Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Home Made Traps

Posted by Gordon on 13-10-2009 08:07
#2

So I will start with my experiences of making malaise traps. I found three main problems trying to copy a traditiona malaise trap and reduce costs as much as possible.

The first was finding a suitable material, in Greece you cannot buy the tradition B/W netting. I ended up finding a shop that sells remnant cloth and getting some fine weave blue curtain material, it was cheap and did the trick, but it was stretchy (slightly elastic). I chose blue because I thought it might work, might look like the sky and encourage insects to fly up. You want to buy the material cheap because it will only last a year, at least in the Greek/Mediterranean sun.

The second getting the material cut and sewn, of course if I had a wife/sister/mother/daughter with a sewing machine closer than 1500 km it might have been easier. But really its just a matter of care and good measuring and good scissors, because none of the angles are right angles you have to cut across the weave. Despite a lot of the literature I found that a few creases or sags did not really make much difference so it didn't matter that the sewing was not perfect.

The most difficult part was making the collecting bottle. I tried several mediocre methods before hitting on plastic chocolate/nut spread jars - clear plastic, wide mouth and good thread on the cap (and available anywhere), and down pipe. The plastic water pipe for plumbing. In the picture you can see the side connecting to the trap is a piece of downsisizing connection pipe, one part fits around the bottle and the other part angles down and has a reduced diametre to wich the net is afixed. The down pipe is not the exact fit of the bottle, so it is cut away at the back and it is flexible. A second piece is attached at the back with a jubilee clip through it to attache the whole thin to a post. All the parts are cut down to maximise the light passing through it and are gluued and rivited together.

The caps/lids of the bottles are cut away mostly on the top and glues back to back, then a strip of strong material is glued around the outside.

In Greece you can make a full sized malaise trap like this for about 25 Euroe plus the cost of the sewing, and you have a lot of chocolate to enjoy, or, as I did, give away.

Edited by Gordon on 13-10-2009 09:12