By Maddie Yerant
The headlining insects didn’t cooperate for the Moth Night Out at the Zion Nature Center, but that didn’t stop participants from learning more about the winged creatures and other local invertebrates.
The center’s inaugural Moth Night Out on July 24 was held in conjunction with National Moth Week, an international program put on to gather information and increase knowledge about moths.
“There are 17 countries participating (in National Moth Week), having 121 different programs – just today,” said Mindy Murdock, park naturalist and Zion Nature Center manager. “All over the world, people are doing just what we’re doing: Waiting until it gets dark and seeing what’s out there.”
In order to bait for moths, Murdock tagged trees with a special mixture designed and set up a white sheet underneath bright lights to attract the insects. Both types of bait are easily doable at home, Murdock said, underscoring one of the points of National Moth Week: that citizens as well as scientists can help to gather information about new species.
“At the Nature Center, we’ve been focusing on programs that are called citizen science,” Murdock said. “So those are programs where you go out and do science-type activities, but you don’t have to be a scientist to do that.”
Although Murdock and the event’s 20 or so participants, primarily children and parents, did not see any moths during the evening, they did observe other insects in action, including daddy long legs, lightning bugs, mosquitos and cockroaches.
According to Murdock, it might have been too early in the evening to see moths, which generally come out later into the night. Regardless, Murdock said she considered the evening a success.
“It was fun,” Murdock said. “It was the first time we offered it. No one seemed too upset that they didn’t see any moths. They enjoyed their daddy long legs and cockroaches and everything else.”
