BL Workshop

Make a firefly lantern

By Jodie Mangor
Illustrations by Michael Cho
From the July 2008 Boys' Life magazine

Want a natural nightlight? Try making a firefly lantern.

Step 1: Make a mesh container from a piece of fiberglass window screen. Roll it into a tube with overlapping ends. Staple the tube together leaving a two-inch opening to slip fireflies through. Cap off each end with a plastic lid and duct tape.

Step 2: To use a female decoy firefly to catch males, connect the leads from a green LED light to two six-foot lengths of insulated copper wire. Attach one of the wires to a 9-volt battery. To make your “female firefly” flash, touch the second wire to the battery. Keep the light six feet away from you. (Fireflies avoid humans.)

To crack the fireflies’ code, watch a female in the grass answer a flying male’s signal. Note how long she waits before flashing a response. With your LED light inside an open container, mimic the female’s pattern.

Step 3: Put any males that arrive into your lantern. At least 40 fireflies per lantern should give you plenty of light. Release them, unharmed, the next day.

Read 10 comments about “Make a firefly lantern”

1. 1 - jello73 says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 10:03 am

   cool

2. 2 - Nintentom says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm

   Very awesome uber cool

3. 3 - me says:
   August 12th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

   too bad there’s no fireflies where I live.
   Where do they live anyway?

4. 4 - Awesome scout1 says:
   August 13th, 2008 at 11:27 am

   Why can’t you just catch fireflies and stick them in a jar with air holes?

5. 5 - AWESOME SCOUT1 says:
   August 13th, 2008 at 11:27 am

   nice

6. 6 - bee says:
   August 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

   make a firefly lantern is cool

7. 7 - DingDong says:
   August 21st, 2008 at 1:06 pm

   Sounds cool. But, wouldn’t the lantern act like a strobe light, seeing as how fireflies flash their lights rather than run them steadily? And 40 fireflies? Wouldn’t it take a long time to catch them?

8. 8 - Boy Scout says:
   August 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

   Hey, BTSR in texas is a great place for fire fly catching during summer! I almost swollowed a couple ’cause they were swarming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :^)

9. 9 - Scoutlover155 says:
   September 21st, 2008 at 8:00 am

   I dont know what I would do without Boy’s Life!!!!

10. 10 - Rocky says:
    October 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 pm

    Awesome

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