We are doing a moth survey from of our garden this year for a study in the département, but while waiting for the moth traps to arrive I've been leaving an outside light on & photographing all the visitors. Since then I decided to start the "sugar trap". I cooked up a litre of cheap wine & 1 Kg of sugar & put 2 natural ropes in the mixture & left to soak for a few days.
Then last night I suspended the ropes between 2 trees in the orchard (photo taken this morning)
Then while Ron was watching the Golf on TV, I was nipping in & out to see if there were any moths having a tipple. The first time I went out there were 2 who stayed until I went to bed & were gone at 5am when I went out to see if there were any more. I was really chuffed as I didn't think I'd get much.
This is a Herald :
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This is Angle Shades
You can see they are both eating, I only hope they didn't have a hangover this morning!! I've left the ropes out so maybe I'll get something else tonight.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
I can see why people get hooked on moths. There's such a huge number of varieties and wonderful colours and patterns. I've got a cousin (in law) who is really into it and has produced a book.
I love the Buff-tip, wonderful camouflage. The Giant Peacocks are really spectacular though.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
I have just been offered the loan of a professional kit and now the kids have headed back to uni I just might go for it - I don't think I will get the same sort of results but would be very interested to see what we have in the garden that the special bats don't hoover up :)
Caroline in Jersey
Cin J
You've set the bar high with all your wonderful species HinGE, makes me wonder just what we have here in UK! Was running around like an idiot on Saturday at local nature reserve trying to get a pic of one I'd not seen before but no luck, it was too fast for me!
Please have a go CinJ & show us what you get!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Germain said: I have just been offered the loan of a professional kit and now the kids have headed back to uni I just might go for it - I don't think I will get the same sort of results but would be very interested to see what we have in the garden that the special bats don't hoover up :) Caroline in Jersey
If you do you'll have to post the photos & we can compare notes!
WendyBartter said:Was running around like an idiot on Saturday at local nature reserve trying to get a pic of one I'd not seen before but no luck, it was too fast for me!
It's a lot easier with the moth trap, they just sit there!! However whenever we go for a walk at the moment we do twice the distance (at least) chasing butterflies around!!
Unknown said:well done on your Rope idea and the Ikea fish Moth trap , really good ideas :)
Thanks Birdie Wild I'm really enjoying it. I'm afraid I can't claim to the invention as it was all written down by someone who's done it before in the same way. The Ikea trap as it's known is the recommended system as far as I can work out.
So far almost all the I.D's have been right but I'm no expert. I only started looking at moths around 6 years ago (along with the arrival of our 1st digital camera & computer) & then met some other insect lovers & it went on from there.
I decided to go for broke & put an old sheet on the ground with the trap in the middle & various roof tiles & egg boxes scattered around for the casual caller. I set this up last Friday evening.
At 6h00 I was up & out to see what I had, the tally was better than ever. There were 43 moths, with 33 species, of which 12 were new for this year! Around half were outside the trap so it looked like the new system worked. These are the best of them,the first is one of 2 White Ermine moths,
This is a Crambus pascuella, no common name, & is a micro-moth, I took the photo with the lamp on in case it flew off,
An Oak Hook-tip, a lovely big moth,
a Lydd Beauty, which was sitting on one of the tiles,
a Poplar grey, also a large moth, in one of the egg boxes,
a Treble Lines, you can see why it is called that, except that I can see 4 of them!!
a Marbled Minor also in an egg box,
This one is tricky, I think it's a Sablia sicula, no common name, but not sure,
& finally a lovely beetle which the book says is a common visitor to Moth traps
That's it for a couple of weeks, off on my holidays on Wednesday.
Lovely update and photos Hazel, you are having tremendous success with the moth trap, its amazing how many different varieties you catch.
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Regards, Hazel
Some fabulous moths Hazel - you've had so many different species now. Hope you have a good holiday - don't forget to take the camera!
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
Great collection of moths you are getting, Hazel. Have a good trip to the UK. I hope you have time to visit a few reserves as well as seeing your relatives.
If it's any comfort the weather is supposed to be improving over here by midweek. Typical, just as I'm leaving for eastern Europe.