DIY Moth Light

@damontighe , this is really cool and something that might come in handy when traveling out of the US. Not only is it small and lightweight but you don't have to worry about electrical conversion.
I enjoyed spending the one evening with you a light here and hope to have the chance to do it again in the future.
@jaykeller you might give this a go when heading to Paraguay next time.

@dcoldren, this is relevant to your interests.

Sweet!

I think there is a lot of potential for discovery where you mention documenting light sources (toward the end of the article.) "I am interested in accumulating data around what moths come to which lights so if you are running your home made moth lights, please think of contributing your data to iNaturalist and using the Observation Field Light Source:395-400 nm LED and Light Source: 365 nm." I'll tag some of my local moth-ers so they can keep this in mind as they upload moths, too. @sambiology @annikaml @cgritz @tadamcochran @pfau_tarleton

Sweet! With just a little modification to the equipment list, I might be able to make this work using my JBL charge bluetooth speaker. Thanks for the post.

@butterflies4fun - if any questions come up along the way, just let me know

@butterflies4fun
1) check to see if the battery works - attempt to charge a cell phone from it.
2) check to see if the light works - plug it into the USB on a computer.
- the light i had linked has a funny on off button on the cord about a foot or so back from where it attaches (button is present in the image in the blog on the circled up cord) and it doesn't have the normal mechanical feeling of a button, but if you gently squeeze it the light will toggle on/off.

let me know how these tests went and I can trouble shoot from there

@kimberlietx - wish I was! The day job gets in the way of so much good fun, but if I'm lucky I'll be out in Fort Worth this November leading workshop at STAT-CAST http://www.statweb.org/events/event_list.asp

@kimberlietx Did I hear you say something about mothing? I'm here for you!

@damontighe .. It is working now.. Very strange... It would charge my phone and not the light. But I finally got it to work. I'm not sure what I did differently to get it to work but I did press the button even though it charges my phone without pressing the button. Thanks again. I look forward to testing it out in Del Rio although I will have to compete with all the bad boy lights !!!

@kimberlietx - as soon as I know the work schedule, I'll let you know. I'd love to have some mothing and general iNat-ing in north Texas!

@damontighe Hi, Damon. I put together your 'plug and play' model a couple of months back and hadn't had a chance to test it out until last weekend at a Bioblitz in South Texas. I (and all of us I think) were extremely impressed with its efficacy. I usually haul around a 400w metal halide setup with a very heavy ballast that requires an electrical outlet. It's very effective, but kind of a pain (literally and figuratively). I think I'm going to retire that setup in favor of the one you've designed. Thank you again for sharing your ideas with us!

I used the moth light and it really worked well. We got the big moths and smaller ones I've not gotten to my moth uploads and although I thought I could tell which sheet I took pictures on, I think it may be more complicated then I thought. I've got another event coming up where I will try it again as well.. So more to come.. Got behind with the nature challenge and Life in general. Going to share you ideas in a moth presentation I'm doing as well. Thanks for sharing the low budget and easy set up ideas with all.

@carrieseltzer - no major up dates to the light, for the screen I've been using a shower curtain liner similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/InterDesign-12054-Mildew-Resistant-Gauge-Shower/dp/B00WWBN2CS/ref=asc_df_B00WWBN2CS/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198091997188&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13065604496317979531&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032066&hvtargid=pla-320707303903&psc=1
I've run some fishing line in between all of the holes and tied it off at both ends, so I can usually just pull a branch etc through the fishing line to hang it. I also bring a few thumbtacks just in case its easier to tack it to a wall, tree trunk, etc.

I've used the moth light a couple of times a home (nothing too exciting yet) and I'm headed to a cabin in the woods this weekend. Looks like there's rain in the forecast, so I'm wondering what people's experiences have been with the what I'm calling the "Damon DJ light" set up in the rain. Has anyone tried putting the light in a clear plastic bag? I might also be able to set it up in a protected area, but I haven't been to this place before so I'm not sure what to expect yet.

Thanks Damon! I'll be sure to pack those extras just in case, and report back if I have any rain experience worth sharing.

I made one of these last week. I have built a couple of other light sheet stands, but this is much easier to set up and take down. I think it will be great for those nights we only have a couple of hours between rain showers. I went with the 395 nm set up, but the referenced light was not available at Amazon. I went with this light from the same manufacturer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073Z77VRC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . I like this light because it is very flat (only .3" thick) and lays against the shirt without tending to rotate. This light is listed as 395-400 nm, has 30 LEDs and is 6 watts just like the referenced light, but I notice that 10 of the 30 LEDs are visually a different color -- more blue than pink. That makes me think the wavelength is probably more of a mixture and probably beyond the range of 395 - 400 nm. I dispensed with the USB extension. The unit has plenty of cord to allow me to knot the cord around the hanger to support the light and place the battery pack in the shirt pocket. I am also interested in efforts to waterproof the installation. Thanks for the good suggestions.

Hi @damontighe I think some of the Amazon links on your original blog post (at least for the 395 nm assembly kit) have moved. Is there a comparable DJ light and portable charger that you'd recommend using now instead? Thank you so much!

Many thanks @damontighe ! For a shorter usage period, do you know if a run-of-the-mill phone external charger would be safe to use with the lamp?

Are there any safety issues with this setup? e.g. see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4867860/

Many thanks! I'm looking forward to sharing my findings.

The USB LED I bought 2 years ago has a listed range of 390-400 nm, so here's my observations with a similar observation field: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:Light%20Source=390-400%20nm

Thanks for pointing that out @damontighe! I was at 99 species yesterday, and a little bit of mothing last night put me to 102!

I've been running it a few nights now, with modest results; I only have a 2000 mAh power source, but I found an outlet outside I might be able to try. With these results, is the setup working? (there is admittedly a lot of light pollution, but I'm more concerned with the strange proportion of Trichoptera to Lepidoptera--I'm also just not used to this locality)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=edanko&verifiable=any&field:Light%20Source=395-400%20nm%20LED

Really, 3 am! @tmurray74 mentioned that "the volume of bugs doubles from 11 pm to 1 am and later" up in Massachusetts. Assuming one also needs to sleep what 3-hour window of the night would be best?

Slippery slope indeed @damontighe Many thanks for your post here. Picked up a 10W 395-400nm led light and a 30000mAh power bank from online. From just 4 nights moth sheeting have already seen many moths hitherto unknown to me. Tonnes of fun to be had from such an inexpensive and highly portable set up.

Has anyone found a good sheet/shower curtain with a nice woven/printed grid?

The calnature link appears to be...broken.

Amazon's search function is horribly broken. You can find the items for the 365 nm light easier on eBay.

Those are all 395 nm lights; I meant the parts for the 365 nm one you gave instructions for (which looks a lot better than paying $300 for the LepiLED!). https://www.amazon.com/s?k=365+nm+uv+led Excluding the term "flashlight" reduces the number of results but doesn't actually exclude all the flashlights. I don't know if they just don't have any LED packs anymore but a lot of times Amazon doesn't show any results even when they actually do carry the item.

ETA: actually if you search for just "365 nm led" it does turn up these, which didn't show up in the other search even though they have UV in the name. https://www.amazon.com/10pcs-Purple-Ultraviolet-Bulbs-365NM-370NM/dp/B098JZ5SLC/

I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread because I'm new at this and am trying to get a good setup put together in time for Moth Week. Last night I went out with a shower curtain liner--it's plastic but has a rough texture and things seem to be able to cling to it without any issues.

I've been trying several light sources including UV, flashlights, and even grow lights (my grow light has five heads on a kind of tripod). Last night, the moths seemed to really like the grow light, but I played with turning things off/on to test it all out and actually, the UV light seemed to draw the fewest. They liked both thef flashlight (which is actually described as a "worklight") and the grow lights the best. I didn't get a lot of moths--I only got about 5 that I added to my iNaturalist observations--but it seemed like a good beginning. One of the "best bugs" I got was a Summer Fishfly. I'd never seen one of those before.

Has anyone else used growlights? I was wondering if anyone else had success with these or if last night was just a fluke. The Common Tan Wave (Pleuroprucha insulsaria) in particular loved the growlight and repeatedly landed on it. In fact, there were two of these moths and both seemed really attracted to the growlight.

I'm hoping folks continue to contribute their setup information as well as tips and notes because it really is helpful to those of us who are taking their first steps on the moth observation road.

Wow, thanks for the additional information, I really appreciate it. I am still experimenting with my setup. Had very little luck last night in an area near our pond, but will try in the swamp near a creek later in the week. Did get a lot of beetles. Not much in the way of moths.

Maybe I should have used my wine/sugar rags as I had slightly better results with those in combination with the lightsheet. But we are not getting any of the larger moths at all, although I have found them in previous years just by luck when walking through the swamp. I confess I am a little concerned about the lack of diversity in what I am seeing and am wondering if the cotton farming nearby is having a bad impact.

I will keep trying though.

That's interesting. I heard that about the larger moths so I try to stay in place until after 2am but what I have been finding is that whatever is going to show up shows up in the first two hours or so. After that...pretty much nothing new. The same moths and beetles stay in place or come and go a bit, but it's the same ones. I have never had anything new show up after the 3 hour mark. So while I keep trying, I don't see any kind of progression of species or any different ones come later in the night.

I had almost decided to stop trying after midnight and just end there but maybe I will try a few more times, although I have to say it gets discouraging after midnight when the initial burst is over and nothing new shows up.

@amybirder - I wonder if the progression is habitat specific. I've had one very distinct instance in Madagascar where pretty much nothing came to the light until about 2 hrs before sunrise and then it was just a flood of moths. I have seen the trickling off of species at around midnight when I've been in more tropical / semi-tropical areas. You are soon becoming the expert of how these things happen local to you :)