Bait Traps and lots of Lep's

Mon Jun 4 15:10:19 EDT 2001

In a message dated Mon, 4 Jun 2001  2:02:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Mike Soukup <mikayak at mdo.net> writes:

<< <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">    Hi Leroy,  
 You wouldn't, by chance, want to give up your  bait-trap recipe??. I have 2 traps....but have never used them!!!!  

Mike:

The following receipt is the result of 20+ years of trapping:

5 pounds of cheap apples
3 pounds of Bananas
Cut up fruit into 1 to 2 inch chuncks.
Mix fruit together and place in gallon ziplock bags.
Add 3/4 cup of sugar to each bag of fruit
Add 1/2 cup of water to each bag of fruit.
Seal bag and gently shake to mix contents.
Place bag in sun. When the bag begins swells, the mixture is fermenting.
When bag is swollen, the bait is ready.
Release the pressure in the bag before placing the mixture in you car. If the bag pop's in your car, you will never forget it. Trust me!

You need to place the trap in a good location. The edge of the woods facing west.The dappled afternoon sun is excellent for butterflies. Along creek or small streams, in a heavy forest, raise the trap 20 or 30 feet above the ground. If you get just a few Lep's ot very little in the trap, change the location.

Hope this helps,

Cheers, 

Leroy

Leptraps at aol.com wrote:  I have  14 bait traps out in Scott, Fayette and Franklin counties here in  
Kentucky. I am looking for  Catocala moths, however, I have noticed a huge  
increase in the number of  butterflies, especially Vanessa atalanta, Polygonia  
comma and Asterocampa celtis.  The weather has been unseasonably cool for  
early summer, and normally  this does not bode well for bait traps. Vanessa  
atalanta has become a pain,  today I removed 216 individuals from a single  
trap. In the same trap were  122 Polygonia comma and 81 Asterocampa celtis.  
The most amazing species,  just by volume, Pseudaletia unipuncta (Army Worm),  
there have been several  hundred, if not more, in every trap. When I first  
disturb the trap, the startled  P. unipuncta go into the escape frenzy and the  
scale dust pours from the  trap.  
On another note, the Kroger  Supermarket in Georgetown, Kentucky, has a large  
selection of potted plants  for the garden in front of the store under the  
overhang. Today I saw my  first Phoebis sennae of the year on a potted Pentas.  
As I approached for a closer  look, I saw several Phyciodes tharos on a daisy  
and 3 Amphion floridensis  flying about the potted plants.  
One more time. My wife made  a stop at the local nursery/garden shop (An  
almost daily event for her)  and purchased several Ligustrums that were 24  
inches tall and full of  blooms. As I was preparing to plant them (She gets  
the easy job!) in a garden  at the back of the lot, I noticed a Parrhasius  
m-album on one of the flowers.  Several hours after they were planted and  
watered, with net in hand,  I went for another look, and there were four more.  
I made a dash for the garden  shop for a dozen more plants, but the place was  
closed.  
Tonight just before dark  I found numerous moths buzzing about the flowers.  
It has been a good year to  date. It just needs to warm up a bit. It was only  
69 degrees today. I have  wondered if the weather was hot, what would be  
attracted to the Ligustrum  flowers?  
Cheers,  
Leroy C. Koehn  
202 Redding Road  
Georgetown, Kentucky  
USA  40324-2622  
Tele.: 502-570-9123  
Cell: 502-803-5422  
E-mail: Leptraps at aol.com  
"Let's get among them"     >>

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