butterfly bait trap

[papilio7119]

I used to have some butterfly bait traps made by Leptraps. Over time the netting material has disintegrated. I am trying to rebuild them and have tried using other netting materials but really liked that stuff better. Does anyone know/ recall what it was made out of? Or have any suggestions as to other types of netting material? Ones I experimented with were easily chewed through by wasps and other critters. Or are any quality butterfly bait traps still being made out there. I randomly searched the internet and bought a few that were out there, but found them rather pitiful. I know there were unpleasant issues with leptraps fulfilling orders before closed, but I really liked those traps and would like to buy/ create something similar.

[vabrou]

Why don't you design and fabricate your own traps. Here are two publications i published over the past half century. Regarding the small holes created by wasps, hornets, etc. in live capture versions of traps. In these butterfly captures must be removed daily. I have found these holes very beneficial in allowing captured live flies wasps and hornets to escape the traps, that is unless your target insects are flies, wasps..... There are a few thing I have tried to stop these holes, but in the end, the only solution was using 1/4" mesh steel hardware cloth around the upper several inches of the trap diameter. Do not use plastic or cloth or aluminum, as they are easily chewed upon. If you are looking for easily transportable traps keep using that flimsy and easily destroyed netting. Those traps you mention are poorly designed and hinder capture of good quality specimens and require constant repairs. I have found the best screen to use is flexible fiberglass screen and if a zipper is used, do not use a metal zipper, instead use plastic zippers.

I initially designed my trap to attract and capture large quantities of hawkmoths and catocala, and my traps worked exceptionally well. Myself, I operated my various bait traps in the same locations for several decades 52 weeks every year. I averaged for example capturing around 40,000 butterflies annually (not my target insects), operating them in the very same exact locations without relocating them for decades. Despite operating my traps in the same locations continuously, they are a considerable improvement over the ones you mention. Here are two freely accessible links to my published instructions. My traps are not necessarily portable.

https://www.academia.edu/24752124/EXTEN ... _ROUND_USE

https://www.academia.edu/24752306/Fabri ... ng_chamber

Vernon

[vabrou]

papilio7119 click on forum archives and search for 'bait traps'. Since you are new, you will find numerous pages filled with information concerning bait traps. Many if not all links listed among those old postings do not link to anything. You may learn something there.

Here are 57 freely accessible publications concerning 'bait traps' https://independent.academia.edu/search?q=bait%20traps

Vernon

[vabrou]

FYI---- Every aspect (components and numbers of components and sizes of the components) of my trap designs have important and necessary purposes for handling, operating and the best performance results. Due to the fact that I worked as a Quality Assurance/Quality control Engineer most of my early life, I design everything on paper before I begin to actually construct something. Think about your design and how to improve results before construction. The size of my traps allows a large surface area for bait to evaporate, this is how one can attract and capture thousands of butterflies, thousands of hawk-moths, thousands of Catocala, etc., each year. If your bait surface area is coffee-cup size, then your results will be coffee cup size. If you want to capture specimens with 6-10" wingspans, then the access hole/spaces need to allow such entry. If dimensions followed exactly as shown this specific trap design, it allows the captures to be easily hand-removed without dismantling the trap (access using full length plastic trap side zipper), it allows access to the entire bait area by lifting trap bottom hook with a finger or two (left hand) - refresh bait using bait jug (right hand), and re-hook all in less than 30-60 seconds. My traps have operated for over a decade several periods over the past half century without ever removing them even once 24 hours daily 365-366 days/year. After you build you first trap, build ten more. Your gonna need help with all the captured insects. As you will also capture lots of cerambycidae and other coleoptera. There are other considerations about successful results with trapping, e.g., always place traps in tree shaded (=bait shaded) locations, refresh bait (add more to containers) daily or every other day, remove captures once or twice daily, stay away from areas with lots of concrete. Protect traps from foxes, squirrels, snakes, lizards, horses, cattle, etc. Be on the lookout for the worse trap pest of all-- the two-legged variety. (the climate change and save the whale wackos will destroy and steal your traps), these fools are mental midgets and only purpose in life is to stop your scientifically valuable activities and in the process, destroy everything you have. When I have run traps in public access areas for nearly 50 years, I always hide them among heavy and hard to access vegetation, though when fall and winter weather arrives you traps may no longer be hidden. If you run a bunch of traps be prepared to purchase cases of fruit, large quantities of sugar and cane syrup, and lots of cheap beer. Do not discontinue any of your traps, they will capture insects 24-hours daily in temps 35F-45F and above, higher temps = more bugs.

You can also place other types of traps nearby your bait traps e.g., light traps, semiochemical lure traps , dung beetle traps, on and on..... This is how I ended up running ~500 insect traps over the past half century. This way you can run these multiple traps more efficiently (time-wise) 4-5 traps at a time instead of one trap at a location stop. Using bait traps allowed capture of as many as 500+ butterflies or 500+ catocala per trap, per day, during the warmer months without the presence of the collector.

If you plan on running a lot of bait traps over many years, consider what i did early on, I planted 160+ fruit trees: apple, pears, peaches, plums, etc.....so I could have easy no-cost access to bait. As a consequence, it also supplied considerable fresh fruit for my family and friends for decades.

Attached photo is one of my many automatic capture bait traps here at my home in Louisiana. This trap uses cyanide for dispatching all insects of any type entering the trap 24 hours daily, thus resulting in the highest possible quality specimens without the presence of the collector, except to pick up the results. Except for some live-capture bait traps, I have incorporated ethyl acetate or Sodium cyanide as a dispatching agent in >95% of the 500 insect traps I have operated. This type of trapping allowed me to be employed full time, have a family, go to college, publish 654 entomological research papers using the specimens I collected, and my wife and I have discovered over 400 species of moths new to science (our target insects), and I have a life without being involved in the time-consuming activities required using classical collecting methods.

[Chuck]

Vernon, what types of Sphingids do you get at bait traps? What do they like best? Thanks.

[vabrou]

I was asked what does the inside of the collection chamber look like. Here is a photo from my files where lid is removed after 24 hours of collecting. Specimens on tray allows for quick visual selection and removal from trap. Those specimens not selected are dumped from tray. If dumped insects nearby continuously throughout the year will result in attracting more insects to the area, some species of butterflies are especially attracted to the decaying insects.

Lid is glass. Reason for glass is so captured insects see bright light and go to it assuming that is an exit. This concept works exceptionally well. The circular tray holding captures easily lifts out, and under the tray is the NaCn killing agent. What was most surprising is the addition of the 1/4" mesh hardware cloth to the outer diameter of the wooden circular tray prevented 99+% of the tiniest insects from passing through this mesh. This same 1/4" mesh flexible hardware cloth is also the perfect material to create the inverted funnel attached to the bottom of the collection chamber (see image).

The outer (white) rings are obtained buy cutting rings out of 50 gallon plastic drums. I do not recommend smaller diameter ring. I experimented several times using smaller diameter rings - poor results.

Top image from about 40 years ago illustrates live capture bait trap (A) next to two early iterations of my bait traps with attached collection chambers (B and C). In all three of these (A,B,C) the screen material is flexible fiberglass 1/8" mesh. Never use steel or aluminum or plastic coated steel as screening material. The steel will rust away and the aluminum is easily chewed by wasps. When used, steel zippers with rust away.

[vabrou]

Chuck, I direct you to view our 30-year sphingids of Louisiana study. We published the results from the first 26 years about 27 years ago (1997). Later we followed up with captures taken in four additional years completing 30 total years which covered the years (1970-1999) in which we reported personally capturing 83,889 wild adult Sphingidae specimens representing 46 species within the state of Louisiana. Among these was the discoveries of two new species of sphingidae right here at our home location. All of our traps operated continuously 24 hours daily/nightly non-stop. And consider these same traps and more are still running continuously here, in our 55th year of nonstop light trapping (and operating numerous other types of insect traps).

To answer your question you will find what species was captured at UV light and which species were attracted to bait in that study. We captured e.g. all the normally considered dayflying species of hawk-moths occurring in Louisiana using our UV light traps (night collecting). From our 26-year portion publication we reported species more often taken in fermenting bait traps included Sphinx kalmiae Neurn., Enyo lugubris (L.), Sphecodina abhottii (Swainson), A. floridensis, Darapsa myron, and Darapsa pholus (Cram.). We captured several specimens each of species not generally known to be attracted to fermenting bait were taken by this method, including Laothoe juglandis (J. E. Smith), Hemaris diffinis , Darapsa versicolor (Harr.), and Xylophones tersa (L.). Several Agrius cingulata (F.) and Amphion floridensis were captured in pitfall traps baited with a mixture of human feces, water, and ethylene glycol. Interesting about L. juglandis as adults of this species have been incorrectly reported in the past scientific literature as having non-functioning feeding mouth parts.

Our bait recipes included any an all available fruits of the week (whatever was available to us at any given moment), e.g. bananas, peaches, apples, pears, apricots, cherries, blueberries..... were more readily available These were blended along with granulated sugar and/or cane syrup, etc.... and added cheap regular strength alcohol beer. Never use light beer and never, never, never use honey as it will immediately destroy your bait. We placed the blended bait into used plastic empty milk jugs which allowed easy handling and easily poured bait. The attached photo shows a series of a bi-colored cerambycid beetle (Purpuricenus axillaris Haldeman) which all were captured using banana baits only, none by any other trap methods or any other baits. Showing that experimentation produces unexpected results. Here is another cerambycidae I captured using fermenting fruit bait: Plinthocoelium suaveolens (Linnaeus)

While I'm thing about pouring bait, this same concept works exceptionally well for using (human) dung- easily handled using funnels and easily poured at trap locations using non-chlorinated water pre-added to the dung and then stored for use. NEVER< NEVER< NEVER tightly close lids on any fermenting baits, including especially dung. Never ever store fermenting fruit or fresh dung inside of your home or any buildings.

Here are the three free access links to our Sphingidae of Louisiana publications:
https://www.academia.edu/232102/Distrib ... Sphingidae
https://www.academia.edu/1021607/Addend ... _Louisiana
https://www.academia.edu/1509724/Second ... _Louisiana

and many others can be found on that same site freely accessible. https://independent.academia.edu/VernonAntoineBrouJr

[Chuck]

Chuck, I direct you to view our 30-year sphingids of Louisiana study. .... taken in fermenting bait traps included Sphinx kalmiae Neurn., Enyo lugubris (L.), Sphecodina abhottii (Swainson), A. floridensis, Darapsa myron, and Darapsa pholus (Cram.). We captured several specimens each of species not generally known to be attracted to fermenting bait were taken by this method, including Laothoe juglandis (J. E. Smith), Hemaris diffinis , Darapsa versicolor (Harr.), and Xylophones tersa (L.). S.

Thanks Vernon. That's the summary I was asking for. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to read papers outside of my specific area of research. Job and family keep me busy, and with summer (MV season) coming I'll be pulling 4 hours of sleep a night for 90 days.

[Luehdorf]

@vabrou thank you so much for sharing these very inspiring designs! About your bait trap with the automated collecting chamber: in the chambers where you use ethyl acetate, how do you dose it so that it lasts for 24 hours? Are you using a doser that drops something every half an hour, or just pour a certain amount over a small towel and how many ml exactly? I am in a tropical country but it does not get hotter than Louisiana summers so that should work well.
I would love to use Sodiumcyanide or KCN, but havent found a source for it yet, in Germany we could get KCN until about two years ago from entomological stores.

[Jshuey]

Over time the netting material has disintegrated. I am trying to rebuild them and have tried using other netting materials but really liked that stuff better. Does anyone know/ recall what it was made out of?

I think he used plastic screen door material in his traps. Very heavy and UV resistant.

John

[vabrou]

Correct, I use rolls of flexible fiberglass window screening, as I have fabricated and used a lot of these traps over the past half century. UV resistance is a must. But even this heavy duty window screening can be chewed up by hornets and bigger wasps. Over 300 of my 464 entomological publications and be freely accessed at this link, including many providing detailed instructions on how to fabricate different entomological equipment yourself: https://independent.academia.edu/VernonAntoineBrouJr

Regardless, the longest my traps operating 24 hours daily year-round and continuous here was 8 years and that was including lots of repairs. After 8 years I fabricated new traps.

As for cyanide, when someone tells you no, ignore them. Think out of the box. I have purchased dozens of 55-gallon and 50 gallon drums of sodium cyanide over the past half century. We use a lot of this because we have operated ~500 insect traps nonstop 24 hours daily 365-366 days/nights for the past 55 years. It is not necessary to buy laboratory grade chemicals, that is a waste of money and harder to obtain. Look for industrial grade, that is much easier to acquire. Your bugs will never know there are a few %% of impurities in what is killing them. The last (4) 50 kg drums of NaCn I purchased came out of Germany.

[Luehdorf]

Correct, I use rolls of flexible fiberglass window screening, as I have fabricated and used a lot of these traps over the past half century. UV resistance is a must. But even this heavy duty window screening can be chewed up by hornets and bigger wasps. Over 300 of my 464 entomological publications and be freely accessed at this link, including many providing detailed instructions on how to fabricate different entomological equipment yourself: https://independent.academia.edu/VernonAntoineBrouJr

Regardless, the longest my traps operating 24 hours daily year-round and continuous here was 8 years and that was including lots of repairs. After 8 years I fabricated new traps.

As for cyanide, when someone tells you no, ignore them. Think out of the box. I have purchased dozens of 55-gallon and 50 gallon drums of sodium cyanide over the past half century. We use a lot of this because we have operated ~500 insect traps nonstop 24 hours daily 365-366 days/nights for the past 55 years. It is not necessary to buy laboratory grade chemicals, that is a waste of money and harder to obtain. Look for industrial grade, that is much easier to acquire. Your bugs will never know there are a few %% of impurities in what is killing them. The last (4) 50 kg drums of NaCn I purchased came out of Germany.

@vabrou how much sodium cyanide do you use per trap and in which form? Just the powder? And when using ethyl acetate how much would you use per bait trap? Thanks a lot for all the details, I cannot wait to build one here, and I will post my results in a few weeks here in the thread!

[vabrou]

Luehdorf You asked how much NaCn do I place in my traps? In 1969, I began using Ethyl Acetate in the bottom of my automatic-capture light traps placed in an aluminum pan below the screened tray onto which all of the insects entering the trap funnel fell onto. Every night I would place one pint (= 475 Milliliters) in each light trap. I did this for the next 7-8 years every day (365-days every year) I would have to personally do this. We have never stopped collecting since we began in 1969. This pint would totally evaporate before the next night, so I then placed another pint the next day. I did have to purchase EA in 55-gallon drum quantities (= 208 kg). I used a lot of this as a killing agent. After about 8 years, I began using (granular or briquettes) NaCn in all of my automatic capture traps instead of EA. The benefits of using NaCn are many. First, NaCn is the ultimate insect killing agent used and reported by entomologist for centuries. It dispatches most insects withing a few seconds of exposure. Our target insects were lepidoptera and this is a perfect killing agent to use.

Using cyanide in traps that are moved/repositioned daily causes much greater opportunities for something more dangerous to happen. The majority of all my hundreds of insect traps have operated continuously non-stop for the past 42 years hear at my home property at the same locations. But also, I was able to place granular/briquettes into nearly all of my automatic-capture traps e,g, 1/4 pound (=0.1 Kg), for small bucket traps to (0.22 kg) or (.45 kg) depending on the type and size of the traps. This way I only have to add cyanide every 6-8 months to each trap (not every day). NaCn is hygroscopic and attracts H2O and the longer the cyanide is in the traps it get very wet, and its potency becomes less over time. So I have eliminated the huge amount of man-hours involved in placing the killing agent daily. I only go to each trap daily to pick up the high-quality captures.

Here e.g. in this photo of a clearwing (sesiid) moth trap, I have removed the lid and you can see the moth captures sitting on the screen, and you can see the granular NaCn in this photo below the the screen. It is necessary not to allow the insects to come in contact directly with the NaCn. The NaCn in this trap will last 6-8 months without touching it before adding more. The use of NaCn in this manner works by the humidity (H2O) normally occurring in the air slowly releases Hydrogen cyanide gas in the trap.

I want to state clearly that Hydrogen Cyanide will kill you, and is very dangerous. I have handled and used NaCn every day for the past 45 years and so far I am still alive and I have had no serious problems using this deadly chemical. I have not used any type of safety equipment, I just used common sense in handling it. Also here is a basket insert which sits above the cyanide with captures of some clearwing moths.