| I am getting some good results for a general purpose trap made from two liter bottles. I cut 2 1' holes in the sides that will be about 1-2" above the level of the bait fluid and roughly opposite of each other, which puts them around 4" inches above the bottom of the bottle. Hole size is important, if they are too big, then things escape. For bait, I use nearly pure fruit juice, a little water and a little dish detergent (couple of drops) plus about a 1" square piece of lunch meat. It is essential that the bottle cap remain in place and that the bottle has mostly vertical, rather than horizontal space. I've tried horizontal traps that do not work. Typically the trap does not catch much for a few days until things start to ferment a bit. I catch yellow jackets, fruit wasps, lots of flies and sometimes at night a lot of moths. Once the trap kicks in within a day or two I'll get and inch or two of dead pests in the bait, at which time the trap becomes ineffective and needs to be drained and rebaited. I think a fair amount of vertical space is needed to make the trap effective. I have also used fruit waste, such as skins in water, which seems to work but not as well. I just started doing this a few weeks ago as I am having a lot of trouble with fruit wasps and flies, but have been seeing yellow jackets in the traps as well. Don't have much of a problem with yellow jackets here, but the fruit wasps and flies are the worst I can remember. --- On Fri, 7/18/08, Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com> wrote: From: Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com> |
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