How Benfield Hill Nature Reserve helps glow worm population

It is a warm but windy evening in East Sussex and we are on the hunt for glow worms.

As the sun sets on the Benfield Hill Nature Reserve, just outside Hove, a distinct green glimmer starts to flicker in the chalk grasslands.

This site is hailed as a “stronghold” for glow worms in Sussex and with the insects’ summer breeding season well under way, conservationists say they have spotted 60 glowing females on one evening at the reserve.

It is Brighton and Hove’s oldest local nature reserve and a team of volunteers has been helping to manage the grasslands to promote glow worms.

The glow worm population is thought to be at risk nationally from loss of habitat, climate change and light pollution.

Sally Wadsworth, chair of Benfield Wildlife and Conservation Group, says some areas of grass are kept longer so that the females can crawl up the stalks for mating.

“We’re trying different techniques and I think it is working because we’ve got such a good population here,” she added.

On a windy summer’s evening, she is out on the nature reserve trying to spot them.

“The females stick their bottoms in the air and switch on a green light, which is bioluminescence,” she says.

“You can see little green stars all dotted around.”