Sunday, September 20, 2015

When its dark...

Howick Village Hall in the moonlight.
 On Friday night, for the garden moth scheme, I had two moth traps running in the garden.

What I failed to realise was that the skinner I had positioned out to the front in a more open, south facing, aspect to entice a Convolvulous Hawk-moth, was also perilously close to a heavily fruiting yew tree. These soft red fruits has attracted the attentions of hundreds of Common Wasps, that were, in turn, drawn to the light from the MV bulb.

When I came to check the traps in the morning I found not only a few moths in this one, but about 500 groggy wasps! As it was cool early on I managed to gingerly lift each egg tray out and rescue some of the moths. The trays were replaced and the trap left for the squatters to escape in due course.

Illegal occupants of trap 1.

Luckily the other trap around the other side was less like a bomb disposal, containing only a few wasps from the ripe brambles, so I managed to get a few nice autumn moths. Who would have thought there would be danger in moth trapping?

Black Rustic, looks like a vampire's curtains...

Pink barred Sallow.

Great camouflage from the Angle Shades.

New for the year, 4 Canary shouldered Thorns brightened things up a bit.

2 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

The angle shades and canary shoulder are things of beauty, the black rustic is of the tomb

Stewart said...

Like it Simon, 'of the tomb'!