainly includes insects and plants. It also includes everything from sand and dirt to earthworms and dung! Do not allow children to put foreign objects in their mouth!
With all the risk and dangers that exist in the home environment, and the risks that exist from walking down the street, including the risk of getting hit by a drunk driver and the risk of being abducted by a child molester, the probability that children will ingest a significant number of fireflies as to have a fatal result is very low, especially given the fact most small animals, including man, have a reflex action response to spit out bitter and fowl tasting fireflies. If only the drug and pill making companies would learn to make their medicine taste bad, perhaps children could be conditioned to not take such pills for recreational purposes. Perhaps if drug manufacturers could learn from nature this simple lesson, it would help save lives! Certainly if medicines were made to taste so bad that children would not eat them, would spit them out, then their would not be so many accidental deaths due to ingest of prescription medicines. Of course it may then be more difficult to get children to take medicines when needed. But that has always been the case with some medicines that have had this characteristic.
However, just as some people are extremely allergic to the sting from bees, wasps and ants, some people are probably highly allergic to firefly toxins. Therefore I continue to tell everyone to teach their children NOT to ingest foreign objects or chemical substances -- to not go around like Alice in Wonderland drinking this and eating that just to see what happens. Humans should not abuse their own bodies by using them as vessels for haphazard experiments! Do not develop the habit of tasting or sniffing everything someone gives you or trying every pill or capsule someone puts in front of you! Do not permit your children to pollute their bodies with alcohol, tobacco products or other harmful chemical substances no matter how good the drug companies may make them taste or look in commercials!
The general public has been psychologically seduced by everyone one from the tobacco companies to the makers of unsafe toys and other products that have hurt, harmed and killed millions of men, women and children (which includes that most hazardous of adult toy, the automobile!) There is more to fear from the makers of tobacco than from those fireflies flitting and fluttering in the twilight of a warm summer's night. There is more to fear from the manufacture, distribution and marketing of alcoholic beverages to young people and driving under the influence than from the twilight dance of flashing fireflies, searching for their mates in the fields and forest of America. There is certainly more to fear from the drug pushers and peddlers getting rich off of selling our children marijuana, crack cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and other illegal drugs than could ever come from the romance of watching fireflies and the fascination children and adults alike experience when witnessing the marvelous lighting of forest, field and meadow by hundreds and thousands of twinkling fireflies.
Certainly it is prudent to learn which insects, small animals and plants are harmful, poisonous or constitute a fatal attraction, and teach this to young people along with the good, common sense safety rule, DO NOT INJEST FOREIGN BODIES OR SUBSTANCES! Do NOT feed your babies food made from fireflies! Do NOT put fireflies in your alcohol, even as a joke. Do Not, God forbid, try to see how many fireflies it takes to kill your dog, cat, or kids!
Not eating fireflies or anything that taste bad is just common sense. Yet in saying this, I do not believe fireflies fall into the category of a fatal attraction, given millions of years of evolution has provided fireflies with a fowl tasting, bitter toxic agent which in small animals, mammals and humans results in a reflex action to spit out and not ingest fireflies. They are, in essence, a bad tasting medicine, that children are not likely to ingest in significant quantity, but will readily spit out and learn to avoid!
So perhaps man can learn this lesson from nature and make his own pills fowl tasting that the lives of countless children will be saved and pill popping parties will go the way of the dinosaur!
Should this be done using agents derived from obnoxious insects or plants, I would hope the pharmaceutical companies would reward me appropriately for recognizing and promoting this application, for although ideas may not be trade marked, I certainly am the first person to widely publish this proposed method of preventing substance abuse. Certainly I would love to see all pills and capsules coated with a bitter, repulsive tasting extracts or a chemical agent that this might save the lives of millions of children over time. Any investors who want to put up the funds for developing such a product which could be called SPITITOUT, REGURGX, or VOMITCOM are welcome to contact me at terrylynch@aol.com Should anyone wish to use these product names, they are my copyrighted property and may only be used with my prior written consent and prepayment of an agreed fee and/or royalty.
A question has come up which lends itself to a very simple experiment which anyone with access to Asian/Australian fireflies may want to perform.
In America there have been incidents where exotic reptiles have died eating Photinus fireflies which contain a self-defense toxin, lucibufagins. This genus of fireflies has a milky white blood, taste bitter and are rejected as a food by small animals like toads, lizards and birds common to North America. Yet no one to my knowledge has tested Asian or Australian fireflies to see what species of small animals may safely feed upon them.
Thus this would open the door for a simple experiment. Feed fireflies to various small animals, video tape the feedings and report the results. Show that area fireflies do not contain agents toxic to local species of small animals or that if they do contain toxic agents, local species of small animals are immune to their toxic effects.
You can purchase small animals of known species for testing via local pet shops. In the recent scientific literature exotic animals from Australia have died when eating Photinus fireflies. This includes the bearded dragon lizard, Pogona vitticeps, which can succumb from eating a single Photinus firefly.
Photinus fireflies may also be toxic to African chameleons (Chamaeleo pardalis) and other exotic species of reptiles. (Two Cases of Firefly Toxicosis in Lizards by Michael Knight and others)
Also collecting known species of Asian/Australian fireflies and having them tested to determine their blood chemistry would be important to show they do not possess lucibufagins. Lucibufagins may be separated out using chromatographic techniques and the method for doing this is reported in the work of Lincoln Brower, an expert on Monarch Butterflies. In fact, lucibufagins are similar in chemical structure to the toxins from milkweed plants upon which the larvae of monarch butterflies feed. I illustrated one of Lincoln Brower's early reports in these regards while working at the Zoology Department at the University of Florida.
This is also interesting as Photuris sp. in North America, which contain a clear blood, does not contain lucibufagins, until the female Photuris feed upon Photinus, which may suggest an evolutionary relationship to Asian/Australian fireflies if they also do not possess lucibufagins. It may be interesting to do genetic code mapping to see how similar are the genes of these various species and compare this to gene mapping of Photinus fireflies. The idea would be to collect specimens of Asian/Australian fireflies and provide them to the chemist who are equipped to make such an analysis via collaborative effort.
I am sharing this information as these matters represent some pioneering work of significance that may be done by anyone who has access to Asian/Australian fireflies. I hope this may be of some help to anyone who may be interested in this matter.
Also I am curious to hear from any veterinarians who can recommend what first aid measures should be taken if exotic lizards or other aminals swallow Photinus fireflies? Should vomiting be induced? What is the recommended first aid to save the life of small animals which ingest Photinus fireflies?
Lucibufagins are similar in chemical nature to the toxins produced by tropical toads (Bufo marinus), which cause a slobbering, spitting and drooling reaction when a dog mouths a toad. Recommended treatment for dogs which mouth a toad is to flush the mouth out with water and attempt to induce vomiting. The three recommended methods for inducing vomiting are:
1. Syrup of ipecac (one teaspoonful per ten pounds body weight) 2. Hydrogen peroxide 3% (one to three teaspoonfuls every ten minutes; repeat three times 3. One half to one teaspoonful of salt, placed at the back of the tongue
(Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, Delbert G. Carlson, DVM and James M. Giffin, MD. 1980, 1992. p. 24)
I do not know if this would apply to exotic frogs, lizards or birds which ingest Photinus fireflies, but given imminent death can result within an hour of ingestion of Photinus fireflies in such exotic animals as the bearded dragon lizard, certainly it would be worth a try to save the animal's life!
Please reply to terrylynch@aol.com
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