How to make a pitfall trap

Set up a pitfall trap to carry out a small-scale survey of the insects in your garden.

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Jo Price

Published: March 31, 2015 at 10:04 am

Illustrations by Alan Batley

Bury a plastic pot (such as a yoghurt pot) into the ground, so the rim is at ground level.

Include a few leaves as hiding places, but low down so beetles can’t climb out.

Position some stones around the rim, and a piece of wood on top to keep the rain out.

Check the trap the next day and note what you see. Release the insects afterwards.

Jo Price

Deputy editor, BBC Wildlife Magazine

Jo Price is the deputy editor of BBC Wildlife Magazine. She trained as a journalist at Cardiff University and has been a member of the BBC Wildlife team for nine years, working in various roles. Jo commissions exciting natural history content and interviews experts for the magazine’s Wild Times section and discoverwildlife.com. She enjoys wildlife gardening to support an array of species, including a few hedgehogs: creating a hedgehog highway has resulted in the prickly mammals visiting her suburban garden to forage and hibernate. Jo spends her weekends exploring local nature reserves, Magor Marsh and RSPB Newport Wetlands, and going on countryside walks and bike rides with her family.

Illustrations by Alan Batley

How to make a pitfall trap

Bury a plastic pot (such as a yoghurt pot) into the ground, so the rim is at ground level.

Include a few leaves as hiding places, but low down so beetles can’t climb out.

Position some stones around the rim, and a piece of wood on top to keep the rain out.

Check the trap the next day and note what you see. Release the insects afterwards.

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