Crop Protection 51 - 5

Methods of collecting and

preserving insects
 Collecting insects
• Relative collecting techniques:
• Provides data about presence or absence of certain insects
and indicates how abundant one species is relative to
another, area of sampling not known
• Butterfly nets, hand nets = aerial nets, not used in thick
vegetation, just on top of it
• Sweep nets = designed for thrashing through vegetation
• Can not be used if vegetation is wet
• Only semi-quantifiable
• Fast flying insects will escape
• Sweeping will not catch leafmining or stem-boring
insects, or insects living to close to the ground
• Beating trays = umbrella held upside down
• For sampling from trees

Crop Protection 51 – Economic Entomology

 Collecting insects
• Relative collecting techniques:
• Light traps = UV radiation attracts various insects
• Mainly male insects respond
• Used to trap moths
• Some insects also repelled by light
• Very unspecific
• Flight intercept trap = net
• Catches insects in flight
• Sticky traps or window type traps
• Color traps = yellow, blue, etc.
• Pitfall traps =
• Water pan traps =
• Lures and baited traps =
• Fogging and vacuuming =
Crop Protection 51 – Economic Entomology
 Collecting insects
• Absolute collecting techniques:
• Hand searching =
• Suction sampling = with pooter – aspirator or D-Vac
• Emergence traps and rearing =
• Sieving and extraction techniques =
• Canopy techniques =

Crop Protection 51 – Economic Entomology