Catching moths in winter

As winter is slowly waning, the days getting longer and the nights milder, it becomes a bit more pleasant to leave the house and see what wildlife might be around in the neighbourhood, also tentatively poking its head out from hibernation and eager to get out and about. One way of doing this is moth trapping.

During the winter months the chances of seeing a butterfly are very small, a lone Tortoiseshell might emerge from hibernation by mistake on an unusually warm day and flutter about for a short while confusedly, but this is rare and upon realising their mistake they have to go back into hibernation quickly or they will die from the cold.

This is because butterflies are exothermic, they rely upon the heat of the sun to warm up their bodies.

Adapted for winter

Moths can be seen in the winter though, as some species have adaptations to keep themselves warm without relying upon the sun. The December moth, for example, has compounds in its blood which act like antifreeze and can force the water from its body to avoid becoming frozen solid,it and other species can also vibrate to generate heat. Moths are a lot hairier than butterflies too and species that fly in the depths of winter can be exceptionally hairy.

Butterfly conservation.org has a guide to which moths that can be found in February

Attracting moths

As with species of moths that you find flying in spring and summer you can also lure winter moths with a torch and a white sheet at night. This is one of my favourite ways of attracting them and the easiest too but in order to see winter species, you might have to turn to other methods. These methods are called ‘baiting’ or ‘sugaring’, and usually use some form of sweet smelling concoction.

There are many different recipes which lepidopterists or moth aficionados (mothicionados?) use to attract moths and no particular recipe is better than others as different species are attracted to different smells and at different times of the year. One popular mixture is made of apple sauce, brown sugar and wine, another uses melted pear drops, many use beer. One of my favourite recipes uses dark beer and is as follows;

Ingredients;

1 overripe banana, the mushier the better

A glass of dark beer, Guinness works well

A splash of dark rum

And a spoon or two of black treacle

Method;

First mash up the banana, then mix in the other ingredients, use an old sandwich box for convenience.

Leave this somewhere to ferment.

In the evening, when it’s been sat for a while to get lovely and gooey, find an old paintbrush or a stiff piece of card and take the concoction out to the garden or a nearby wood.

Paint the mixture on a tree trunk or fence post about 4 or 5 feet from the ground and in patches about 6 inches across, be aware that it will stain the wood!

This method uses an overripe banana as they release an odor that contains a compound called ‘3-methyl-1-butylacetate’, also known as isopentylacetate, which insects find irresistible.

Bananas are often placed in butterfly houses to attract them to places where visitors can see them and this also works in the garden, it’s quite a good trick to use if you want to be surrounded by them whilst sat out in the summer and a cheap way of impressing guests too!. This compound is also a main part of the pheromone that bees release when they’re angry in order to summon others to their aid.

This method of baiting, and the simpler method of using a sheet hung over a washing line with a torch pointed at it, work best when there is a very gentle breeze, especially if the breeze is heading downwind from your baiting station.

So it’s worth having a look about in the daytime to find out if there’s any bushes or other hiding places that they might be lurking in and which you can tempt them out of. Nights when it’s above 5°C and a little bit humid are more productive.

As the nights can still be a bit cold at this time of year it’s best to wrap up and take a flask with you, or maybe a bottle of wine and a couple of chairs. Of course you need an identification book or your phone with you find out what your looking at, and maybe a camera with a decent macro lense, although the cameras on modern phones are more than up to the job now.

If you do decide to spend an evening moth trapping you’ll find it’s a very pleasant way of unwinding and finding some peace and quiet, of practising ‘mindfulness‘. Each moth is unique and they can be strikingly beautiful to look at closely, so it’s also a good way of appreciating the beauty of nature.

If you are still and listen carefully you’ll also get to notice other nocturnal creatures, which will start to emerge as they get used to your presence, you might even see or hear an Owl, a Hedgehog, Foxes or even a Badger!

The Moth and the Star, by James Thurber

A young and impressionable moth once set his heart on a certain star.

He told his mother about this and she counseled him to set his heart on a lamp instead.

“Stars aren’t the things to hang around,” she said; “lamps are the things to hang around.”

“You get somewhere that way,” said the moth’s father. “You don’t get anywhere chasing stars.”

But the moth would not heed the words of either parent. Every evening at dusk when the star came out he would start flying toward it and every morning at dawn he would crawl back home worn out with his vain endeavor.

One day his father said to him, “You haven’t burned a wing in months, boy, and it looks to me as if you were never going to.

All your brothers have been badly burned flying around street lamps and all your sisters have been terribly singed flying around house lamps.

Come on, now, get yourself scorched! A big strapping moth like you without a mark on him!”

The moth left his father’s house, but he would not fly around street lamps and he would not fly around house lamps.

He went right on trying to reach the star, which was four and one-third light years, or twenty-five trillion miles, away.

The moth thought it was just caught in the top branches of an elm.

He never did reach the star, but he went right on trying, night after night, and when he was a very, very old moth he began to think that he really had reached the star and he went around saying so.

This gave him a deep and lasting pleasure, and he lived to a great old age.

His parents and his brothers and his sisters had all been burned to death when they where quite young.

The moral of the story is:

He who flies afar from the sphere of our sorrow is here today and here tomorrow.

(James Thurber 1894-1961)

A B-H