Backyard Conservation || Insect Study at Night

If you or your kids are interested in insects or you want to show them the UP has more than just mosquitoes- there is a fun way to find out what some bugs are in your area. This is a really easy activity to do, great to try out when camping and can take as little as 20 minutes but with all the fun you'll have I'm sure it will end up being a lot longer. Night time bugs and day time bugs are a lot different so you may see ones you have never heard of before. 

Materials

You only really need 3 things: a white canvas tarp or sheet, a light (people recommend black/UV lights), and a rope. 

Other things you may consider getting is clothes pins to keep the canvas tarp secure, batteries for the light and of course bug spray.

Another method would be to set up your tent- especially light colored ones- and put the black light in it, step outside the tent and watch the bugs that congregate on the tent. If neither a canvas or a tent are in your storage then an outdoor wall even works!

Image of bugs on a white tarp from Xerces Society 

What's next?

First thing is first, gear up by wearing dark clothing so the bugs aren't attracted to you and make sure you have mosquito repellent.

At dusk, string up the rope between 2 trees or sturdy poles, and drape the tarp/sheet over it. Secure it with the clothes pins if needed. This step is really setting up the background/viewing area. A tent or outdoor wall would work as a back up if you don't have supplies or an area to hang a tarp. 

The next thing to do is hang the light by the background you just set up. For tent viewing just set the light inside pointing at only one panel of the tent. 

In the dark of the night, the bugs will be attracted to the bright light and land on your tarp for you to look at up close and collect (if you want). 

"Insects navigate by the moon and the stars, and when they are flying round at night, they are keeping themselves on a steady course, keeping the moon always at a similar angle to their eyes. When we have a light on to attract them, they keep moving closer and closer to this light thinking they are keeping it at the same angle as if they were the moon or the stars in the sky. When they do this, they get confused and they start spinning to our lights.

Different kinds of insects come to different lights because insects are attracted to different wavelengths, and its typically UV that attracts them, and scientists usually set out these lights when there is no moon out at night. Once they land on your collecting sheets, they are a bit disoriented, and that gives us an opportunity to look at them. It is very important to remember that you should never leave lights on at night if you aren’t trying to attract insects, since light pollution is a really big problem right now, and lots of insects are dying because of many people leave their lights on all night. Insects are really important for pollination, they’re decomposers, and we get all kinds of fruits thanks to them." -Excerpt from the Florida Museum, Observing Insects at Night (link). They have a great printable link for instructions on doing this activity!

Another thing I want to mention is this is something that actual entomologists (people that study insects) do in researching populations, to identify species etc. I want to drop the link to a really cool blog that I found that talks about using this technique in Belize to survey the diversity of insects found at night. Link here.