Do you have any centipedes around your house?
It can be lots of fun to catch bugs with this simple pitfall trap. Observing bugs is fun, will help you learn about their behavior, and will get you more acquainted with the natural world.
Bugs are a great easy introduction to learning about the natural world, if you can catch them. I remember spending hours outside in our front yard looking for and observing pill bugs. It was so fun to find them and then watch them roll up into little balls. Well, here is a simple pit fall trap you can set up in your yard to help you catch all kinds of bugs.
What Is A Pitfall Trap?
A pitfall trap is a simple trap that sits in the ground and can catch lots of bugs that crawl on the ground. It’s not effective for flying bugs because they can just fly up and out of the trap.
Here are some of the common insects of the Rocky Mountains that you may catch or cicadas, or even the larval stage of moths and butterflies.
Tools You Need
Luckily you don’t need anything special for this as it can be built easily from recycled materials around your house. You need some kind of container, such as a coffee can, cup, or cut off the top of a plastic soda bottle; 4 small rocks; one piece of wood or rock that is larger than the top of your container.
How To Build It
Dig a hole in the soil the same depth as your container and place the container in it. The top of the container must be the same level as the soil. Fill in the soil around the side of the container.
Place the rocks around the outside of your container. They’ll serve as posts to rest your roof on. Put the wood or flat rock on those 4 rocks so that it covers the top of your container. This will keep the area under it shady, which is what many bugs like.
- A slight variation on this simple pitfall trap is to bury your container. Then place a second container, that is the same size (only shorter than the first container), inside of the one you buried. This makes it easy to remove that inner cup to see what you’ve caught.
Tips On Your Pitfall Trap
Check your trap every day or couple of days to see what insects you’ve caught in your trap.
If it’s going to rain you can put a lid on or cover your trap to keep the rain from filling it up.
You can add a tiny bit of water and dishwasher soap or ethyl alcohol into the bottom of your container. This will kill the bugs that fall into it. The thinking behind is that it will keep one bug falling into the cup and eating the other ones!
There are lots of beetles that live on the ground you are likely to catch.
What Do You Do After You Catch Them?
This trap will help you learn all about the different types of insects and creepy crawlies that live in your yard.
You can carefully (with adult supervision as some insects are poisonous and can bite) remove the bugs you’ve caught.
You can observe the bugs you catch in your trap. Photo via Flickr.
If they are dead you can add them to your collection. Or you could create a tank to keep them in, such as a small glass case filled with soil and vegetation to observe them.