There are few things more magical than a summer dusk stitched with tiny lights.

If you're like me and grew up chasing lightning bugs across the lawn (that's what we called them in Louisiana), you already know the nostalgia that comes with seeing them dot the nighttime sky.

And this year, I've noticed more fireflies in my own yard than I have in years, and I've loved watching my kids discover the same magic I did. Maybe you've noticed them, too.

"They have such an emotional bond to us. They are magic," Becky Griffin said during our interview.

She's a pollinator health associate for the University of Georgia Extension.

"If you think about it, even from a scientific standpoint, you have a beetle who has this chemical way of creating light. You just can't make it up."

If you think you are seeing more fireflies this season, there's a good reason. Much of it is due to the weather.

"We started out with kind of a drought. We were really craving rain, and then we got rain at just the right time as it warms up," said Griffin. "So logic would tell us we're seeing more in the Southeast."

The same conditions are true for many areas across the East, especially northward into the Ohio Valley and Midwest, where moisture, humidity and that "sticky" feeling have been plentiful.

"They like it moist, and it's hot, and it's moist, so it's perfect firefly season," Griffin said.

Regions that skip the "joyous humid summer," as she puts it, simply don't host as many firefly species as the sultry Southeast does.

Lightning bugs have a much bigger purpose than putting on a light show

"The fireflies are the last part of their life cycle. They're the flying beetles," explained Griffin. "And before that, they actually live in their larval form, which is like a little firefly worm in the ground on the leaf litter."

Those larvae are incredibly valuable as well. They hunt critters in our gardens like snails and slugs. So they play an important role in our ecosystem.

Once they become lightning bugs (or fireflies), they only have about a two-week lifespan. And during those two weeks, when they are lighting up our backyards, they are mating.

Interestingly, different species clock in at different times. Certain species glow earlier in the evening in spring, while other species emerge later in the summer and flash later into the night. This natural scheduling system helps each species find the appropriate mate.

Three easy ways to bring more fireflies to your yard

If you feel like you should be seeing lightning bugs but aren't having much luck, there are some things you can actually do to attract them.

Turn off the lights: This is the single easiest thing you can do. Those evening flashes are fireflies searching for a mate, and porch lights and floodlights scramble the signal.

"If we have lights on at night, it's confusing for them, and if they're not successful in mating, we're going to see less and less fireflies," Griffin said. "As it gets dark, just turn the lights off and go outside and enjoy the show."

Don't bag your leaves: That leaf litter is a firefly nursery. Bagging up and throwing away your leaves is also throwing away the future firefly population.

"If you really feel that the leaf litter is a detriment to your lawn, just put it off to the side. Put it off toward a wooded area, or toward the back of your yard, instead of bagging it up or burning it," Griffin said.

Bag those leaves, she warns, and "you could be bagging up bumblebee queens and moth cocoons," too.

Let a little of your yard go wild: Tall grasses and shrubs give fireflies places to perch and flash.

The one thing to skip: chemicals

The manicured, chemical-perfect lawn comes at a cost. Firefly larvae live in the leaf litter and just beneath the soil surface, right where lawn treatments land.

"If you're putting chemicals in the ground, you have to be affecting them," Griffin said.

If you take those simple steps, maybe you will see the fireflies begin to glow in your own yard.

"The more we do personally to our own yard to make it hospitable for fireflies, the more fireflies we will see, and that's just a great reward," Griffin said. "Everybody can make a difference in helping their habitat, which is kind of empowering and makes it really fun."

So this summer, flip off the porch light, let the back corner grow a little shaggy, and step outside at dusk for the show.