Yes, this is not your ordinary bug trap. Now you can create your own DIY Designer Bug Trap!
My original goal was to create a bug catcher to get the flies and gnats from in and around our back porch. This is a simple design where the kind of bug you collect depends on what you put in the trap. While this was the original plan, my artistic daughter decided it needed to be upgraded to make it beautifully fit our yard.
My Traumatizing Bug Story
This HAS to come with a story! I had a very dramatic experience growing up that my husband likes to tease me about occasionally…well, you’ll understand in a minute. I was living in Zimbabwe, Africa, sleeping very peacefully in my bed when a horrible thing happened. I woke up first, as I often did as a kid, and saw that the sun was just rising. I heard the birds singing, and then something else: a loud scratching sound, along with the feeling of something crawling in my ear!
I immediately stuck my finger in my ear to try to grab whatever it was. I, or course, jammed it in further. Then…I started freaking out. I mean, to have something inside your ear moving around, making a ton of scratching noises and you can’t get it out??!! I went running and screaming into my parents’ room. They went from a sound sleep to standing up in half a second, thinking who knows what was happening. I then scream that something went inside of my ear.
Now, we all had a good idea what it was. We had many different plagues at different times of my growing up years. This one happened to be of a small beetle, very similar to a June Bug here in America. They were so bad that they covered the screens of our windows until you could barely see light through them. My parents put a large metal basin with a few inches of water in it under the back outside light at night. By morning it was so full of beetles that they were bouncing off the drowned ones and taking off again.
So, back to my ear. My parents weren’t sure what to do, never having to deal with such an event before. They shined a light down at it and it froze which helped me to stop panicking for a minute. They thought they could flush it out by trying water and then baby oil….still in there. I shook my head, smacking it like you’re trying to get water out of your ear. We got all the liquid out, laid my head down, ear up, on the bed (Which freaked me out. I thought it was going to go into my brain), and shone a flashlight down my ear. Remember, they are attracted to light. It started to crawl toward the light (very loudly), where they were able to grab it with tweezers.
What I did next is what my husband likes to tease me about. There I was during an African summer and I was jumping at every sound that came near me so I decided to wear ear muffs! I probably walked around with them on for a week or two! ha ha! Poor traumatized child. Still to this day I will wipe my hand over my pillow before I lay my head down and then cover my other ear with my hair before I sleep.
I’ll have you know I’ve also had a bee zip in and out of my ear before I could hardly jump. What is it with my ears! I promise they are not overly large or anything, ha ha.
That being said, though I am known to stomp a beetle even in bare feet, bugs don’t really bother me. I think spiders do a marvelous job! But who wants to be over run or bitten. So, here is a great trap to make and options for different kinds of bugs you may want to trap.
DIY Designer Bug Trap
1. Take a 2 liter or even a smaller water bottle, empty, then remove outer wrapper (if desired).
2. About 1/3 of the way down from the top (opening end), cut around the bottle so that you cut off the top.
3. Turn the top upside down and put it back into the bottle.
4. Tape around where the top meets the bottle so that the top is secure.
5. Decorate as you wish – optional
6. Add the following, depending on which insect you are trying to trap
What to Add to Your Trap
Mosquitoes: one cup water, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp yeast
Moths: one cup white vinegar, one cup granulated sugar, one cup water, and one banana peel.
Beetles: ethenol and place under a light at night.
Flies and gnats: tiny piece of raw meat, OR 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 water mixture with a Tbsp of sugar, OR ripe fruit
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