As a kid in Tennessee, every summer we'd get to watch "lightning bugs" (fireflies) put on a show. I have great memories of seeing them around the house and in the Smokies like in the video above.

A couple of years ago, I took my daughter on vacation and she got to see them for the first time in her life. Of course, I felt she needed the whole experience...not just looking, but catching them and putting them in a carefully crafted Mason jar habitat. For the uninitiated, that basically means a mason jar with some grass in it and some holes cut into the lid.

Just like I had done when I was a kid, she put the jar next to her bed and watched them light up her room as she went to sleep. She was pretty bummed out when I told her that they don't exist in Montana, but according to some people I'm wrong about that. There are several sources on the web that say that fireflies exist in all of the 48 contiguous states, including Montana. Now I hate to argue with the internet, but I've yet to meet anyone who can actually confirm that. Feel free to comment here or on our Facebook page and let me know where I can go to see some fireflies in this state.

As a final thought, I have to share that the reason I'm thinking about this subject isn't because of my upcoming vacation, but rather because I saw a news story about two people who thought that fireflies were actually aliens trying to capture and "beam them up"...A great reminder that people shouldn't misuse bath salts.

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