Moth Catching

[Woodbox]

I have been determined to catch my own food. My local fly population has been sporadic so I stopped cutting the grass in my backyard to see what happens. I have a nice privacy fence so my neighbors don't see my lack of standards. Soon, my bahia and johnson grass was tall with seed. At night, I have a LOT of moths now. I think they are armycutworm moths. Brown and ugly. There are little ones and big ones and they like the grass seed / flowers. They are easy to catch with jars. With a spotlight on my head, I can quickly catch 3-5 large and times 3 small ones. The little ones are stupid and don't care when I walk up to them. The big ones are not stupid and will take to the air as I approach. I will either turn my spotlight on redlight which I suspect they cannot see as they calm down or I will slap them out the of air and grab them when they are tangled in the grass. In the morning, I get small bumblebees and sweatbees. For those who have no issue feeding off wolf spiders, you can spotlight them easy with a headlight on your head. Their eyes reflect light directly back. If you have a light near your face or use a headlight, you will be amazed how many spiders you can find. Just find a point of reflection that resembles a dewdrop and walk right too it.

(example http://gecko-hunter.blogspot.com/2008/08/spider-sniffing.html )

 

[LauraMG]

I like your methods and determination! Not cutting the grass for a while is tenacity!

 

[Woodbox]

I like your methods and determination! Not cutting the grass for a while is tenacity!

Its rough.

I do cut little trails so my 9 pound dog doesn't get stuck. Otherwise he has to hop everywhere.

 

[Colorcham427]

hah! that's adorable, that dog must be cute!

 

[PhilinYuma]

I think that it's really cool that you are doing this. You can learn quite a bit about yr local insects along the way. And if you should run out of food for a few days -- let me see, 9lbs divided by twenty hungry mantids.... Better stop. My dog is growling in the corner.

 

[Precarious]

If you ask me, catching your food is the way to go. I feed all my 22 mantids on wild raised food and fruit flies I culture myself. I've heard warnings against using wild bugs as feeders by people fearing feeders tainted with pesticides. I've never had a bad reaction, but then again I catch everything from my own backyard and garden, and I know there are no poisons there.

I'll have to start collecting moths too!

 

[Ntsees]

I usually catch my moths at the backyard light in the morning. During that time, they are easy pickings.

 

[PeterF]

I fed many Cabbage Loopers - adults that we raised on "treated" cabbages to our mantises with no obvious effects. The mantis part wasn't related to the experiment, they were just left over moths. Can't worry too much about pesticides if you have bugs. Then again, when I drove through the midwest and there were no bugs at night, THAT made me worry about pesticides.

 

[ismart]

If you want to catch a ###### load of moths, just set up a light trap. I have one in my yard that i leave on all night. I check it every morning. There are usually all sorts of yummy bugs for my mantids to eat!