If anyone has run a moth night which was open to members of the public to attend, can you offer any tips on what is needed?
I think I will have access to 2 or 3 lights and sheets, but I haven’t decided on a venue yet. Obviously it needs to not be at someone’s home. I don’t know if I need to get permission to set up in a public park or the like, or what sort of venue would be best.
Any hints would be very welcome!
I’ve never run a public anything… but a few questions to get to good answers:
What is your reason for the public moth night? Will it have a target group of people?
Adults? Teens? Kids? Mixed?
Where are you? City? Town? Rural?
It would be run mainly for a local field naturalists club, but open to other interested people. We can advertise it on our iNat project, which has many members who are not actually members of the field nats. We also have instagram, facebook and a blog where our activities are posted about. So anyone who reads or subscribes to those would be welcome to attend. Someone has suggested to me to advertise through Humanitix for bookings so we can keep an eye on numbers, and easily cancel if the weather is totally unsuitable on the night.
The reason for running it is the upcoming Great Southern BioBlitz. Getting people excited about nightlife they are probably unaware of is a side benefit.
We are in a regional town, surrounded by rural land and bushland. I’m thinking of possibly using a park on the edges of the town so close to bushland - we have lots of possibilities for that.
The answers will vary wildly depending on your location. Around here (US, Upper Midwest, large metro area with lots of natural areas), most parks here don’t allow entry after dark or after, say, 10 pm. So you will have to contact whatever park area you are considering for their rules and perhaps get permission to hold an after dark event.
I attended a moth night last month at a local Nature Center near me. They don’t normally allow after dark visitors but they held this in conjunction with a Bioblitz (it was not an iNat project) and Moth Week. They had two people running two different set ups - both were volunteers that regularly worked with the center.
I was eager to attend because this isn’t something I could set up on my own. I didn’t get many moths that night (it was still early when we left since sunset was later in the day) but I got lots of other insects. The moths showed up a few hours later for those who lingered. The teeny tiny bit I learned is that you want to be careful around UV lights - which you likely know. You would have to set it up so someone couldn’t inadvertently look into it.
And my personal tip - invest in one of those hats that keep bugs away from your face. I had a hard time getting next to the sheet to photograph insects without being swarmed by all the small insects flying around. It was just hard to focus with them getting into my eyes, ears, nose and mouth!
On the off chance an event in Minnesota could share tips with you, the center that held the event was Carpenter Nature Center. https://carpenternaturecenter.org/
https://carpenternaturecenter.org/event/bioblitz/
https://carpenternaturecenter.org/event/wisconsin-campus-bioblitz/
Sounds awesome and fun!
Check with the parks, some do close at dusk, and it’s always better to check. (Yes, I’ve gotten locked in a park, and yes it is embarrassing to call to be let out.)
Bugging at night should be encouraged! I think the coolest ones are out then, and promoting it as a group activity will help those who are unsure of being out alone in the dark.
Keep us up on how it shapes up, and definitely with the turn out!
The only public Moth Nights I’ve been to have been at someone’s house. The president of my local birding and nature club hosts a Moth Ball every year; he and his wife have been doing it for maybe 10 years? With help from friends, he sets up two sheets in his yard and also has lights on sheets or walls against his house. Most years he paints bait on trees along a trail. The event starts at 9 PM in July (to coincide with National Moth Week) and goes until whenever people decide to leave (the hosts have been known to go to bed before everyone else leaves). It’s also a pot-luck, so people bring snacks, beer, etc. More than 60 people came this year, according to his guestbook. It’s great fun and a wonderful chance to get to talk to other naturalists. As far as I know, there have never been any problems. Well, one year a mama bear and three cubs were in the yard when we wanted to set up in the afternoon; that delayed set-up a bit, but she and the cubs moved on within 30 minutes or so and it was great to see them. I wouldn’t rule out doing a moth night at someone’s house.
I have never organized a public moth night, or any public event, but have read that sheets or old rags or any pieces of cloth soaked in a smelly and sweet mixture and hung up in the evening will attract moths (source: The Amateur Naturalist by Nick Baker). I used water, honey, and sugar, but it was too early in the season to attract moths. Oops.
Thanks everyone.
@mmmiller - The Carpenter Nature Center event sounds like it was fantastic! I would have wanted to go to that.
I have my own light setup, which I use at home regularly, so attracting moths won’t be a problem. Another regular moth-light user will be there with her set-up as well.
We probably won’t have to be there too late at night as daylight saving hasn’t started yet so it gets dark fairly early still.
The sort of parks I’m talking about don’t have gates or fences and don’t close, so that’s not an issue.
I have found I need to get a permit from the local council, which takes 2 weeks, and prove I have public liability insurance, which the field nats club does.
Any other practicalities I haven’t thought of might just be learned the hard way.
Call the local police beforehand and explain to them what you’re doing.
Sometimes municipal parks without gates, fences, or any other entry control still do have closing times. Of course without entry control or constant patrols, there’s no point in trying to enforce them, so nobody bothers, and it’s easy to forget they exist.
But if you’re organizing an event that will feature a crowd of people, bright lights in the dark, and probably some sound from people talking, it’s possible someone might decide to enforce that closing time on you for one reason or another. It’s worth looking into, at least.
Vireya — I just got this email about a public moth night. If you’re interested, DM me, and I’ll put you in touch with the organizers. I deleted their emails in this post, so that their emails wouldn’t appear on this public forum, in order to limit their spam email. I hope this adds value for you!
Adam
From: Antonia Guidotti
Sent: 2024 Sep 3, 6:33 AM
Subject: Owen Sound Moth Night - Wed Sept 4
This is a Toronto Entomology Association / Owen Sound Field Naturalists Event!
Wednesday, Sept. 4, 8 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 5, 7 a.m. to open moth traps
OWEN SOUND MOTH NIGHT
Leader: Alan Macnaughton
We are partnering with Owen Sound Field Naturalists for this event. The moth night will start with viewing and releasing moths captured the night before. Both light and bait will be used to attract moths.
We will want to identify and record the moths as they arrive, perhaps by uploading observations to the www.iNaturalist.ca website – it can identify observations to species with at least 90% accuracy. This is the first time we have had the event later in the season, so there should be a lot of species we haven’t seen on previous moth nights. Bring either phones or regular cameras.
Please register in advance with John Dickson
Where is this happening? I assume not in my area?
@sambiology does this on the regular, I think.
All going to depend on how rural of an area you live in. I’m lucky enough to be out in the boonies where we can pretty much just wander out into many of the public forests at night and set up lights and a sheet and no one will care. Cops drop by and I say I’m catching moths and they roll their eyes and keep moving. I’ve had as many as 7-8 people join for a night of mothing at a wildlife management area and there’s no special permission required or anything. As long as you’re not doing illegal drugs or giving booze to minors, you can pretty much just hang out in the woods all night if you want to in a lot of places.
In the USA, National Forests and Bureau of Land Management land is often wide open to set up lights whenever and wherever you want, as long as you have a vehicle capable of getting around on the dirt roads. Many allow you to camp out for free for up to 2 whole weeks if you’re out of the way and camping a certain number of yards away from any paved roads. Check what’s around you- I’m often astounded by how strict some places are about just taking a walk at night, and how lax others are with their regulations. Every place is different, so it’s hard to make any generalizations.
Unfortunately if you’re in a more suburban/urban setting there’s usually loads of red tape if you want to go into a public wood lot at night. If that’s the case, I’d say reach out to a specific local park or recreation department that’s already advertising nature-related events and offer to host one for them. I’ve hosted nights for our local recreation commission here and they’ll take care of advertising to the public- you just bring the lights and show everyone the moths.
My word of advice though is to make sure they understand that you need to be out late to see the good moths. Twice now I’ve gone to public moth “events” where they ended the event and sent everyone home at 10:00! Hardly any moths flying yet by then on a summer night when it’s not dark til after 9:00. And hope you don’t get someone who’s a stickler for insurance. “Oh you’re bringing electrical equipment to a public event at our venue… do you carry personal liability insurance in case of an accident?” I’ve had that question a couple times, and I just find a different place to go. Too much hassle IMO. lol
I’m lucky to do these public events quite regularly! As a matter of fact, we’re doing one this Thursday in Dallas!
As with all nature events, targeting an audience is important – if you want to broadcast it to lots and lots of folks, work with the public parks department to promote it. I am lucky to be part of a large naturalist community here in Dallas/Fort Worth, so we do regular bioblitzes/gatherings, and I make sure to toss these on a journal entry and tag some of the ‘big hitters’ – here’s my journal post of the fall events happening around North Central Texas:
Events happening in/around DFW (and a few elsewhere in TX!) this fall! Aug - Dec · iNaturalist
Depending on the size of the audience you’d expect, I’d try to get as many ‘stations’ as you can. These can be relatively cheap – here’s a journal post where I talk about my set ups:
My black-light set up! · iNaturalist
Some of the events that I’ve been able to lead have a LOT of people – in these cases, more stations you have, the better. A few weeks ago, we had 120 people show up for a blacklighting event/star gazing. I brought my 8 stations, and several other folks brought theirs.
Prairie Notes #213 - Drawn to the Light — Friends of Tandy Hills
The absolute most important thing, I think, is the relationships with the public parks department so that trust can develop – I do lots of these blacklighting events in really urban parks with tons of light pollution, and that can be the first step into generating interest from the general public in doing these sort of things in their own areas.