Malaise Traps – Marris Style

Used for the collection of insects, particularly Hymenoptera and Diptera. It does not require any light source or suction method so is an ideal method for comparisons to be made over areas, crops or interesting habitats.

Use of Malaise Trap – Marris Style

Consider the trap to be a small, oblong tent. It has two short end walls but no walls on the sides, however it has a central diaphram. Instead of the peak being over the centre of the tent as is the normal case with a tent, the peak is set above one end.

The trap is set up with four corner posts about 1200mm long. To control the tension in the material, it assists if the guy cord goes from a tent corner to an offset post and then down to a peg in the ground. The collecting bottles are inserted at the outer side of the peak, and the unit is fixed onto its own pole and controlled by its own guys; one will suit however two are better.

Positioning of Trap

The ideal position for setting up the trap in the southern hemisphere is at right angles to an insect flight line on the north side of an east-west running hedge with the bottle end nearest the hedge.

Collecting can be done wet into alcohol, or, if required, dry by placing an insect killer, vapona strip or liquid (in this case, a gauze strip is needed to prevent the insects getting wet) into the bottom bottle.

Details

Available in a very fine, soft terylene material with black walls and a white roof. The netting material is a 28 gauge terylene which is more resistant to UV deterioration than Nylon and the thread causes less damage to insect wings than the harder fibres of Nylon netting. The panels are joined with a Nylon tape. It is fitted with the “Museum” type collecting head which can be used for either dry or wet collecting using either a knock-down agent such as alcohol or Vapona strip for killing specimens. The length of the trap is 1.56 metres.

The trap consists of a collecting head, a spare collecting bottle, six tent pegs, two jubilee clips for attaching the head to the main support post, and six strong nylon cords as guy ropes. **The support posts are not supplied with the trap.**

The collecting head consists of white powder coated metal frame together with two plastic collecting bottles joined together by their lids.

Support Poles for Marris-Style Malaise Trap (E997POLES)

This complete set of support poles for the Marris-Style Malaise Traps consists of the following pole sizes:

• 1 x 160cm (collapsible)
• 3 x 111cm
• 2 x 91cm