Bottle trap for insects

Bottle trap is a name used for several different objects. Among these are a piece of material used in bathroom plumbing, as well as various traps that are made out of discarded bottles and which are used to trap animals as different as beetles, mice, fish and octopuses. This article is about the use of modified bottles to trap flying insects.

In this context, a bottle trap is a type of baited arboreal insect trap for collecting either prized or harmful frugivorous beetles, especially flower beetles,leaf chafers and longhorn beetles as well as wasps and other unwanted flying insects.

A bottle trap is an insect trap made out of a plastic bottle. Most collectors use bottles of 1.5 or 2 liters to make these traps but smaller bottles are sometimes used as well. There are basically two types:

Many different types of bait are used. Since this kind of trap is mainly used for beetles that are attracted to (over)ripe fruits, baits with a certain amount of alcohol are usually very effective. Types of bait which are commonly used are:

Other fruits are sometimes used as well, but banana is most often used since it is widely available, normally inexpensive and contains sufficient sugar to start a fermentation process by itself. The different ingredients are usually kept apart and mixed in the trap itself, but some collectors prefer to mix their bait before going into the field.

Bottle traps (like all traps) yield best in places where more of the desired insects are to be expected. For beetles, in general this means high up in trees, especially flowering or fruiting trees. Other places in which traps are often placed with good results include forest borders. Traps placed inside forests usually yield smaller numbers of beetles, but also different species. Traps for luring wasps are usually set up a short distance (several meters) from the place where they are bothersome.

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Wikipedia