Moth Trapping for Beginners

Equipment

There are several suppliers of moth traps, most of which have their own websites where purchases can be made online. Watkins and Doncaster, based near Leominster, and Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies (ALS) are two that come to mind, but there are plenty more.

Two common trap designs are the Robinson and Skinner, but others are Heath and Bucket (rigid) types. Mercury vapour (MV) and actinic bulbs were most widely used but LED bulbs are now gaining ground (especially now that MV bulbs are being phased out). There's a trade-off between price and number of moths caught, as well as factors such as size and and whether the trap can be collapsed for transport.

If the budget is a concern, it's possible to build your own trap with online help; a book by Paul Palmer, How To Build You Own Moth Trap, is available to show you how to do that if you wish - the Field Studies Council made some short films with the author to demonstrate the process.

Of course, over time it is possible to collect a variety of traps to suit different purposes.

A selection of ancillary equipment is also likely to be required. This can range from a head torch, moth pots, hand lens and identification books to electrical cable extensions, a portable generator, and maybe even a four-wheel drive vehicle. The recent introduction of LED lights and lightweight rechargeable batteries has given an alternative to some of the heavy equipment required to trap in remote locations. A Facebook group established in July 2025 called Entomological Traps UK and UV Lighting can answer some of these questions; it's an open site with over six hundred members.

Trapping abroad can be very rewarding but don’t do what I did once, taking my trap to North America only to find that the electricity supply was incompatible. I did manage to connect to our hire-car battery via a convertor for some memorable moths on a later US trip.

Inspecting and releasing your catch

Sunrise times change throughout the year and getting up early in mid-summer is part of the deal: moths can be lost or distressed if the trap is not inspected in good time. The excitement of finding something interesting should be incentive enough to get up at sunrise, and there is often time to go back to bed after doing the trap. The dawn chorus works well for me as an effective alarm call, as long as the bedroom windows are open.

It's important to consider the moths' well-being and care when recording and releasing. Moths should be kept cool and shaded while being potted and inspected. They should be released away from the immediate trapping site and scattered in vegetation to avoid predation.

It's also important to make sure that you enjoy the process and avoid it becoming a chore. Trapping once a week will give good coverage of a location's moths over the year and fits well with the Garden Moth Scheme (GMS). The scheme collates weekly records from over three hundred gardens annually in the UK and is becoming a valuable database for research. Trapping frequency can be increased during migration events or decreased when conditions dictate, such as during wintertime.

There's an information page on the GMS website with links to guides on getting started with moth trapping and identifying the different families of moths.

Alternatives to moth traps

Other techniques should not be overlooked in the study of moths. Only species that are attracted to light will come to moth traps. Others will come to sugary bait and wine-soaked ropes - only species that feed as adults respond to these. Some species are most easily found by searching for their larvae, often best done at night. Day-flying species can be observed during the day, in the same way as butterflies. Finally, pheromone lures are increasingly used for hard-to-record species such as Clearwings.