My first night trapping

[whaleomeloette]

Originally Posted by GuyF

Well done for getting started, I should warn you it will get very addictive
It's worth remembering that the higher the light is the more obvious it will be to passing moths, so the more likely they are to see it and come to the trap (sorry to mention that now you've made the adjustments!), quite a few traps have the bulb mounted vertically above. Having said that, it shouldn't make too much of a difference, and your design should make sure that moths attracted to the light do end up in the trap!

Guy

but if its too high wont they just fly by the light then fly off? that is why i went for the robinson design

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by whaleomeloette

but if its too high wont they just fly by the light then fly off? that is why i went for the robinson design

I think it varies quite a lot with different moths. Some may fly in, hit the light then fall down in to the trap below. Often they miss the light on their first attempt and end up landed close by, where they may settle. Otherwise they will take-off towards the light again and continue circling until they hit it, which usually means they end up inside the trap. This probably doesn’t work as well with smaller, lighter species as they don’t have the momentum in flight to bounce off the light so they end up settling near it – I often find geometers and micros resting on top of the trap. Many traps have ‘baffles’ in the funnel, although I’m not too sure how these would work on a Skinner trap. But these should prevent moths from flying past the light, as they collide with the baffle and end up falling into the trap instead.

Guy

[whaleomeloette]

ta for clearing that up

[Miss Caretaker]

Originally Posted by GuyF

Well done for getting started, I should warn you it will get very addictive
It's worth remembering that the higher the light is the more obvious it will be to passing moths, so the more likely they are to see it and come to the trap (sorry to mention that now you've made the adjustments!), quite a few traps have the bulb mounted vertically above. Having said that, it shouldn't make too much of a difference, and your design should make sure that moths attracted to the light do end up in the trap!

Guy

It's really trial and error at the moment and the plans I followed did have the lights at the height that I now have them at. I'll see if I can beat last night's count of 14 and if I do I may keep them that way. If it's even worse I can easily put it back how it was. It's been on for 40 mins so far tonight and I've just had a sneaky peek and so far there's 1 in there and it's not raining yet so fingers crossed
Jo

[Miss Caretaker]

Well, last night was even more disappointing, due to the weather I think. It was quite cold for the time of year so I ended up with 1 x Blastobasis adustella and 2 x Chrysoteuchia culmella. I even got up earlier (6am) to check it but it made no difference. I'm off work for 2 weeks now so every suitable night I'll be putting it out to see what happens and hopefully the weather wil improve and therefore the catch. I did find one Noctuid that had popped in to the living room for the evening but I couldn't get a decent pic for identification; any ideas?

It's too blurred for me to be happy with any of my id's...
Jo

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by Miss Caretaker

Well, last night was even more disappointing, due to the weather I think. It was quite cold for the time of year so I ended up with 1 x Blastobasis adustella and 2 x Chrysoteuchia culmella. I even got up earlier (6am) to check it but it made no difference. I'm off work for 2 weeks now so every suitable night I'll be putting it out to see what happens and hopefully the weather wil improve and therefore the catch. I did find one Noctuid that had popped in to the living room for the evening but I couldn't get a decent pic for identification; any ideas?

It's too blurred for me to be happy with any of my id's...
Jo

Quite hard to tell, but I think it may be a Vine's Rustic. It definitely looks like one of the species from that group, and as your moth looks very fresh Vine's Rustic would be the most likely option, but I'm not at all sure either!
Guy

[peter2009]

Jo,
If your not prepared to get up for 4-30-5-00am then you shouldn't be trapping,the robins and sparrows will have a field day by 6-00am.

peter

[Miss Caretaker]

Peter, the time that you have to empty the trap is one of the things that I have been unable to find. I was going on the sunrise times and as this is only the second time I have done this, telling me I shouldn't be doing it as I'm "not prepared to get up" is a little harsh! I was assuming that the time you need to empty it varies with the time of year and simply letting me know that I needed to do it earlier would have been a much nicer way of saying it

[nutmeg]

Just keep doing it and experiment with what works best for you

I'm not one for really early mornings so I stay up with the trap (not all the time but I do like to pot up any moths that don't go in), which does limit trapping to weekends and holidays! I then switch off the lamp, put a cover over, and then I can get up at 7ish and go through it. I do tend to nod off during the day, though . I probably miss things by not having it out all night, but I seem to get enough to keep me happy

A lot depends on the weather conditions too as you know (plus all sorts of other variables). Last night was a good one for me - not huge numbers but a good variety - but I didn't even bother during last week because I knew it was too clear and cold.

[Miss Caretaker]

My original plan was to stay up for a couple of hours with the trap but it was so wet outside (though not actually raining) that I opted to leave it until the morning. I'm not great with late nights or early mornings so, like you, I'm limited to weekends and holidays.
How long before sunset should the trap go out and how long after (or before) sunrise should it come in?
What do you use to pot them up as I don't have anything for that yet. I am very short of cash (as you can tell by the amount of money I spent on the trap!) so is there something I can use in the meanwhile to pot them up? Would those plastic tubs that you get with take-a-ways be ok even though they are opaque and not transparent?
Jo