Ken Child’s setup

Ken Childs, who posts and comments about moths and mothing on the Facebook group, sent us this description of his setup:
The frame is made out of 3/4″ PVC pipe. I coated some scrap pieces of pvc with grease, put them in the holes in the cinder blocks and then filled the holes with concrete. Once the concrete set, I removed the pipes which left nice tight 3/4″ pvc sized holes to put the frame into. The pvc elbows are glued to the horizontal support but I wanted to keep this as portable as possible so the elbows are connected to the vertical supports with bolts for easy removal. That way the setup can be taken completely apart and moved if I want to try my mothing somewhere else. The sheet is a full fitted 50% cotton sheet. The lights are cheap tube black lights and they are hanging with hooks fashoned out of stiff wire. The center clamp fixture holds a 60 watt incandescent bulb. On the back of the sheet I have another clamp fixture with a CF black light. I actually get more moths on the back of the sheet. The strong lights on the front pulls them in but most will eventually settle down on the back side. With the heavy bricks as a base, it’s fairly stable but it’s been breezy lately so I attached the pipe on the right to one of my porch supports with a bungy cord. I clamped a piece of 1/2″ PVC on to the bottom of the sheet with binder clips. The pipe runs through 4 masonry bricks which pull down on the sheet, keeping it as taut as possible.
The incandescent bulb is occasionally turned off which seem to allow the moths a chance to settle down. I try to go with a 30 minutes on/30 minutes off cycle for as long as I’m a wake. At bedtime, I turn the incandescent light off.
 Ken Child's setup
Ken Child's setup

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