Help on moth trap please (1 Viewer)

I'm just starting mothing and have been given help and advice by a friend locally. He has also loaned me a small Heath trap with a 6w Antinic bulb. I live in an area where this type of bulb is my only option as I have no wish to disturb neighbours. It's out tonight and I will see what my catch is like.

I've been investigating trap availability with this type of bulb and there are 20w and 40w options available. I presume the higher the wattage the better chance of attracting moths.

My question is will the higher wattage generate a light source that would be visible, or disturbing, to neighbours. The trap would be behind a fence and surrounding properties would be at least 20m away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

Phil

I use a Skinner twin 30w actinic trap for similar reasons and haven't had any complaints (yet!) after nearly a year. It's definitely not as good as an MV (I've read that it catches about 60% of an MV trap) but I doubt I'd get away with an MV anyway, and it's better to have something than nothing - also, I suspect that if I caught much more I'd be overwhelmed with tricky IDs! Starting slowly may help with the learning curve.

I use a 15w actinic trap which is placed behind a bush at the end of the garden and doesn't seem to disturb the neighbours. If you get the weather forecast wrong, then rain is not a problem with this sort of trap.

As Mark says you may not quite get the same number of moths but I still get plenty of variety and have managed Portland Ribbon Wave and Small Marbled in my modest little trap.

And you may need that extra half-hour to id that tricky micro...

Dave W

Thanks for the responses. Think I may go for a 20w one and see how it goes. Hard enough id'ing the 40/50 moths I had, in the 6w one I have borrowed, this morning.

Regards


Phil