Stop maligning our moths, urges charity

Butterfly charity says the insects are not ‘pests’ and urges gardeners to help reverse declining numbers

A butterfly charity has urged Britain to rethink its view of moths, saying that they are unfairly maligned. The insects have a bad reputation, partly because they are blamed for devouring clothes – despite the fact that only two of more than 2,500 UK species are known to feed on fabrics. Butterfly Conservation is therefore launching a campaign, called Moths Matter, which will explain how the creatures are a food source for many animals and play an important role in pollinating wildflowers.

WHEN many people think of moths, their minds go regretfully to the holes in their favourite cashmere garment.

However, a butterfly charity has urged Britain to rethink its perception of the insect and argued that it is unfairly maligned.

Moths have bad reputations despite the fact that only two of more than 2,500 UK species are known to feed on fabrics, Butterfly Conservation said.

A Yougov poll for the wildlife charity found 74 per cent of people linked moths to negative things: 64 per cent associated them with eating clothes and a third viewed them as pests.

Perhaps partly due to this reputation, two thirds of common moth species have declined in the past 40 years. Since 1914 there have been 56 moth extinctions, and just six of these have since recolonised or been spotted again.

The abundance of the UK’S larger moths has also crashed during the past 40 years with three species becoming extinct since 2000. This is a problem, as the creatures are important pollinators and a vital fixture of our gardens and parks.

The wildlife charity is therefore launching a campaign, called Moths Matter, which will reveal how the insects are a food source for many creatures, from bats to small mammals, and play an important role in pollinating wildflowers including garden plants and orchids.

Research has indicated that a decrease in the abundance of bats over farmland is related to the decline in the moths that they depend on. Cuckoos may also have been affected.

The campaign is highlighting some of the more unusual moths found in the UK, including the death’s-head hawkmoth, which can squeak like a mouse, the Mother Shipton, which has a witch’s face on its wings, and the larva of the puss moth, which can shoot acid out of its chest.

People will be asked to look out for caterpillars and cultivate moth-friendly gardens with plants such as lavender and honeysuckle.

Another way to protect moth species is to stop keeping gardens so tidy. Moths and their caterpillars need fallen leaves, old stems and other plant debris to help them hide from predators. Dr Phil SterA Mother Shipton moth, which Butterfly Conservation says are viewed unfairly as pests but are in fact important pollinators ling, a leading moth scientist, said the experts were not surprised by the findings. “People may think of a few times a large moth has startled them and then write them off as annoying or unnecessary; that is wholly unfair,” he said. “Each of the 2,500 species tells a different story about the natural world of moths around us. Most of them get on with their lives at night and we don’t see them, but they are important to us.

“They pollinate many plants and they tell us about how the world is changing around us.”

The poor old moth. It is always outshone by its prettier insect counterpart, the butterfly. Even the names we have given them tell of suspicion and dislike: Death’s-head Hawkmoth, Grease Moth, White Witch Moth. Contrast those with the Painted Lady, the Red Admiral and the Brimstone and you know which ones we favour.

But the Butterfly Conservation charity thinks the moth has had a bad press. It is launching a campaign, Moths Matter, to highlight their importance as pollinators and as food for bats, which are in decline.

The best known literary moth is the name of a fairy servant in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s

Dream which is ignored by the others. Even the Bard didn’t like them.