Lightning Bug Jars

The summer is winding down now, only a few more weeks until it is officially fall. My kids are hanging onto summer as long a they can! A few nights ago we came home at dusk and the lightning bugs were out. Our oldest of course initiated a lightning bug hunt :). We keep some ball jars just for this and in the spirit of the end of summer I thought I would share.

Yes they are mismatched, the kids do not care. Yes they are simple, again the kids do not care :). A few years ago when they began wanting to catch lightning bugs I had some iridescent tulle scraps. I cut some small squares of it and put it under the ring of the jar lid so the bugs could breathe and not escape into our house! The girls loved the shiny tulle and said it reminded them of the lightning bugs. I wrote a quick label on white paper and taped it on. When Noah was old enough to join in the bug catching I didn’t have anymore of the same tulle but has some other tulle scraps that worked fine. The kids loved catching as many as they can and then keeping them in their rooms overnight.

I love seeing them run around the yard giggling and seeing them in awe watching them light up as they fall asleep. Do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs? I call them lightning bugs and my husband calls them fireflies. I think it may be regional? Either way it’s the same fun bug that flies around and lights up every so often each summer 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Johanna