Attracting Moths

In the last few years I’ve been trying to learn more about the moths we have at the farm.  Since moths fly mostly at night, I’ve been using both bait and lights to attract them so I can get a look at them.  Here are explanations of the techniques I use.  Read more

Here are some tips on lights for mothing that I copied from a recent disucussion on the Moth Watching Facebook page:

Hugh McGuinness – The first big decision you are going to have to make is whether or not you will use MV lamps. If so, the more wattage the better. Second, you need UV lights no matter what. A fifteen watt lamp works really well, but more watts is probably always better. Third, I find that having a variety of lights is effective. For example I have two flourescent fixtures that accommodate two bulbs. I put a UV bulb in one and a normal or full spectrum bulb in the other. I find that combo very successful. Also if you are not using MV then make sure you have an incandescent light on as well–I put my UV right next to the incandescent bulb.

Merrill Lynch – I agree with Hugh that a combination of lights works best. I use a UV fluorescent next to a cfl all spectrum on my porch with a MV/sheet combination nearby in the yard. I notice some moths are more attracted to the cfl than the UV light and others seem to gravitate to the MV. So, a combination of all three is best, I think. Also, I have several light traps that I’ve made that use the standard Bioquip UV rig (15 W) with ballast along with plexiglass vanes and aluminum funnel mounted over a 5gal plastic bucket. This is powered by a deep cycle 12V battery rated at 16 amps that is relatively lightweight and powerful enough to run the light all night. This setup is easy to take down and light enough to move around easily and is great for remote sampling.

I use single fixture 18″ UV bulbs like Bioquip sells. My CFL and UVA lights are about 10 ft apart. What I like about the Bioquip 160W MV bulb is its self-ballasted. Most of the bulbs online and in home improvement stores require expensive ballasts.

For more information log on  to the Resource and Finding moths pages.

If you have techniques and tips to share with other moth’ers or know of good websites that not yet linked on nationalmothweek.org – please write to us.

Step 1. Locate a suitable patch of forest, field, or desert.

Step 2. Wait for a warm, moonless summer night.

Step 3. Using a long extension cord, plug in a blacklight. Or even better, a mercury-vapor lamp.

Step 4. Sit back and watch your prey arrive.*

Read more

From Scientific American Blogs, 6 December, 2011

Seabrooke Leckie is a freelance biologist and writer living in rural eastern Ontario. She holds a B.Sc.H. in Zoology and has worked on field research contracts in many parts of the continent, from California to Québec, British Columbia to Ohio, as well as her home province of Ontario. She discovered moths quite by accident one summer while away on contract, and they’ve since become her number one passion. Birds are her second interest; she is a federally-licensed bird bander and volunteers each summer with a local bird research organization. She’s the co-author of the new Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, and has been involved with other publications such as the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and the newsletter of the Ontario Field Ornithologists. Most afternoons you can find her outdoors, peering closely at flora and fauna, camera in hand; nights, of course, are spent at her moth sheet. She blogs her discoveries at her website, seabrookeleckie.com.

Seabrooke sent this photos and description of her setup:

This is what I use for most of my mothing while I’m at home. The sheet is tacked to the side of our log home with thumbtacks/pushpins. This section of the wall is protected by a 5-foot-wide roof overhang and is about 12 feet long, which keeps the sheet and light bulb out of the rain except in windy conditions. The trap is homemade; the funnel and socket were made for me from materials available at the local home improvement store by the co-author of the PFG to Moths, David Beadle; I chose the tub and bulb. The bulb is a 250W mercury vapour, which is probably a little overkill but all they had when I was looking to buy a MV bulb. Inside, the trap is filled with egg cartons – I should emphasize that it’s a live trap, so captured moths are released the next morning; I don’t maintain a pinned collection (my collection is all in photos on my hard drive). Our home is in a rural setting, surrounded by open meadow bordered by mixed forests, so we get a lot of diversity here. One of these days I’ll actually get around to counting up how many species I’ve seen.

]]> https://nationalmothweek.org/2011/12/07/meet-our-partners-%e2%80%93-seabrooke-leckie/feed/ 0 870 https://nationalmothweek.org/2011/10/29/jennifers-new-mercury-vapor-lamp-setup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jennifers-new-mercury-vapor-lamp-setup https://nationalmothweek.org/2011/10/29/jennifers-new-mercury-vapor-lamp-setup/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:12:37 +0000 http://nationalmothweek.org/?p=313

This is my new mercury vapor lamp setup, or as I like to call it, my “non-trapping light trap.” Hopefully no bugs will be harmed in the taking of my photos this spring and summer.

Jennifer Forman Orth (Massachusetts)

Here’s my little set up that I mainly use–pillowcase on a dowel, hung over a light fixture. In the fixture I’ve tried ordinary CFLs, “black light” CFL, and the black incandescent light bulb from Spencer’s. I sometimes move the cloth around to other fixtures that have incandescent bulbs. Of course the moths land on the siding, the cloth, glass sliding door, ceiling, anywhere they like.

 Fran Cutrell Rutkovsky

I squished an over ripe golden petite plum on the wall a little by the porch light to see what would happen. The juice is on the left side of the light. (Howard Pirtle -Washington)

Mercury Vapor Light on back of wood shed (pillow case instead of sheet for better photos on the wood surface). The fine pillow case came from Ocean State Job lot so it was the best $3.00 could buy… Fran, this is the back of my wood shed that is adjacent to my back patio. The pillow cases are stapled to the wall. Makes for a nice firm setup with no wind motion…(Dave Small – Massachusetts)

2 backlights around a pillowcase on front breezeway. Great on rainy nights. The MV light is under an overhang and the rain, even hard rain, doesn’t hit it, The Breezeway is covered so that is also weather friendly… Both of these setups stay up all the time (I’ll take down the pillow cases after the freezing gets serious…) Both lights are on auto timers that come on at dusk… The MV runs all night unless I turn it off in the early am to get the moths out before the birds show up. The front street facing Blacklight comes on at dusk and I have a Christmas light timer that I can set to run for 2, 4, or 6 hours, or dawn to dusk. So the system is on auto pilot. All I have to do is meander out several times an evening (and early morning) and see what is flying…(Dave Small – Massachusetts)

This is only my first full year of serious mothing. I started with simply by adding 2 black light CFLs to the two front porch lights. Later in this season, I found a large piece of canvas & added a 12″ or so black light fluorescent bulb, which sits on a bench. As you can see, it’s simple, but works. And best of all, all I have to do is walk out the front door for checks. I live near the New River but the immediate home is pasture. Mixed hardwood forests nearby. (Jackie Nelson – )

The $12.95 Wally World black light is a recent addition. I haven’t used it much and almost never without the floods also being on. (I don’t want to stumble over something and fall off the porch. It’s ten feet to the ground.) As far as I can tell, the UV light makes no difference.

I attribute the success of my super-minimal setup to the fact we live out in the boonies, surrounded by mixed hardwood and pine woods. There’s also quite a bit of unimproved pasture in our general area. The closest competing light source is about a mile away.

If I ever get around to it, I plan to add a sheet or some kind of cloth under the flood lights. That won’t help attract moths, but should improve the background of my photos. Until then, I’ll claim to own one of the most frequently photographed siding panels in the world. (Marvin Smith)