Evening Events for 2026
Our evening event at Llanymynech rocks on 18th April had a poor catch because it was cold. It was a little better at Llanidloes at Ash & Elm Horticulture in terms of numbers of moths with 9 species, outnumbered by 32 people turning up. There is a report on the MMG blog for the Llanidloes event.
Our next moth group evening event will be back at Craig Rhiwarth, Llangynog in the far north of the county on 13th June. We will be targeting first generation Weaver's Wave, discovered at the site last year and attempting to establish the strength of the population of this scarce moth in Montgomeryshire
Most of the traps will be placed alongside the back lane which leads from Llangynog to Penybontfawr.
This was a very successful location last year for a recording session.
Parking will be in the village car park and involve a short walk along the lane to where the event will be based.
Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for an evening, outdoor event and you will need to bring your own refreshments. A head/hand torch is essential. Insect repellent is recommended as a precaution. Please bring something to sit on if needed.
Directions:
The event base is about 380 metres from the village car park.
It is best to approach Llangynog from the east or west, along the B4391. Park up in the village car park, where there are public toilets.
Walk north from the car park, crossing the river, then turn right, off the B4391 and up a single track lane. Almost immediately turn right again and walk along this lane, with the open, rocky slopes of Craig Rhiwarth on your left until you reach the event base location.
Drop-off at the event location is possible but vehicles will still need to be left in the village car park.
Village car parking: OS SJ 053 261 w3w///galloped.published.documents
Event base location: OS SJ 0570 2638
w3w///unsettled.dinosaur.alongside.
Traps will be turned on around 9.30pm.
If the event is cancelled, it will be notified by a post on the MMG blog and also the MMG group facebook page. Please check before setting out.
MMG evening events. Saturdays unless otherwise stated
Moth Mornings
We are going to run several moth mornings where we ask someone to run a trap or traps overnight and gather at 8.00am to see what we have got. Moth mornings will be advertised on the MMG facebook page and by email only a few days in advance to fit in with the weather.
We did several at Lake Vyrnwy last year with the RSPB and a local team - Kate Gillan and Fay Hirst, will be continuing these this summer. That will leave me free to set up a permanent Robinson MV trap at Llanymynech Golf Club and run frequent moth mornings there. Ideally this also needs a local team. Being limestone grassland etc it has some interesting moths including Light Feathered Rustic. We have run 4 sessions so far and I can turn on the trap remotely from my phone which is hugely useful. A big thank you to BIS for funding a permanent trap there
Moth Morning Events
Short Notice notification by email or on MMG Facebook
There are other venues that have expressed interest but these events will be only advertised on the MMG Facebook page and by email to those who express interest at short notice. We don’t need to do paper newsletters so there is no necessity to advertise months in advance. We are open to suggestions particularly from people with good habitat happy to provide a power supply, and we have extra moth traps if anyone else want to organise Moth Morning Events. Because of the support on moth identification provided by the MMG Facebook page it is not necessary to be an expert to run these events. The cold spring weather until recently has held us back.
Local Places For Nature Funding
Local Places for Nature from the Welsh Government but administered by Powys Nature Partnership is funding some more seed packets of the excellent moth mix to give away and also some more kit including some more pheromone lures. It has also funded more loan traps and Extra Equipment. If you have had a loan trap and are not actually using it then please contact us to return it as we have people waiting for traps.
Pheremone Lures
Using these last year to attract clearwings has been very successful and we have had records of Lunar Hornet, Red-tipped Clearwing, Currant Clearwing and Welsh Clearwing, all rarely recorded. We are going to repeat this in 2026. The best way to make use of the expensive pheromone lures is to move them to new sites frequently. The moths, if present, come quite quickly and the traps can be checked daily for a couple of days and then taken elsewhere. They fly mainly mid-summer and now I am looking for volunteers to help check and move the traps as well as sites with good habitat where they are likely to be successful. Please get in touch if you want to help cerisyi@btinternet.com or 07866428875. The idea is you try a couple of traps with different pheromones for a day or two then take them to the next person. I am particularly keen to hear from people in the west of Montgomeryshire.
LED Light Traps
We will also be experimenting with highly portable LED light traps, again supplied by the Local Places for Nature grant, which will allow us to try trapping in remote places. Finding Weaver's Wave at Llangynog has sparked an interest in sites where we have not recorded before because they are remote. Kate Gillan has already caught some interesting moths around Lake Vyrnwy including Satin Lutestring and Glaucous Shears.
If you catch beetles in your moth trap then Wolfgang Schaeffer wolfgang@cwmweeg.co.uk would love to receive records or photographs of beetles with the usual who, when, where and map reference etc.
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Best wishes
Simon Spencer 07866428875
& Phil McGregor 07971335384
