I finally had a chance to get my lures out again today in the garden at Beenham Berks. The TIP lure brought in a couple of Currant Clearwings at 2.30pm.
I also put out the HOR lure at 10.30am and at last a Hornet Moth turned up at 4.00pm. (It pays to be patient!)
Hi Derek, have you any idea how far the reach of the lures is? I wonder how far these moths are travelling.
ReplyDeleteHi Adam.
DeleteI don't really know but I believe that,given the right conditions, they can generate a plume over several hundred yards that the moths can zero in on. Certainly the nearest Poplar trees to me are several hundred yards away. I have an ornamental flowering currant in the garden, although I'm not sure if they use these? Otherwise there is an allotment about 400yds away where I guess that people are likely to have currant bushes. I have no idea how far these moths will disperse from their foodplant but lack of it in your garden does not mean that they wont turn up in my experience. The Hornet Moth is a powerful flyer and may disperse widely. Others may be able to answer this question better than me.
The closest Black Poplars to my garden (and I know they're used by Hornet Moth) are 150m away and can be seen from my trap+lure but I've never yet had the moth here despite many, many attempts over the years including today - so far! I really don't know how far the pheromones are likely to reach but those poplars should certainly be within range. The further the plume travels the more dissipated it will become and there must be a point where it is too weak for the males to pick up. The distance travelled must also be dependent on wind and the amount of time the lures are left out. The advent of traps has made things a lot easier but the temptation is now to leave them out all day, whereas before one would need to monitor the lure, net in hand. I never used to use them for more than an hour at a time, which I would have thought ensured any moths were from the local area.
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