Collecting at gas stations

[58chevy]

In prior years, I used to do a lot of collecting at gas stations & other lighted buildings. It was like having light rigs set up all over the place. In those days, all the lights were MV. Now they're almost all LED, which attract very few bugs. I have to drive long distances to find a building that still has MV lights. I would like to hear how the collecting is from anybody who still collects at LED gas stations. Also, I'd like to know if there are any MV stations in your area.

[Paul K]

I used to scan building walls and windows for moths, I don’t do it anymore as there are almost no bugs at lights. Even the street lights had always some moths flying in circle but not anymore.
LED technology made our lives more difficult.

[eurytides]

That’s probably a good thing from the perspective of the insects!

[leptraps]

I use Light Traps. Using two a night once a week is more than I can handle.

However, I still scan the walls of gas station's/convenient stories when I stop for gas or a soda. I occasionally find a moth every now and then, but nothing like it was 30+ years ago.

[Paul K]

Jan 15, 2020 12:44:01 GMT -8 eurytides said:

That’s probably a good thing from the perspective of the insects!

Indeed it is

[mswisher]

I can second David's comment.  He took me out for a night of gas station collecting in East Texas last August.  We got a lot, but I bet we drove 300 miles.

[jhyatt]

I used to regularly visit a fantastic gas station/jiffymart near my home. It sat in a wooded hollow with steep forests on either side of the road. Had fluorescent lights all
around the building, and the block walls were painted gloss white. Moths galore! I used to get really nice stuff there... Sphinx franckii, Papaipemas, etc etc. Saturnids were
a glut.

Then came a spring morning several years ago (5-7 maybe?) when I went to check it for the first time that year. I found that the lights were still the same, but the entire building
had been repainted in a flat dark brown color! Since the color change, I've seldom seen more than a saturnid or two there, on the rare occasions I happen by.

I thought about offering to repaint it for them if I could choose the color, but decided that would be too much work!

Cheers,jh

[Deleted]

Yeh.....what a shame. Those great nights are gone for the most part. Can’t blame them though as the cost of lighting up a station w LED is a fraction of the cost. I, too, was an avid gas station/ car wash collector.......often spending some time at particular stations getting tons of stuff. Now I casually check places if I happen to go by, but rarely make those milk runs of the past. Good for the insects it is, now it’s up to me w my lights to get what I can. Luckily, there are still a very few places that currently have the good lights........this includes the spot I caught my 22 Catocala marmoratas this last summer. Fingers crossed this place stays as is.

Feels funny in a way.......I’ve gone LED completely at my house, yet hope stations don’t. Today, it’s 11 degrees outside and I’m very much anticipating those nights to come this spring/summer.