Sunday 28 August 2016

Carnage at the moth trap, Haisbro Ave, Newport, 27th August

Sheila and I ran the MV over-night. In the morning we recorded 28 species. Number of species have gone down, but numbers had gone up eg.70 Large Yellow Underwings, 39 Brimstone and 27 Square-spot Rustics. The first Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing of the year for this site and 2 Cypress Pugs were the only high-lights.

Whilst searching the fence near the trap for moths I spotted a Large Yellow Underwing in a spiders' web.


A few minutes later I was searching the parasol above the trap when a wasp flew up to a Willow Beauty, grabbed it and landed on the table in front of me. It then bit 3 of its wings off before flying off with it. There were about 4 wasps in the trap, but they were docile and not killing any moths. When I've seen moth wings before, near or in a trap, I've assumed it was bats or birds, but now I know it could be wasps.



2 comments:

  1. Wasps can cause havoc in a moth trap, systematically killing and removing every moth and taking the bodies back to their wasp's nest. It is essential to remove every single wasp from a trap if you're going to leave it for the day, as even one wasp will tell its friends and the whole moth catch will be wiped out!

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  2. Hi Sam,
    I always kill wasps in moth traps. Don't normally kill them elsewhere.
    Kev

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