Letter #46: All About Moths

It's National Moth Week from July 20-28th!

Dear reader,

It’s research time yet again! This time, it’s in honor of moths!

I learned last year that National Moth Week is held during the last full week of July each year, falling the week of July 20-28 this year!

I am someone who loves that there are national/international/world days, as evidenced in my recent post here, so I think it’s neat when there are entire weeks and months to celebrate something. (Just look at how excited I was to learn about Frog Con last year!)

According to the National Moth Week website, the annual event celebrated all around the world focuses on the life cycles and habitats of moths. According to National Today, this week dedicated to moths has been celebrated since 2012. Participants are encouraged to go “mothing” during National Moth Week, essentially baiting moths with light or other bait so the moths will land long enough for observation and a quick photo.

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Pssst. I couldn’t find a proper moth emoji, so we just have various light source emojis listed here as a border: a lit candle, a light bulb, and a lit flashlight.

Moth Fun Facts

In honor of moths being *cool little guys,* please have some fun facts!

This is basically just the evolution of my research in a numbered list, as the topics range from whatever I found then researched some more because I wanted to know more about a certain word or type of moth.

1. Some moths are diurnal, or active during the day, such as the owlet moth or lichen moth. (I find owlet moths adorable, but lichen moths look nothing like lichen and are also poisonous apparently, which makes sense, given their markings.)

2. I also then learned that lichen moth are called that because it’s primarily what the caterpillars eat, not because it looks like lichen. Apparently many, but not all, moths are given their common names by what they eat as caterpillars.

3. Moths are apparently pollinators! I knew bees were, but I hadn’t thought about moths being able to pollinate as well. Sphinx moths (which are very pretty!) are just a few examples of these pollinators.

4. I knew many months did not live for very long, such as the luna moth, but I did not know that moths such as this one do not develop mouths because they will die out after just a few days!

5. A moth’s tongue/mouthpart is called a proboscis and is not a term singular to moths; it’s the term used for the mouthparts of any invertebrate or vertebrate.

6. Moths are a hugely important part of ecosystems, as they are one of the lowest on the food chain. Read: everything eats them. Birds and bats are their most common predators, to the point where the tiger moth has evolved to jam bat’s sonar with ultrasonic clicking to deter attacks from bats.

7. How do you lure moths? Apparently you can do so with light (but specifically a black light if you’d like more variance in which moths show up) and fermented sugar (such as a mixture of bananas, molasses, and beer) or you can make a wine rope by coating a rope in red wine and sugar.

8. Moth trapping doesn’t actually involve trapping the moth. When it’s dark out, you basically hang a light-colored sheet from a clothesline, turn on a light like a flashlight or a UV light, lay out something sugary and fermented to attract moths, and wait. Make sure to be kind to the moths! Just like the phrase I learned as a kid for museums and bugs and such: “Look, don’t touch!”

9. Or try planting certain flowers in your garden to attract moths! Some moths are more likely to come to flowers that release their scent later in the day, when many moths become active. According to the Wildlife Trusts, moths also appreciate oaks and willow trees.

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Thank you for reading! Hope you have a lovely day ahead!

Works Cited (MLA 9th Ed.)

Hadley, Debbie. "10 Fascinating Facts About Moths." ThoughtCo, Dotdash Meredith, Jul. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-moths-1968179.

Hadley, Debbie. “Luna Moth, Actias luna.” ThoughtCo, Dotdash Meredith, Sep. 05, 2017, https://www.thoughtco.com/luna-moth-actias-luna-1968183.

Hadley, Debbie. “Sphinx Moths, Family Sphingidae.” ThoughtCo, Dotdash Meredith, Dec. 11, 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/sphinx-moths-family-sphingidae-1968209.

“How to Attract Moths and Bats to Your Garden.” The Wildlife Trusts, The Wildlife Trusts, https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-attract-moths-and-bats-your-garden#:~:text=Plant%20flowers%20that%20release%20their,attracting%20moths%20into%20your%20garden.

Konkel, Lindsey. “7 Things You Don't Know about Moths, but Should.” LiveScience, Future US, Inc, 27 July 2012, https://www.livescience.com/21933-moth-week-facts.html.

“Mothing 101.” National Moth Week, National Moth Week, nationalmothweek.org/.

“National Moth Week.” National Today, https://nationaltoday.com/national-moth-week/.

National Moth Week, National Moth Week, nationalmothweek.org/.

“Proboscis.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscis.

Roach, Margaret. “lichen moths: bright, beautiful, bizarre.” A Way to Garden.com, A Way to Garden. https://awaytogarden.com/lichen-moths/.

Zych, Ariel. “Go Mothing!” Science Friday, Science Friday Initiative, 28 July 2016, https://www.sciencefriday.com/educational-resources/observe-moths/.