National Moth Night

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After school we made mixtures for attracting moths to paint on the tree trunks. We had to boil brown ale and add sugar and black treacle. We also made wine ropes.
We used a bottle of red wine,1kg  sugar and soaked 1m lengths of thick cord in the solution . Amber and I brought the wine to the boil and I had to put two bags of sugar into the mixtures and dissolve it. 

Sugaring

Wine Ropes
You will need
454g Tin of Black Treacle
1Kg Brown Sugar, (the darker the better)
500ml Brown Ale 		You will need
Bottle of cheap red wine
1Kg sugar
1m lengths of thick cord,
 
Mr Jones put Becky and Katy's ring too high up so it went over the pot and made rather a sticky mess.  It was so much fun and a photographer from the North Wales Weekly Newspaper camera and took a photo. Afterwards we went pond dipping it was very fun.

In the photos below we are putting some of the mixtures into the pot .
 

 

  

Messy but fun.

Some of us licked our fingers and were told off by Mr Jones!!

I hope the moths like this.

When we arrived at Pensychnant we got a cup of  lovely sticky moth attracting mixture. It smelled and if you get a bit on your finger you will be a moth  magnet! We poured it on the tree and brushed it in. And ........ got a result ( above a copper under wing drinking the mixture). We also saw a black rustic, orange sallow and a brimstone feeding on the mixture. We also saw a pale tussock caterpillar feeding on the mixture as well as an earwig, woodlice and millipedes. We only saw one moth, called an Angle Shades, feeding on the wine rope. Then  we went to check the Robinson trap. It was so bright we had to wear sunglasses .  then we went to the

MOTHer's Union

Copper Underwing feeding on our moth mixture

Checking the Robinson's Trap

We found an orange sallow feeding on our 'moth mixture' and when we read the book it said: 'Comes to light, wine ropes and sugar (especially if painted on lime leaves). The moth was on a lime leaf and was feeding on our moth mixture exactly as the book had said!

Pale Tussock caterpillar feeding on our 'moth mixture'.

 
Angle Shades on one of our 'wine ropes' Brimstone feeding Copper Underwing feeding
 

Cool shades - the light on the moth trap was so bright!!!

A Canary-shouldered Thorn birthday cake for the birthday girl with sparkling antennae.