EU has initiated the construction of a Red List for European macro moths, including species from the families clearwings (Sesiidae) and burnets (Zygaenidae). Most species in these two families are day active and particularly good indicators on habitat quality and -continuity. One advantage is that most species are specialized on hostplants found on high quality grasslands of various types. However, especially the clearwings are difficult to detect with classical entomological methods. Likewise, burnets may be difficult to discover in declining and fragmented habitats and sometimes also difficult to distinguish. Older distribution maps show that most these taxa were widespread in the pre-industrial landscape. When looking at recent distribution maps for these species, it becomes evident that both our present knowledge, as well as the actual occurrences unfortunately are considerably more restricted. In addition, within both families there are several complexes of sibling species which are hard to determine in the field by nonexperts. Here we review our knowledge on the pheromones used by both these families and highlight the needs for creating new attractants for several European clearwings and burnets. Monitoring of such key species would effectively facilitate the evaluation, protection, monitoring and upholding of valuable grasslands in Europe. We highlight the use of pheromones in citizen science programs such as the French project SESIF, as a cost-efficient way to increase the knowledge of the present situation of these important indicator species.