When we were kids, we spent summers with our paternal grandparents on their farm in southeastern VA. One year all the cousins were there together and we decided to see who could catch the most fireflies. We each caught a passel and hid the jars until bedtime at which point we released them... IN the house! My grandmother slept on the sofa at that time to be near my great-granny's room which was downstairs. Granny was quite ill and needed frequent attention day and night which she wanted only from Grandma. In the middle of the night, Granny woke and called out and Grandma woke too, to see hundreds of spots before her eyes. She thought she was having a stroke or had some severe eye problem, so she yelled and woke up my mom and aunts who came running. It took my mother about two seconds to realize what we had done, so they woke us all up, and at 1 AM we were collecting fireflies from the walls, drapes, etc. This meant we had to turn the lights on because they stop blinking when it gets really late. Needless to say we didn't get them all that night, but most got caught in a couple of days and returned to the out-of-doors. And we NEVER held a firefly catching contest again.
When we were kids, we spent summers with our paternal grandparents on their farm in southeastern VA. One year all the cousins were there together and we decided to see who could catch the most fireflies. We each caught a passel and hid the jars until bedtime at which point we released them... IN the house! My grandmother slept on the sofa at that time to be near my great-granny's room which was downstairs. Granny was quite ill and needed frequent attention day and night which she wanted only from Grandma. In the middle of the night, Granny woke and called out and Grandma woke too, to see hundreds of spots before her eyes. She thought she was having a stroke or had some severe eye problem, so she yelled and woke up my mom and aunts who came running. It took my mother about two seconds to realize what we had done, so they woke us all up, and at 1 AM we were collecting fireflies from the walls, drapes, etc. This meant we had to turn the lights on because they stop blinking when it gets really late. Needless to say we didn't get them all that night, but most got caught in a couple of days and returned to the out-of-doors. And we NEVER held a firefly catching contest again.