Recently I was inspired by a
Bluesky post from Andy Symes about his portable LED moth trap. I've been meaning to try this for a long time and this finally gave me the kick to get on with it. Andy's trap is the "classic" version using an IKEA collapsible laundry basket with a hole cut in lid, a cut-off plastic funnel, vanes (scavenged off an old moth trap but could make DIY ones) and an LED light strip. I've got my hulking great mains-powered ALS actinic Robinson trap but I find I'm using it less because of the hassle of dragging it all out, running the cable and setting it up, so I wanted something as portable (and cheap) as possible.
Following Andy's lead, I bought a cheap
waterproof 2 metre blacklight (395nm-405nm) LED USB light strip and powered it using a small old Duracell powerbank I had around. I put the powerbank in a ziplock bag and dumped the whole thing on an old (once white) pillow case, then gave it a 10 minute test run in the garden.
I was delighted with the results - in no time it pulled in a good range of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Trichoptera. But the best bit is that it's cost me 12 quid and I can roll the whole thing up and put it in my pocket. It's not a moth trap as such as you can't walk away and leave it, but I'm hoping the sheer ease of use will encourage me to use it more often.
