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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 17:57:08 GMT -8
After seeing other members posts and reading information on the internet I decided to buy a bait trap from Leptraps a couple of months ago. I picked the flat bottom duralife model. The main reason I got it was to increase my catocala catch. Up until this point in time I have collected everything with a net and light sheet. When the trap arrived I unpacked it and gave it a look over. The first thing I noticed was the quality was actually better than I expected it to be. My first thought was this thing took one or more people some time to make. Since I never used a bait trap before I was glad to see there was documentation included with trap that explained how to maintain the trap so it will provide years of reliable service and tips on trap placement and even a simple bait recipe. My wife loves to waste fruit. She buys it and never eats it. This has been going on for years inspite of my constant complaining about it so it worked out in my favor that I just happed to have the fruit mentioned in the recipe that came with the trap. I also am very sure that I will have no shortage of expired fruit to make bait with in the future. So I mix up a batch of bait and let it sit in the sun per the instructions and soon I have a bag full of fermenting goodness. After a stormy weekend I decided that it was time to try out the trap. I selected a place in my back yard and put the trap up and loaded in the bait. It was raining the next day so about all I caught was some flies. The next the weather cleared and when I got home from work I went out back to check the trap. I was shocked! It was full of so many Lepidoptera I didnt hardly know which one to grap first. By the time I was finished sorting I had collected more Polygonia interrogationis and Polygonia comma in one day than I net collected all last year. I also collected four Limenitis arthemis. All in perfect condition. I ended up with fourteen fine specimens that day thanks to the Leptrap and the nice part about it was that all of the "collecting" went on while i was at work. I will be purchasing more of them. If you have been toying around with the idea of getting one then my advice would be dont wait so long to give one a try like I did. I cant wait to see what else I will be able to collect this summer. The only downside to using bait traps is you will probably have to buy more speading boards. I know I will! Check them out at www.leptraps.com
Joe
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Post by cabintom on May 21, 2015 18:45:00 GMT -8
I have had one of these traps sitting in my basement for months now. I can't wait to return to Africa next month!
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Post by admin on May 21, 2015 23:01:46 GMT -8
Can you share that bait recipe?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2015 1:48:48 GMT -8
The bait was simple and easy to make.
bananas
apples
sugar
water
I used 3 bananas and 3 apples (with peels)
Chopped up in small pieces and a couple cups of brown sugar and put it in a ziplock bag. Then I added some water closed the bag and gave it a good shake. I put the bag in the sun for a few hours and the bag swelled like the instructions said. And that's it. It took less than 10 minutes to make and saved fruit from the trash can. It said not to use alcohol as it will accelerate fermentation and turn the bait to vinegar and ruin it.
Joe
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Post by leptraps on May 22, 2015 6:54:55 GMT -8
When you purchase a bait trap from Leptraps LLC and you get the recipe and how, where, when and to place the bait trap. Timing is important and when to check your trap and maintain it. Visit www.Leptraps.com for more information |
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2015 17:55:03 GMT -8
Had another nice haul in the trap today (5.22.15). Its paying for itself in specimens. I collected the following:
2 Amphion floridensis 3 Asterocampa celtis 1 Megisto cymela 1 Limenitis arthemis 3 Polygonia interrogationis 1 Vanessa atalanta 6 Polygonia comma
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2015 18:04:09 GMT -8
I have had one of these traps sitting in my basement for months now. I can't wait to return to Africa next month! I bet not! Just one trap. I would take at least 3 if I had the chance to go to Africa. |
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Post by cabintom on May 22, 2015 19:08:19 GMT -8
I have had one of these traps sitting in my basement for months now. I can't wait to return to Africa next month! I bet not! Just one trap. I would take at least 3 if I had the chance to go to Africa. Believe me, I seriously considered bringing a number with me... but we're making a permanent move and space is a premium when you need to fit your entire life into a total of 6 bags. |
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 23, 2015 1:04:19 GMT -8
Tom,
You should be able to make a decent trap based loosely on the design from locally available material in DRC. You need some cloth, stiff wire, a wooden or plastic base and some string. It may not have all the 'bells & whistles' of a professionally made trap, but it will work.
Adam.
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Post by cabintom on May 23, 2015 3:33:31 GMT -8
Tom, You should be able to make a decent trap based loosely on the design from locally available material in DRC. You need some cloth, stiff wire, a wooden or plastic base and some string. It may not have all the 'bells & whistles' of a professionally made trap, but it will work. Adam. I had made myself a trap last year and had some success with it. It wasn't terribly well constructed though, so I'll need to make improvements. Tom |
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Post by admin on May 23, 2015 20:09:52 GMT -8
Had another nice haul in the trap today (5.22.15). Its paying for itself in specimens. I collected the following:
2 Amphion floridensis 3 Asterocampa celtis 1 Megisto cymela 1 Limenitis arthemis 3 Polygonia interrogationis 1 Vanessa atalanta 6 Polygonia comma
Mega-awesome. |
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2015 2:27:09 GMT -8
I'm not even going to list what I caught in it yesterday(5.23.15). It was a obscene amount of specimens. It took me over a hour just to log the collecting data. I'm running out of envelopes and it's not even June.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2015 15:37:04 GMT -8
I have added another field to my database. It is for capture method. It will be interesting to see how many specimens are bait trap, light sheet or net captured at the end of the collecting season.
Joe
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Post by leptraps on May 25, 2015 18:29:31 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 1:46:36 GMT -8
Should call that one the catocala hotel. They check in but they don't check out.
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