Bait Traps: 24/7/365 Season after Season,year after year.

[coloradeo]

I wonder if anyone else has tried this -- a couple nights ago I had a couple female A. polyphemus moths I put out in a bait trap with the bottom dish detached. Overnight I had two males pair with the polys in the bait trap (when I checked at 3:30AM). By morning, one of the males was not in the trap (!) but the other pairing was still active. Perhaps I need to adjust the size of the ring at the top of the funnel, but regardless, it accomplished what I was looking for! I did not have a great solution for wild pairings that would protect the females worked out (if someone has a better one, interested). Score another point for bait traps!

Is the top of the funnel ring adjustable on the Leptraps bait trap? Mine is from a large NA provider, prior to discovering Leptraps as a possible supplier.

[leptraps]

I have not made an inverted funnel bait trap in over 35 years. The flat bottom and slotted pan are the only types I now offer.

I do however have a flat pattern for a 15"bottom ring inverted funnel I can send if you want to convert a flat bottom to inverted funnel type.

[coloradeo]

Thanks for the offer, but as my trap is a BugDorm from BioQuip it's something for the future. I'll buy the next one from Leptraps to compare as they sound great!

[cabintom]

This morning found a few moths and a single Melanitis leda (wet season form and a bit worse for wear) in the trap. It's been mostly cloudy since, and the bait seemed to be a bit dry, so I haven't found anymore butterflies. (2 beetles were sitting in the bait though)

I'm not exactly sure what the proper procedure is when the bait starts to dry-out... I added some water to see if that helps through the afternoon (though if the clouds don't clear out I'm sure nothing would help). I'll probably need to procure some more bananas to create some fresh bait.

[Deleted]

Tom,

You did the right thing. When your bait starts to dry out just add some water to it. I replace mine with a fresh batch about every 10 days.

Joe

[joee30]

I would wonder if since it's in the 100's here, if bait traps or sugaring would produce? Nevada is pretty dry, but we do have some nice riparian areas to sample, and the mountains.

[Deleted]

Joee30,

From my understanding the hot dry weather produces the best results when using bait either in a trap or baiting trees

[cabintom]

Today was another good Charaxes day. I think I've already matched/surpassed last year's number of Charaxes captures.
Earlier I spotted a small horned beetle sitting on the side of the trap, unfortunately it flew away in the moments while I was trying to decide how to catch it.

leptraps is this trap washable in some way? I've caught SO many flies in it these past few days (messy little things), and I think a Turaco may have left a "gift" streaking down the trap's side...

I had a couple of concerns raised today as well:
1) I had to net a C. candiope which was (unsuccessfully) trying to figure out how to enter the trap from underneath where the tupperware bowl sits. (Maybe I need to wash the outside of the bowl?)
2) The plastic ring that is permanently attached to the end of the net tube (and which acts a bit like a funnel) is warping ever so slightly. This is probably not much of a concern though since, I gather, most traps don't have this feature.

Tom

[jshuey]

Jun 26, 2015 1:26:13 GMT -8 cabintom said:

This morning found a few moths and a single Melanitis leda (wet season form and a bit worse for wear) in the trap. It's been mostly cloudy since, and the bait seemed to be a bit dry, so I haven't found anymore butterflies. (2 beetles were sitting in the bait though)

I'm not exactly sure what the proper procedure is when the bait starts to dry-out... I added some water to see if that helps through the afternoon (though if the clouds don't clear out I'm sure nothing would help). I'll probably need to procure some more bananas to create some fresh bait.

Use a 10% sugar water solution to keep the fermentation going.

john

[Deleted]

I poured half a can of coke in the bait when it was starting to get dry out of curiosity to see if soda would work too. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. I just mixed up a fresh concoction of apple & red grape bait. I'll see how it works.

Joe

[leptraps]

I learned this little trick while living in Huntsburg, OH in 1985. I visited the Apple Festival in October that year and purchased a Gallon of Apple Cider (Fresh crushed Apple Juice), I was collecting winter moths and I used some of the Apple Cider to juice up a trap near my home. The next warm night, the trap with the Apple Cider produced more moths than the other four or five trap I had out.

I still use Apple Cider, should you use Apple Juice from the store it has preservatives and will have an adverse effect on the bait. I learned to dilute the Apple Juice by 3 to 1 with water. I froze the mixture into 4 X 4 inch Cider Cubes. During the summer when there is no Apple Cider, I have the stuff on ice. One cube will juice up 4 or 5 bait traps. Apple juice will add to the fermentation process and will greatly increase the catch. I currently have almost 5 gallons in my freezer.

I have 18 Bait Traps set out. I have some help with the traps in southern Indiana. We meet every other day at Exit 92 on I-64 and look over each others catch. I also provide bait and juice mixture. We have experienced a lot of rain over the past week and the numbers in the trap are way down. However, while checking my traps in Owen County, KY today, I collected a Catocala relecta off the tree trunk the Bait Trap was hanging in. That is only the third Catocala relecta I have collected in Kentucky.

I will have six more Bait Traps set out in Bath and Rowan counties in Kentucky. I will also have some help with a friend from Morehead who will have four of his in the mix. This should be a great year for Catocala.

You must be consistent when using Bait Traps. Those near my home are checked twice every day. All others are checked once a day. Although we look at the butterflies, are real interest is in the moths. Some days I take very little, other days I may mount 40+ specimens from the Bait Traps.

In all my years of using Bait Traps, I have lost four traps. Two due NABA folks, one was shot with a Shot Gun (I am assuming it was a shot gun, however, it was in Powell County, KY. There is a good possibility it could have been a 105!!) and one just disappeared.

I have been known to take matters into my own hands, after all, I am a Master Baiter, no further comment required!!

[joee30]

Leptraps, you've had issues with NABA folks as well? Dang!

[rayrard]

Jun 28, 2015 18:16:28 GMT -8 leptraps said:

I learned this little trick while living in Huntsburg, OH in 1985. I visited the Apple Festival in October that year and purchased a Gallon of Apple Cider (Fresh crushed Apple Juice), I was collecting winter moths and I used some of the Apple Cider to juice up a trap near my home. The next warm night, the trap with the Apple Cider produced more moths than the other four or five trap I had out.

I still use Apple Cider, should you use Apple Juice from the store it has preservatives and will have an adverse effect on the bait. I learned to dilute the Apple Juice by 3 to 1 with water. I froze the mixture into 4 X 4 inch Cider Cubes. During the summer when there is no Apple Cider, I have the stuff on ice. One cube will juice up 4 or 5 bait traps. Apple juice will add to the fermentation process and will greatly increase the catch. I currently have almost 5 gallons in my freezer.

I have 18 Bait Traps set out. I have some help with the traps in southern Indiana. We meet every other day at Exit 92 on I-64 and look over each others catch. I also provide bait and juice mixture. We have experienced a lot of rain over the past week and the numbers in the trap are way down. However, while checking my traps in Owen County, KY today, I collected a Catocala relecta off the tree trunk the Bait Trap was hanging in. That is only the third Catocala relecta I have collected in Kentucky.

I will have six more Bait Traps set out in Bath and Rowan counties in Kentucky. I will also have some help with a friend from Morehead who will have four of his in the mix. This should be a great year for Catocala.

You must be consistent when using Bait Traps. Those near my home are checked twice every day. All others are checked once a day. Although we look at the butterflies, are real interest is in the moths. Some days I take very little, other days I may mount 40+ specimens from the Bait Traps.

In all my years of using Bait Traps, I have lost four traps. Two due NABA folks, one was shot with a Shot Gun (I am assuming it was a shot gun, however, it was in Powell County, KY. There is a good possibility it could have been a 105!!) and one just disappeared.

I have been known to take matters into my own hands, after all, I am a Master Baiter, no further comment required!!

How did you know it was NABA people as opposed to local kids? Were they stolen or destroyed?

It's quite bold for some retirement age folk to mess with a scientific sampling effort. Did you mark the traps as research?

[leptraps]

Some place on this forum I have posted "The Incident on the Sugar Ridge". I do not know where it is or how to find it. So here it is again. Please remember that this happened 15 years ago, and on my birthday no less (I was 55 on that day and at 70, I am still good looking as ever. I have lost none of my charm and sex appeal either.)

THE INCIDENT ON SUGAR RIDGE

I have been a Lepidopterist since I was a young boy. My fascination with butterflies and moths has increased as I have grown older. The boyhood hobby of collecting and studying Lepidoptera grew to a great passion as an adult. As a teenager, I was encouraged by teachers, museum personnel, parents, and many adults in my pursuit of Lepidoptera. As an adult, I consider myself to be an ardent amateur Lepidopterists. However, what was once solely a pleasure, is slowly turning to aggravation. I became a target to some of those who believe that the collecting of butterflies is wrong.

During the past three years while a resident of Florida, Bob Beiriger of Loxihatchee, Dave Fine of Delray Beach, and I were surveying the Lepidoptera of south Florida. One area that has been of great interest to us has been the Sugar Ridge, the former shore line of Lake Okeechobee prior to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control, levee, and rim canal work around the Lake. The Sugar Ridge is the name given by the locals who live along the ridge as it is the barrier between the rim levee and the sugar cane fields. The Sugar Ridge is located on the northeast side of Lake Okeechobee that extends from Okeechobee County, through Martin County and ends in northwestern Palm Beach County. The ridge acts as a natural barrier and directs insects and birds either north or south along the ridge. We have been collecting Lepidoptera along the Sugar Ridge for the past two years and to date have recorded 606 species of butterflies and moths. The major method of collecting has been accomplished with bait traps, pheromone traps, and light traps. Bob Beiriger is also a Coleopterist and has been using various types of traps for beetles. We have sought and obtained permission of the land owners to collect and set out the traps on their property. Once the traps were in place, each of us would take his turn monitoring the traps, recording the species and then servicing the traps. This requires a constant effort on our part and has been very rewarding.

In February of 2000, I was contacted by the person arranging field trips in conjunction with the NABA annual meeting which was to be held in West Palm Beach, Florida the weekend of 19, 20 & 21 May 2000. I suggested several areas for them to visit including a location on the Sugar Ridge at the Port Mayaca Locks in Martin County. Here they could find Siproeta stelenes, Marpesia petreus, Asterocampa flora, Asterocamps alicia, and many of the more common butterflies. The field trip coordinator and I have known each other for several years and we respect each others opinions and share information on Lepidoptera freely.

I am no longer a member of NABA and therefore gave no further thought to their meeting nor their field trips. However, all that changed the night of Sunday, 21 May 2000, when I received three telephone calls informing me that during the NABA field trip to the Sugar Ridge location at Port Mayaca Locks that one of my traps had been destroyed and others tampered with by those attending the field trip. I was very upset to say the least. For the first time in my life, there was a direct attack on my passion and collecting work.

I visited the site of the incident on Monday, 22 May 2000, and notified the Martin County Sheriff’s Department. The responding deputy knew of our activities and was also aware that there was a group of some sort in the area on Sunday.

I was provided with the names of the two individuals who destroyed the trap. The Atala Chapter of NABA who hosted the meeting contacted both individuals and requested that they resolve the incident with me directly. Both of the individuals contacted me via the Internet. One explained his involvement in the incident. When the bait trap was originally found, it was lowered (It was approximately 30 feet up in a tree) and emptied of its contents. They returned to the bait trap a second time and noticed that there was no identification on the trap and they presumed that the bait trap was illegal and they cut the trap down and cut it up. They found a second trap which was also lowered, however, this trap had identification (I had used it the previous year in a state park that required identification.). This trap was not damaged, although it was emptied. The individual went on to further explain that they knew there were legal traps used by government agencies and that they presumed that the bait trap was illegal. The other wrote that the traps were illegal and she destroyed it to save the butterflies.

I informed these individuals that my traps were on private property and that I had the permission of the landowner to collect and set out traps. There are no laws prohibiting the use of traps to collect insects, including butterflies on private property. There are however, places that the use of traps for the collection of insects, including butterflies, requires a collecting/research permit. These included National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, Historic Sites and Monuments, State Parks, County Parks and any other areas where wildlife is protected and a collecting/research permit is required. Further, unless either of these individuals is a wildlife officer or law enforcement officer, they have no legal right or authority to destroy or remove my traps. If they believed that my traps were illegal, they should have reported the trap to a wildlife officer or a law enforcement agency. Just because they presumed the traps were illegal does not give them the right or the authority to destroy the trap. The destruction of the trap was the destruction of personal property and it is a crime! I also informed them that I had filed a complaint with the Martin County Sheriff Department and that a warrant for their arrest would be issued.

I received numerous apologies, including Jeffrey Glassberg on behalf of NABA, the Atala Chapter of NABA in South Florida, and both individuals of the group involved in the destruction of the trap. I had numerous offers from NABA members to pay for the trap. In the end the two individual who destroyed the trap accepted their responsibility and paid for the trap. I promptly dropped all charges.

Although this brought an end to the sad episode, with the passage of time my emotions have settled down and I have been able come to some conclusions. First of all, there are individuals in the world who are vehemently opposed to the collecting of insects and will overreach sensible bounds to express their displeasure with collecting and Lepidopterists. Such people appear to be driven more by their emotions than by rational thought and consequently are seldom swayed by scientific argument. We as Lepidopterists can do little or nothing about them, but it is important that we recognize that they exist and acknowledge the remote possibility of conflict.

To this end I can think of nothing better to do than take the actions we all know are prerequisite to responsible collecting in the first place: Be absolutely sure that you are collecting at a site where such activity is not restricted (or obtain the necessary permit(s) if restrictions apply); obtain permission from landowners to use their property; and be as unobtrusive as possible. Furthermore, having determined that your activities are not in violation of any laws or regulations, defend your right to collect vigorously to a satisfactory conclusion if challenged in any way!

One final lesson that I have learned from this episode is that we can't draw conclusions about entire organizations based on the activities of a few of their members. Obviously NABA has members who are vehemently opposed to collecting. Yet NABA as an organization is not specifically opposed to collecting and has in it's membership a number of collectors and professional Lepidopterists. Unlike the nonprofit Lepidopterists' Society which has a constitution, elected officers, and clearly stated guidelines for collecting, NABA is a private corporation with a board of directors which acts in an advisory capacity to its president. Therefore membership in NABA, in contrast to membership in the Lepidopterists' Society, does not imply adherence to any stated position on collecting insects.

As Lepidopterists, we can do no more than go about our legitimate activities to the extent of our desire, understand that there are some who resent our right to do so, and we must defend our rights whenever necessary.

[Deleted]

I am exercising my right to use a bait trap right now. I'm hoping when I get up in the morning it will be full of catocala!