Luna Moth - Photograph by Richard Sachs
Moth Balls? Yes. Just as there is a Christmas Bird Count and a Fourth of July Butterfly Count, there is a Moth Week where families, communities, and science centers hold Evening and Midnight Moth Balls where white sheets are spread out and lights kept on to attract moths and make them easier to see and photograph. Some use incandescent and UV (Black) Party lights, and some even sport a professional’s Mercury Vapor light, but you don’t need one.
To get involved, leave all your outdoor lights on (normally a no-no) until bedtime to see what is in your neighborhood (from July 22nd to 30th). Take phone photos, identify them with iNaturalist, and SHARE them with iNaturalist so that they can be counted. And if you didn’t SHARE your Pollinator Week discoveries with iNaturalist, you can do it now. Your GPS will identify the place and time of your photo. They will still count.
For more information, check out https://nationalmothweek.org/
And don’t forget that New Hampshire’s First Annual Butterfly Monitoring Project using
iNaturalist goes right through the fall.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nh-butterfly-monitoring-network
To get involved, leave all your outdoor lights on (normally a no-no) until bedtime to see what is in your neighborhood (from July 22nd to 30th). Take phone photos, identify them with iNaturalist, and SHARE them with iNaturalist so that they can be counted. And if you didn’t SHARE your Pollinator Week discoveries with iNaturalist, you can do it now. Your GPS will identify the place and time of your photo. They will still count.
For more information, check out https://nationalmothweek.org/
And don’t forget that New Hampshire’s First Annual Butterfly Monitoring Project using
iNaturalist goes right through the fall.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nh-butterfly-monitoring-network
Polyphemus Moth photograph by Terri Munson