Only tangentially related to the enthusiastic circuit hacking: the reason the author stopped seeing living fireflies may be the drastic, worldwide decline in insect populations, with biomass declining in the range of 2-10%/year[0].
Funnily enough, I moved to another apartment which is right by the main road (the sound pollution is driving me crazy, not recommended), and now I have an insect problem. Every night I am fighting moths and dragonflies. Never had an issue in my previous apartment. Both are deep in the city, although the current one has more greenery nearby.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_population...