Saturday, 5 May 2018

Success with Emperor lure in garden

I hung the Emperor Moth pheromone lure out in the garden this afternoon around 4.20pm. About 20 minutes later, a single male started flying in wide erratic circles around the garden. It took a good few minutes before the moth closed in on the lure, and it only landed fleetingly before disappearing off.
This is the first "wild" male Emperor I have seen in my garden, so very exciting for me!


Steve Trigg, Cookham
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4 comments:

  1. Peter Hall5 May 2018 at 18:34

    I'd be interested to hear Mister Wilton's thoughts, but almost all of my males coming to virgin females have been between 1.30 and 4pm. Yours sounds late in the day. They do fly in an erratic way around the netted cage and I end up having to net them and encourage them on to the females where they readily couple up in seconds. Try putting the lure out a bit earlier.

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  2. Dave Wilton5 May 2018 at 19:11

    I agree that afternoons are best, so much so that I don't bother going out and about with females until then. Perhaps it is partly because male emergences always seem to be late-morning/lunchtime so any fresh examples won't be on the prowl until then. However, I have had success quite late sometimes, up to 7pm, so any time in the afternoon is worth a try.

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  3. Peter Hall6 May 2018 at 18:45

    Well there you go...this evening I had my third male come to the females, at 6.25pm, over 2 hours later than my latest ever, so I live and learn.

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  4. Steve Trigg7 May 2018 at 19:12

    Had the pheromone lure out again this afternoon (Monday 7th May), and a male arrived at 6.20pm. Maybe during this current hot spell, the males are having a siesta first and then flying when it is a bit cooler.

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