Get Your Bed Sheet Ready! Moth Week Starts This Friday at Midnight
Clymene Moth (Haploa clymene) © Kent McFarland
On warm July nights in Vermont, hundreds of people do something unusual: They leave their porch lights on, set up white sheets in their yards, and wait.
They’re counting moths, which flock to the white sheet for easy photographing and observation. What started in 2018 with 92 dedicated observers has grown into a statewide community science effort involving over 300 volunteers collectively logging more than 29,000 observations across more than 700 species each year.
The Annual Vermont Moth Blitz—happening July 18th to the 26th during National Moth Week this year—has quietly become one of the state’s most productive community science programs. Over 2,000 moth species have been documented in Vermont, with new species being found all the time.
How to Join in on the Moth Blitz
You too can explore Vermont’s astounding moth diversity and help the Vermont Moth Atlas develop a better understanding of the moths that call the Green Mountain State home. We encourage everyone, from experts to amateur enthusiasts, to find, photograph, and share their moth discoveries on iNaturalist.
It’s super easy! Here’s a guide to setting up your sheet and light, and photographing the moths.
Fun fact: Diurnal moths—moth species adapted to fly during the day—exist, so you can find moths during the day, too. Not sure if what you’re looking at is a moth? If you upload a picture to iNaturalist, it will give you a suggested ID, and local naturalists like myself will verify it. New to iNaturalist? Here’s our quick-start guide.
So join the project now on iNaturalist and get ready to share your amazing moth discoveries!
Can we beat last years’ tally? Who knows, maybe you will find that new-to-Vermont moth species.
