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RE: Moth Trap - 8th November 2025 (taking a chance...)

I think you said you do log what you find, so it can be useful information even if you don't see many moths. We need to know how they are doing each year.

Where do moths go in the winter?

!BEER

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 4 days ago  

Like many other insects, adult moths generally have short life spans, so that many of the ones that appeared in the Summer have already mated/laid eggs and died.

That said, the actual lifecycle from egg to caterpillar to adult is longer, and all species exist over winter in some form. Some eggs are laid in Autumn, and they won't hatch until Spring, Some are laid in Summer, emerge as caterpillars and those caterpillars will hibernate somewhere out of the way over Winter, but still feeding on warm days. Some caterpillars finishing feeding before winter, and so overwinter as a chrysalis, emerging as an adult in the spring.

And then of course there are some hardy species which emerge as adults in late Autumn, and will fly all through Winter (weather dependent of course!)

Long story short, they are still there, just harder to see. And to be fair, many humans practically hibernate over winter too, so they won't see them anyway ;-)

Cheers for the lesson. With winters getting warmer there may be changes in habits. You don't see many bugs over winter, but we've had a few more spiders in the house lately.