Sunday 12 July 2009

First attempt at trapping


When I was 12 years old I built a very basic moth trap which worked very well so I decided to try a similar design again, my wife laughed when I turned an old sheet, a broken frisbee and some bits of broom handle into what looked like a tent for garden gnomes with a hole and a light on top but she was amazed when after just 5 minutes I had 6 moths in there including a fine looking Poplar Hawk(see photo above). It was the best thing I caught but it proved my old design still worked, I left the trap out from 9pm till 3:30am and caught 14 different species so it wasn't a terrible start(probably 50 moths in total but a lot of duplication of species). I released all the moths after taking the photographs and as any moth catcher knows it is not a traumatic experience for them so no harm is done.
The most notable catches on the first night were Poplar Hawk, Common Emerald, Yellow Underwing, Scalloped Oak, Swallowtail, Buff Footman, Early Thorn, Riband Wave and Brimstone, there were a few there I didn't recognize but I shall attempt to identify them in due course.

1 comment:

  1. What a great start!
    My first ever trapping session I caught one Moth, albeit it was in February when it was freezing! get that trap out as often as you can at the moment whilst its mild :)

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