Help! It doesent work!

[MANTIS DUDE]

I tried the method of shining a light on a large hung up sheat but it doesent atract a thing! Any Tips?

 

[pedro92]

I tried the method of shining a light on a large hung up sheat but it doesent atract a thing! Any Tips?

Is it for attracting food or mantids? I turn on the porch light and run net through group of food.

 

[yen_saw]

Do not use halogen light. Flourescent light works better, mercury vapor light works the best. Here is one of the set up for trapping bug in one of my night hunt for moths and beetles.

Here is another one without the vapor lights. My son and friend David checking out the white sheet. Sometimes flourescent light will be good enough to capture bug.

Another tip is that try to avoid night hunt when it is full moon and away from all the city lights. A hot and humid night usually yield many kinds of bugs.

 

[pedro92]

Do not use halogen light. Flourescent light works better, mercury vapor light works the best. Here is one of the set up for trapping bug in one of my night hunt for moths and beetles.

Here is another one without the vapor lights. My son and friend David checking out the white sheet. Sometimes flourescent light will be good enough to capture bug.

Another tip is that try to avoid night hunt when it is full moon and away from all the city lights. A hot and humid night usually yield many kinds of bugs.

You have quite a set up. How many bugs do you get on one night

 

[OGIGA]

Yen, how do you collect them? One by one?

 

[idolomantis]

i do the same as yen and i find alot. aven bats come to it.

 

[Hypoponera]

A "black light" will work well also. That's why they are used on bug zappers!

 

[The_Asa]

Echoing Hypoponera, Black light works as well.

 

[yen_saw]

You have quite a set up. How many bugs do you get on one night

Most of the set-up are just PVC pipe and some simple wiring, not very complicated. You can find most of the materials in Home Depo. Vapor light bulb and generator are the only two expensive parts.

Yen, how do you collect them? One by one?

Butterfly net especially for the large flying moths like Luna moth. But most of the time we just scoop it up with plastic container. Here are some of the bugs we encountered at night hunt here in Texas

Caterpillar killer

Some species of moths

Click beetles

Goldsmith beetle and click beetle

Giant water bug, katydid, caterpillar killer

Long horn beetle

Sometimes we found carolina mantis and ground mantis too.

 

[idolomantis]

i now know my next holiday destination O_O

 

[obregon562]

Yen,

How did you get a WATEr bug??? haha thats some powerful attracting! im gonna try that this weekend! Thanks!

 

[Hypoponera]

Hey Yen,

Can you tell me about how long that water bug is? I think it is in the genus Lethocerous sp. Any chance you can send me some of your night collection?

 

[Peter Clausen]

Hey Yen,

Are you bringing that light set up with you to AZ?

Unfortunately, I can't bring mine on the plane (too heavy):

 

[yen_saw]

Yen,How did you get a WATEr bug??? haha thats some powerful attracting! im gonna try that this weekend! Thanks!

THe water bug is attracted to light and will fly out from the water, cool eh

Hey Yen,Can you tell me about how long that water bug is? I think it is in the genus Lethocerous sp. Any chance you can send me some of your night collection?

That water bug is only about 2 inches. I have seen some about 3 inches, they can give a painful nasty bite. I believed it is of Lethocerous sp. The one on the pic was from a night hunt going around the gas station at night (they have lights on 24 hours a day). Will let you know if i go out for night hunt again. We have Tropical storm Edouard recently that hit Houston with strong wind and rain, no sure how many bugs survive out there.

Hey Yen,Are you bringing that light set up with you to AZ?

Unfortunately, I can't bring mine on the plane (too heavy):

Well it is too big to carry all those equipment up to the plane there Peter, don't think i will bring it. Look forward to meet you at Tucson end of this month.

Some other bugs we frequently found is mole crickets... pesty little thing

Dobson fly too but not very often

 

[idolomantis]

those mole crickets looks to me like a mantis snack...

 

[collinchang635]

Do you attract many mantids with those lights?

 

[yen_saw]

Do you attract many mantids with those lights?

Not many. Some ground mantis or Carolina mantis sometimes show up when the weather is hot and muggy even at night. Most of the time we found mantis in a gas station that has lights on 24 hrs.