I wish to put down some homemade insect traps in the backyard to see what kinda critters live back there. If possible I don’t want them to be killed in these traps. I’ve also heard about moth traps? I’d love to hear some methods and suggestions:) PS: I have two dogs, please nothing toxic, thanks! E…

Here’s one I made for attracting rare sand dune beetles. They don’t fly but are attracted to UV lights. The tripod is a basic one with a hook on the central post, the tube is a plastic core from a roll of plotter paper and the lights are white and UV led ribbons from Amazon. I think the lights, swit…

https://bughunter.tamu.edu/collection/collectionequipment/trapping-insects/ has some general ideas. Adding a funnel shape to the top of your solo cup would greatly reduce the number of escapees. [Capture] shows a specialty trap that includes such a funnel in the lid. Also a section of pipe protru…

There already appear to be incredible explanations of different traps you can use on this thread. You may also enjoy looking through this web page here: https://mississippientomologicalmuseum.org.msstate.edu/collecting.preparation.methods/Collecting.methods.htm#.Ws0Uf2kpC7M I mainly use a light tra…

What do you folks do to associate your light trap observations with particular wavelengths? I’ve started using UV and visible lights that peak at particular wavelengths, and have noticed differences. E.g. the shorter the UV, the smaller the moths, and the more ground beetles come to the light. So I…

The blog post I linked to in my question above suggested this field: https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields/3387

And I knew about this blog, but never noticed the field suggestion. Thank you. I started playing with the light sources that @damontighe suggested there, and they work well enough. But since I didn’t plan to travel, and had a LED plant grow light sitting at home, I tried that as well. I looked at…

i read somewhere that insect vision starts to phase out around 550nm to 650nm (yellow to red) and ends on the other end at around 300nm. i use a 365nm light as my UV source, and it does seem to attract mostly small insects. if i add a white light (which should have a mix of other wavelengths), i att…

Oil of wintergreen will bring in halictid bees!

[image] jdjohnson: Here’s one I made for attracting rare sand dune beetles. That is a thing of beauty.

Yellow pan traps are simple and effective for bees/wasps/ants and also flies. A yellow plastic bowl or deep plate filled with water and a drop of dish detergent is effective, but you can always leave them empty if you dont want to kill anything. Just catch whatever turns up in a jar for observing/ph…

What are good homemade insect traps?

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What are good homemade insect traps?

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