Site banner

A similar method to sugaring is to use the method of wine roping, which I first read about in an article by Paul Waring in Butterfly Conservation News Autumn 1995, although I gather that it was a technique in use by earlier lepidopterists.

Wine roping consists of heating up a cheap bottle of red wine in a pan and at the same time dissolving as much sugar as you can in the wine. The mixture is then left to cool and then put in a large container. Make 1 metre long strips of thickish absorbent rope (washing line cut up is good for this) and immerse in the wine syrup. Leave the ropes to soak in the wine syrup.

When required the wine ropes are taken out of the mixture and placed on various bushes and branches of trees and you simply wait for the moths to come to feed. As with sugaring it is useful to use a red light to look at the moths to avoid white lights causing the moths to drop to the ground.

Using this method is cheaper than the treacle method but you have to remember where you put all the ropes when you go to collect them at the end of the night.

Last modified: