Pit fall traps .....Help !

[Uv moth notingha]

Hi all , lately I have been trying to catch some beetles/ground moving predatory insects in pit fall traps ... so far the "ye oldy yogart pots " sunk into the ground hasnt got anything .. despite my garden being an invertebrate paradise (!?) no pestiscides , wild flower patch a couple of reasonable sized trees, plenty of weeds , a bit of leaf litter ... what more can the beetles want !(?) Obviously i am doing something wrong . So does anybody else out there have or know of a better type of trap , or means of catching the little blighters ..
Best wishes
UVMOTH

[Lindsay-c]

Have you been leaving the pot out overnight and checking them the next day?

Perhaps you haven't found anything because something has discovered your traps and has been feasting on whatever has fallen in... lyk birds or hedgehogs or something...

perhaps you could try something deeper than a yoghurt pot like a jam jar. After you bury it so that the rim of the jar is a little bit above soil level you could put something like a tile or plank of wood over the top of it but leaving a gap for insects to fall in but bare in mind if there's a gap then that's no good for if it rains so it might be better to put some stones underneath the wood/tile so that the it isn't flat ontop of the jar so there's a gap but still shelters from rain

[Cowgirl]

I was always taught to put the rim slightly below the soil because if it sticks up, the bugs will just walk around the barrier rather than fall in. We used the big 500ml yoghurt pots with a solution of water & fairy liquid in the bottom , if it's dry they can just fly out. Pitfall were always my most hated job especially when they were full of slugs & worms, blehh

[Lindsay-c]

Originally Posted by Cowgirl

I was always taught to put the rim slightly below the soil because if it sticks up, the bugs will just walk around the barrier rather than fall in. We used the big 500ml yoghurt pots with a solution of water & fairy liquid in the bottom , if it's dry they can just fly out. Pitfall were always my most hated job especially when they were full of slugs & worms, blehh

Yeah, it's preference I suppose but though it better with rim slightly higher so that soil and water and what have you doesn't fall in, drowning your catch or covering them in soil so you can't really see them (though i suppose you can pour into a tray so you can see them)