Simple but effective fly or moth trap?

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Denny1st

Denny1st

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Id like to hear your guys methods. Id like to stop paying online and catch my own for my mantises. I'm wondering if anyone hss a simple but effective way. I'm willing to sped money on materials as long as it's not too expensive. I won't be needing flies and moths on a large scale. Just enough for 7 mantises. If it's not your method but someone else's but you know it works good please let me know I'm really interested in doing this. Thanks. :)

 
Alright thanks. Looked it up and something similar. A 2 liter bottle with the neck cut off and inverted into itself with some rotten fruit or meat scraps in it.

 
Mix beer, syrup, and honey mostly syrup but let the mixture ferment for 3 days. Then one warm night, smear this substance on several trees in the area. Collect as many moths as you want that come to the light of your house and grab the ones that are attracted to the trees. This method works very well in the spring. Good luck!

 
I have tried the inverted 2 liter bottle method and it works okay. The problem is that this type of container does not attract enough flies, becomes overly humid and the flies have difficulty finding their way out the side vent that I made, even when pointed towards a strong light source.

The outdoor fly raising/catching project that I did with the plastic detergent bucket consistently traps 24+ large flies each day and provides plenty of pupae for when I need to leave town for a week. I just add some water to it every few days and change out the media every 2 months.

I also have a simple cut and inverted water bottle under my porch light. That catches enough moths to provide a little variety to the mantid's diet.

One important factor to think about is the amount of time and effort required to transfer the flies from the container you catch flies in to the mantis enclosure. The better planned the project, the less time it should require for long-term use and maintenance.

Good luck!

 
Ok thanks a lot everyone. I'll have to try them and see what works best. But Jay, what bait do you use in your inverted water bottle under the porch light? For the moths? And For the flies and moths I'll need something that would fit in my freezer, to slow them down of course

 
Dear Denny,

The inverted water bottle requires no bait. It is a simple trap. They just fall from the light into the water bottle. (Perhaps I need to post a picture of my incredibly simple setup). The trick is that the container needs to be easy to take apart and re-assemble or have a side hole by which to extract the bugs from.

I use a funnel to transport flies from my mayo jar into a Gatorade bottle with a mesh top, then put the bottle (containing a damp water/honey paper towel and flies) into the fridge for later use.

For the freezer trick you have to be EXTREMELY careful! It takes about 55 seconds for flies and moths to slow down, but by around 70-90 seconds many will begin to die. Unless you are in a hurry and are willing to stand next to the freezer to time yourself, the fridge is much safer!

 
I have dogs. so during the warm summer months I just use one of those inverted mesh umbrella things designed to keep flies out. sneak up on a good group of flies and trap them. shake the "tent" thingy and they fly around, close to trap them.

I pop the mash tent into a plastic bag, then into freezer for three to four minutes...this should not kill them but make them dormant. then dole them out to your mantids and work on fruit flies if you have young nymphs.

night time is a good time to trap moths and such with a old white sheet with a bright light shined on it. more open geography will give you more bugs to feed and a few "what is that?" bugs too....

 
Thanks for all the info guys! Very helpful. I will remember those tips. I went to Home Depot for mulch. Thought Id look in the pest control section and found moth attractant! Two pheromone pads. But it doesn't matter if they stick Cuz of the setup I have. Will post a pic later. Looks ghetto. Lol but looks like it could work. Will hang it from under my light

 
mantiscurious said:
I have dogs. so during the warm summer months I just use one of those inverted mesh umbrella things designed to keep flies out. sneak up on a good group of flies and trap them. shake the "tent" thingy and they fly around, close to trap them.

I pop the mash tent into a plastic bag, then into freezer for three to four minutes...this should not kill them but make them dormant. then dole them out to your mantids and work on fruit flies if you have young nymphs.

night time is a good time to trap moths and such with a old white sheet with a bright light shined on it. more open geography will give you more bugs to feed and a few "what is that?" bugs too....
Click to expand...
What temperature is your freezer set at?

Mine kills flies WAY before the 2 minute mark.

 
hibiscusmile said:
freezer should just make them dorment, should not kill them, the pupae overwinter in the ground.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. I have accidently left my flies in the freezer for 3-4 minutes before, then thrown them in the trash can because they looked dead. They never recovered. They were dead.

 
 

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