Moth trapping 2.0: Supporting new recorders in Yorkshire
Following on from our success last year, NEYEDC are once again supporting beginner moth recorders across Yorkshire. This time, we’re embarking on a new challenge - building and using our own moth traps!
Volunteers attending the session, delivered by Pete Boardman.
Last year, as part of our partnership in the DECIDE project, we armed over 20 beginner recorders with moth traps, training them to record and identify moths throughout Yorkshire. Our aim was to gather feedback from our cohort for the DECIDE team on how new recorders responded to accessing and using the DECIDE Tool, whilst collecting valuable data on moths across Yorkshire. The initiative was a great success, with 273 species recorded between April – October, totalling 1,586 records of 3,173 individual moths, plus our volunteers gained valuable skills in moth ID and recording making.
This year we wanted to continue the legacy of our work on the DECIDE project and support recording in the region, encouraged by the last year’s results and enthusiasm - with a twist. With last year’s DECIDE traps already distributed to our existing volunteers, we were left moth trap-less! Undeterred, we set about building our own moth trap prototype to allow us to host our new volunteers for a moth trap building session, and provide them with the tools to get started as a beginner recorder.
With a little trial, error, and a heap of help (many thanks to David Hood!) our LED bucket traps were ready. The traps use a 1m strip of UV LED lights, wound around downpipe attached to a mounting bar across the top of the bucket. A funnel in the lid of the bucket guides the moths into the trap, attracted by the light. Inside the bucket, the LED light strip is attached to a power cable, with a light sensor wired in that turns the trap light on in the dark, and off again during daylight. The power cable is then connected to a convertor and, finally, a rechargeable power bank. We’re hoping to publish a guide on how to build the trap in the near future.
Poplar Hawk-moth
With our traps ready to go, on the 4th June we welcomed 7 new volunteers to our offices for a training day, which began with a fantastic session about moth trapping, moth families, and tips for ID from Pete Boardman. To put their new skills into practice, our volunteers had a go at identifying catch from a moth trap set by Pete the previous night. A modest but lovely catch included this stunning Poplar Hawk-moth, a Common Swift, Flame Shoulder, and more. After a break for lunch we moved on to our practical workshop. Happily, everyone finished the session with a working moth trap! To finish off, Lucy delivered a presentation on making good biological records and advice for choosing sites to trap at. Like last year, we’re keen to target areas that are under-recorded or high priority.
At the end of the day our volunteers left with their new traps, eager to get out and start making records. We’re excited to see what they find and the trapping locations they explore, and look forward to sharing some of the records they make along the way.
If you’d be interested in making your own bucket moth trap, you can download our guide here.
DIY bucket moth trap