Non-toxic bug traps

Randy Crawford uses these to catch insects for his frogs. He uses two types of traps and has described them as follows:

Trap 1 is a bottle with the top 1/3 cut off, trimed so it makes 3 legs (holes for the flies to access the bait which is put under this affair) and inserted into the other 2/3. After the flies feed they always leave by taking off and flying upwards, thru the funnel and into the main chamber. They are too stupid to try to get out the hole, always trying to fly up. Yes, it really works.

Trap 2 has short pieces of tube inserted in the sides, pointing down. The bait is put in the bottom, the flies enter thru the tubes, and again are too dumb to get out that way. They actually sell a trap in Canada very similar in design (no 2 litre bottle, though).

With a liquid bait, the bugs will drown eventually (and smell bad and attract meat eaters like wasps). With a solid bait, it is easy to release a few at a time from the top.

David Leatham added: "This same trap is great for fruit flies - use vinegar as bait.

Trap 3 is an upside down version of Trap 1 that should work more or less like Trap 2 and may be easier to make than Randy's version. Adding the little slanted board where the cap originally screwed on helps to keep them from finding thier way out. You can make it by cutting the top of the cap almost all the way off and then bending it down.

To make your own flypaper, take a brown paper bag and cut it into small manageable strips. Boil equal parts corn syrup and water and then dunk your strip of paper into the mixture. Hang with a thumb tac. James Newton replies: As far as I can tell, this REALLY doesn't work. The flys are not only NOT interested in it, they regularly landed and were able to take right back off again despite the fact that it was sticky as hell.+

James Newton Says:

I wonder if some sort of flypaper or tangle-trap (product of Tangle Foot, Inc.) could be used to catch flying bugs for Chickens?

James Newton of MassMind replies: Err... No. The chickens make a mess of the sticky parts...+