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Now that it's finally summer, the conditions are just right for making toads glow in the dark. I used to do this a lot when I was a kid and I had so much fun with it. You can actually make a toad's stomach light up and flash green if you can pull this off. Sometimes it's a bit hard to get the toad to cooperate but it's well worth it if you can.

Toads and frogs have very translucent underbellies. When you feed them a lightning bug, they will often light up. Sometimes the bug will just stop glowing after being eaten and you won't see anything. Other times you will see a faint flashing. You might even get a solid glow throughout their entire underbelly. If you feed it a lot of lightning bugs, it will flash all over it's belly. It's a lot of fun and the toad isn't hurt in the process. He just gets a free meal at the cost of some minor ridicule.

For this you will need a toad, some lightning bugs, a big jar or small aquarium with a lid, and some animal catching skills. The first thing you need to do is catch your toad. The best place to find them is usually below a light where they can eat the bugs attracted to it. I find them on the sidewalk below street lamps all the time. You want to get one that's about medium size (Around the size of a silver dollar). If you get one that's too big, the fat will actually block most of the glow. You can also use tree frogs. Smaller tree frogs have bodies that are mostly translucent so you can actually sometimes light up the whole frog. It's best to get a couple frogs or toads because not all of them will cooperate in captivity.

Now you need some lightning bugs. These can be caught with your bare hands but I recommend a small fishnet. They are easiest to catch at dusk. They come out when the sun is almost down and their lights will make them easy to find, but there will still be enough sunlight to clearly see the bug when its light isn't flashing. Get five or six lightning bugs and put them in a jar.

Now for the hard part. You need to get the toad to actually eat the lightning bugs. I like to put them into a 10 gallon aquarium with a lid on it so they have room to feel comfortable. You can do this in a jar but it's less likely to work. Toads won't always eat in captivity, and you want to make them as comfortable as possible so they will have the appetite. It also depends a lot on the actual toad. Some toads will happily devour anything they can under any circumstances. Some won't cooperate no matter how good a meal you give them. If it doesn't work at first put the container in a dark room or put a cloth over it. Leave it alone for a while and check back. It nothing happens, you might want to try another toad.  

If all goes well, the toad will eat some or all of the lightning bugs. You may not see the results at first, but if you take him out of the cage and turn him upside down, you should see a faint glow on his belly.