Ep 217. Moth Surveying in a NJ Mountain Meadow

Mary Stone shares her experience participating in a moth survey with Blaine Rothauser of GZA Geoenvironmental, Inc., and Dennis Briede, whose mountain meadow is at the base of the Kittatinny Mountains in Blairstown, New Jersey. 

Using metal halide and ultraviolet lights to attract moths, they recorded 80 species by 11:15 PM. Blaine emphasizes the importance of moths as ecological indicators. Mary highlights the Bird Poop Moth's camouflage and the Rosy Maple Moth's charm, amongst other remarkable moths, and the beauty and significance of nocturnal insects.

Related Stories: 

Moth Survey in a Mountain Meadow - Blog Post

Episode 100 Antics of Meadow Wildlife

Antics of Meadow Wildlife - Blog Post

Ep 101. Woodcock Dance-Making a Meadow

Woodcock Dance – Making a Meadow - Blog Post

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Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Transcript

Ep 217 Moth Surveying in a NJ Mountain Meadow

Sat, Aug 16, 2025 9:56 PM • 10:55

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

moth survey, Blaine Rothauser, Dennis Briede, meadow wildlife, moth species, metal halide light, ultraviolet light, moth identification, ecological health, bird poop moth, rosy maple moth, moth diversity, pollinators, garden dilemmas, screen porch

SPEAKERS

Blaine Rothhauser, Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Mary stone, Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in, the spirit of learning from each other, we have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello there. It's Mary Stone on the screen porch, and perhaps you hear the lovely sound of raindrops, and it's a much-needed rain. I am happy to announce I have a bouncing baby zucchini forming in my garden. That is so exciting, because I've had so many flowers and no baby zucchinis. I know, maybe it's just me, but this kind of just lights up my day. I go up and look every morning to see what's growing. May I suggest you do the same, but it doesn't have to be in a garden. It could just be around in your world. 

Mary Stone  01:00

Anyway, I want to thank those who reached back after a last chat about mile-a-minute remedies, native butterfly plants. Seems many are impacted by the triangular-shaped leaves suffocating their plants. Pat wrote, What a tickle to see I'm part of your blog. I guess right now, I'll just keep on pulling. Also, I'll use your recommendations for encouraging butterflies. Thanks again. That was fun. I've been pulling my mile-a-minute weed. In fact, I put a huge patch of it on the driveway to cook in the heat so that it would be safe to put it on the compost pile, and it wouldn't re-root. So on to this week's story, which is very exciting. I know I mentioned I would talk about this, and today is the day of the famous and funny moth survey I participated in. And it starts like this. 

Mary Stone  01:52

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I recently had the thrill of participating in a moth survey thanks to my friends Blaine Rothauser and Dennis Briede of Blairstown, New Jersey, whose meadow harbors and nurtures abundant wildlife. We chatted about his meadow many times, such as in Episode 100, the antics of meadow wildlife are sure to delight. And then, of course, there's episode 101, Woodcock dance making a meadow. I'll put the links in the show notes. You'll enjoy them. Blaine, a technical specialist at GZA Geoenvironmental Inc., is modest about his credentials, which read like a scientific roster of experience. 

Mary Stone  02:30

There are over 160,000 moth species worldwide, compared to 17,500 butterflies and 11,000 kinds of moths in the United States. Most moths are nocturnal, active at night, and butterflies by day, which is called diurnal; both are essential pollinators. Folks don't consider most moths beautiful, other than, say, the Luna moth, with its four-to-seven-inch lime green wingspan and stealth markings that look like eyes, baffling bats, one of their greatest predators. Then there's the hummingbird moth, which looks like hummingbirds and is active by day. But on the night of the moth counting, I met many other stunning moths. Blaine described the moth survey as a recreational night of mothing. I am here with Blaine Rothauser, and we are going to do a moth count. Is that the way to describe it? Or do you have a survey? 

Blaine Rothhauser  03:22

A moth survey next to an unbelievably restored meadow? By Dennis Briede.

Mary Stone  03:32

 I know I love this meadow. Isn't this meadow? I've written a few stories about his meadow and how to make a meadow. 

Blaine Rothhauser  03:38

It's so alive, you don't have to look left or right and not see something that you can point out to somebody, whether it be a fritillary butterfly or a nice beer tongue in bloom, or some bottle gentian with a bumble bee drilling through. But with moths, no matter what season you come here, the diversity in doing moth surveys all around the state, this is probably my favorite place. There are maybe three favorite places. This is absolutely one of them, because of the diversity of vegetation is obviously bringing in the diversity of moths. Because moths are eating on all different things. They don't just feed on one thing. And if you're in an agricultural field, you're just gonna get agricultural species. When you're in the mountain meadow at the base of the Kittatinny, you're gonna get, on a night like this, hot and humid, 150 minimum species.

Mary Stone  04:39

Oh my gosh, that evening, which was June 20, we hope to get at least 100 species of moths. But one night in July, they counted 228 at Dennis's meadow, the second most Blaine ever recorded in the state. They set up a large white tarp on the driveway and another along the back of the house. But tell me you were starting to tell me about the lights you use. 

Blaine Rothhauser  05:03

Yeah, we're setting up the lights now, and we use a metal halide light. It's a full-spectrum light, and it's a light that has a very magnetizing way of getting the insects that have to have a full spectrum to tax to it. Fancy way of saying, come to the light, they tax to the light. We can talk about why they tax to the light. But the bottom line is, you get the highest variety with this type of lighting system. Now, people who moth will say, I use a 400-watt metal halide. I get more Moths with that. Well, I say I do pretty good with my 1000, but we also augment with an ultraviolet light too, which is attractive to certain species that aren't attracted to these full-spectrum lights. So when we fire up all these different variety of lights, guess what, we get more species, ah, and now it's a moth party.

Mary Stone  06:03

Oh, sounds very exciting. So I have to say, is there any competitions about moth counts that make that two light systems not officially correct?

Blaine Rothhauser  06:12

 When you say competition? Yeah. I mean, there's people that post all the time of their and they are always saying, you know, you got a moth here, you got a moth there, because that's where we get the most and, and, yeah, people are always trying to say they got a little bit more than the other guy, right? But really, as a scientist, we want to use these moths as indicators of ecological health, right? That's why I do it. 

Mary Stone  06:39

That's awesome. 

Blaine Rothhauser  06:40

And so. But tonight is about Dennis Briede, who runs his property, owns the property, and Mary Stone, whose voice is just like Tupelo Honey. It's just the most soothing. Everybody knows that on your podcast, that's you know. And then we got Steve Kloiber, who is an absolute expert in identifying moths. He just rattles off Latin names. And I'm I forget him, because year to year, you come out and you go, Oh, I forgot. This is the time of the year, those moths are out, right? So, Steve will just fill in the gaps.

Mary Stone  07:17

Steve is an expert in identifying moths and is a mosquito authority. He works for Northampton County, Pennsylvania, as an environmental health coordinator of vector control, which means managing the populations of mosquitoes. Blaine set up what they call a plamp, a combination of a clamp with a plant to pose moths on for photographs. The light causes them to be, shall I say, mesmerized and docile as they pose on the plant, and what a moth party it was. By 11:1,5 I was giddy with excitement over the 80 species of moths that visited, and I'll bet the festivities went on to the wee hours of the morning. 

Mary Stone  07:55

As quickly as the setup was in place, moths flocked to the screen, and Steve Klobeir rapidly wrote down each species by scientific name, swiftly maneuvering between the two lights set far apart. It was really funny to watch. I mean, literally all these Latin names, just rattling them off, putting them down on paper, a remarkable knowledge for such a young man. 

Mary Stone  08:17

Of all the moths I met, the most fascinating, okay, the funniest was the bird poop moth, also called the beautiful wood nymph. Talk about clever camouflage to deter predators. They look precisely like bird droppings, complete with a white splatter and brownish streaks when they fold their wings. There were so many lovelies. My favorite was the rosy maple moth, the cute pink and yellow, fuzzy fellow stayed in my hand for several minutes. But the most intriguing were the tiny moths whose intricate details are only visible when you photograph and zoom in so many fascinating and beautiful moths. 

Mary Stone  08:55

The life expectancy of a moth varies greatly depending on the species, but adult moths generally live from a few days to several months, with many species living only long enough to mate and lay eggs. I wish I had my microphone rolling when we said our goodbyes, when Blaine said, Who would have thought you could have this much fun at night with your clothes on? Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com. 

Mary Stone  09:22

It was such a fun night. I left there at 11:15 as I mentioned, and I had a very early morning the next day, and I was literally glowing at how fun it was to be counting these moths. And you know, when you're out at night, there are so many things to look for. I'm noticing more bats, which makes me very happy to see, because there's been some diseases that have been causing a decline in their population, they just swoop around gathering those insects in the sky. Thank you, Blaine and Dennis, for inviting me to be part of the festivities. It was really such a joyful time. And thank you, my kind listeners, for joining me on the screen porch. It always means so much that you are with me each week, and I adore hearing from you. So, keep those emails coming to askmarystone@gmail.com. Tell me about some of the critters you're admiring, some that may be a little unusual to others. They all have a role to play in this garden of life, and it's our job to be kind to them. See you next time on the screen porch.

Mary Stone  10:23

 You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at GardenDilemmas.com and on Instagram at the hashtag MaryElaineStone Stone. Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.