How to find Carabus in summer

[wollastoni]

To answer cabintom's question, this is another efficient method to easily collect Carabidae during summer.

Carabids are carnivorous insects, they hunt and eat snails and are voracious. Most of them hunt during the night under the leaves so they are nearly impossible to find during summer.

There is a very easy method to catch them : the "pitfall" trap filled with red-wine vinegar.

All you need is a plastic glass and some red-wine vinegar (the cheapest one works).

Dig your plastic glass in the soil of the forest, the glass must be well digged with the top of the glass at the level of the ground.

Fill the glass with 4 cm or red wine vinegar.

Come the day after and you will find this :

Most of them will be dead drown due to the vinegar. Just wash them with water to remove vinegar and they are ready to be spread.

Of course this method is non selective.

If you want to select the Carabids, or keep them live for breeding, put the vinegar on a cotton ball that you put inside the plastic glass. Carabs will fall in the trap the same way. But be careful, they are voracious, so they will eat each others inside the glass and you will have specimens with missing legs and antennaes. The technique to avoid this cannibalism is to add a piece of apple in the glass, they will eat it instead of their brothers.

The glass must be digged perfectly at the level of the ground like this :

It attracts also Geotrupidae very well in Europe.

Let me know how it works in Africa tom !

[cabintom]

Will other types of vinegar work? I'm not sure red wine vinegar will be available in my city.

[wollastoni]

I am afraid not, at least not in Europe.

I know that rotten apple can work too, but less effective and it will attract many kind of insects, not only carabs.

[mygos]

I used the same technique but with earth worms and it worked perfectly !

A+, Michel

[wollastoni]

I have never tried with earth worms but as they are Carabid's prey, it must be effective indeed !
The only additional benefit of vinegar : it kills the Carabids so they do not damage themselves in the glass.

[mygos]

In fact I never had damaged carabids, but You have to put enough good worms, and then you can release the specimens you do not want ...

A+, Michel

[wollastoni]

It seems to be the perfect method then !

[mygos]

You may be right then and I remember the good old days when I was visiting my traps in the morning with the excitment of what you were going to find !

A+, Michel

[cabintom]

Wait, you said they eat snails? I can usually find snails. I assume they would also work... but would they have to be living? Are the Carabids attracted to carrion as well?

[wollastoni]

Dead snails would be perfect.
Anyway live snails won't stay in your plastic glass during the night.

The only problem I see with worms or snails is that a bird or a mouse can visit your glass before you. Vinegar do not attract them.

[dpotanin]

And what about Carabids in trpopics? I tried to use pitfall traps with or without vinegar and red wine - unsuccessfully.