Skinner Moth Trap Help (1 Viewer)

[Steve Waite]

Last night, I used a Skinner Moth Trap for the first time, in my front garden. The lamp came on at 21:30.

Later on, just after midnight I noticed a few spots of rain, so I rushed out there to make sure the bulb was keeping dry, and is was. Whilst here I noticed stacks and STACKS of moths, most of them inside the trap. Result!

I went back inside, and the drizzle stopped. At 03:40 it began raining again, this time REALLY hard, so I decided to turn the light off, it was timed to switch off at 04:30 any how.

At 05:00 as it became light I went outside to check my catch....and my catch was RUBBISH! Compared with the 50+ moths I could see in the trap and mid night (and that was without looking under egg trays), there were only about 10 left!

Where and why did they all escape? Was it because the light was turned off too early? Or was it something to do with the rain. The whole trap was sheltered though and remained dry.

Help please.....!!!???

 

[Bennyboymothman]

Yes it was probably due to it being turned off too early, its amazing how quickly most of the Moths warm-up and fly away.
For example, I run a trap out in the field but not all night as my powerpack only has 5 hours of juice, when my time is up I leave the light on, search the trap and do counts etc.....coming to the point, I switch it off, then start lugging the gear back to the car leaving the Moths to fly off on their own accord, usually this is within 10 minutes, as when I return to the trap/sheet most have gone or the last remaining few are warming-up.
Remember that Moths will fly well before dusk, and if its a particularly warm morning then they will do the same at dawn, flying just as its getting light i.e about 4am.

Also Skinner traps out of all the designs i've tried retains the least amount of Moths, I prefer using a Robinson funnel design myself.

 

[honeym]

Hi Steve

If you turn off the bulb you must plug up the holes in the neck of the funnel to stop the moths escaping. I use wads of tissue paper.

Do you use any sort of bulb protection?

I use a large inverted Pyrex cafetierre but you can also use a large Pyrex bowl. That way tou can leave the bulb on all night (as I did on Saturday night and had a large catch with several new macros and micros.

Martin

 

[Steve Waite]

Thanks Guys,

Tonight I'm going to get up at about 3am and plug up the holes after turning the trap off.

How essential is it to check traps early in the morning if the holes aren't plugged? At some bird obs I've stayed in they certainly weren't in a rush to check the traps in the mornings, sometimes not getting to then til mid morning.

Sorry for all the questions...I'm very much on the learning curve!

 

[dantheman]

On a learning curve meself, but I think you want to be ensuring the trap is not going to be in direct sunlight any time and there is plenty of resting spaces (eggboxes inside).

I imagine the idea is that the moths inside feel as 'safe' resting up inside as if they were finding a natural roosting site in vegetation during the daytime - so ambient light present from above (as in daylight), and shelter/distinct shade inside...

And I believe a rain front can result in a big 'fall' of moths in the right conditions (not so sure about constant rain though).

 

[antshrike69]

One drawback with leaving it too long is that the birds take any moths on/around the trap. If I get up at 4, there's lots around the trap itself. By 5, there's not a single moth other than in the trap itself.

 

[dantheman]

And to help ameliorate (correct word?!) the effects I remember reading a while back about putting a wire netting cage around the trap. The moths get through, but cats and blackbirds etc don't. Anyone tried it? Also having long grass/low shrubby plants right next to the trap can help if you don't get to it right away, whereas very short mown grass will of course make it obvious to any predators where the moths are. (Make it difficult for the mother too as well I suppose...)

 

[antshrike69]

I'd wondered about trying chicken wire or something, but thought the moths might just rest on that instead. It's usually the geometrids that rest on the outside and get eaten by the Blackbirds, Sparrows and frogs here.

 

[Davebutterflyman]

Hi.

I've had geometers picked off the trap as well by Blackbirds whilst the trap has been left overnight and was confirmed by the webcam footage i played back the following day.On a few occasions i had left a webcam recording from the laptop to try and capture a Bank vole that was visiting our garden when i lived in Cheshire and to my amazement the footage revealed at least two Blackbirds picking off moths from the side of the trap!.If i still have the footage i'll post it on here.It's a case of the early bird catches the moth and not the worm in this instance and it poses a bit of a quandary and maybe the only way to do it would be to beat the birds to it and jar the moths on the outside of the trap before they are up and about.This solution is probably ok for insomniacs like myself but not for everyone!.

Dave.

 

[socksitis]

I find if I am up at 4.30 or just before that is about the time the outside of the trap is as crowded as the inside, so pot up outside, remove bulb, towel over and trap in the shade - word of advice here - midges, don't wear a nightdress, stick to pyjamas due to midge bites when viewing the trap, midges flying out towards nether regions!!

If I leave it till 6.30, no moths on outside of trap
Thankfully milkman does not arrive till 7am, otherwise poor chap would have a shock

 

[Davebutterflyman]

That could be both painful and embarassing!

Dave.

 

[Steve Waite]

Thanks folks for all your help. In the end I got up at 4am, collected all surrounding moths, then blocked up and turned off trap. Had an excellent selection.

I am a total novice, some species I'm comfortable with though already, but there are several still unidentified from this morning. So, look out on the ID thread...