National Moth Week is here!

National Moth Week is ON! :-) I plan to do as much moth observing as I can. Is anyone else going to be participating? See www.nationalmothweek.org for more info.

Should a Bioblitz of some sort be created?

There’s already a general project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2020

And many regional projects: https://www.inaturalist.org/search?q=national+moth+week+2020&source[]=projects

2 Likes

That’s awesome! I’ve joined and will add as many observations as I can during the remainder of the week.

1 Like

Moths moths moths! Moths are great, and there are a lot of them about!

But it’s not easy to do any nighttime moth-ing here in Manhattan, NYC, US, because sadly there is way too much light almost everywhere.

I guess we have to concentrate on day-flying moths and leafminer moths, that kind of thing.

1 Like

Maybe I’ll try a moth cloth again. Last week, on my patio, I only got a mayfly and a beetle. This time, perhaps I’ll try the balcony.

I tried a bunch of stuff tonight. A few moth cloths, a porch light, and a giant super LED. The porch light and the super LED were most successful.

1 Like

Last night, I tried a moth cloth on my balcony with a both a porch light and a black light. It seemed promising as that balcony faces trees and a small greenbelt. I got up several times to check it, but not one insect showed up to my party. Daytime highs have only been in the low 80s (F), nighttime lows in the high 50s (F).

Well, no reason not to keep trying.

2 Likes

Ouch! That’s sad. Are you in a very rural area, or are a lot of other lights around you? Gratefully, most of the neighbor’s lights are out by 11PM or so, thus I don’t have much ‘competition’.

Last night I got absolutely nothing on my moth cloths. Surprisingly, this time I got a bunch at the porch light versus very few at my big LED lighting fixture. I’m going to try blacklight fixtures tonight, if I can figure out how to mount my flashlight and decide where to put it.

At my porch light, I got my first live Pseudohemihyalea ambigua tonight :-) There were a bunch of antlions that showed up too, oddly.

1 Like

Hokey smokes!! That is just a gorgeous critter. :heart_eyes:

I’d say this is a shading of suburban to semi-rural (on the outside edge of a metro area) around here. That side of the building faces away from the city lights towards an area of less dense housing shading into semi-rural space within a few 10ths of a mile.

1 Like

Yes, they are so pretty. And there are pink ones which apparently are here …

Huh, I’m a bit less rural than that but I’m surprised because I’m getting plenty and in a similar spot. And you were even using a blacklight … huh. I will note that it has been raining here, so the ground has been damp - and the night temperatures were around 55-60F. Hope you get some luck in your favor tonight :-)

1 Like

Similar issues with my place. Someone just cleared out a lot of weeds behind my house recently and the defunct street lights (very bright) have been replaced and are working again. I’m fearing the worst for moth counts. End up having to wait for hours for one lucky break.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.