Tips on bug management?

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ChrisR
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Tips on bug management?

Post by ChrisR »

How do you catch flying insects? Butterfly net?
WHat do you use to make them still - if not dead?
Dead ones usually seem to have their legs underneath and are hard to get to stand up.
Do you keep things alive in the refridgerator, or ...?

-

I tried a sundew. QUite a good catcher, but a poor midge died so slowly it was still moving its legs much later, in mid-stack :evil:

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Last edited by ChrisR on Sun May 03, 2009 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

The stack came out OK anyway. Lots of what look like see-through artifacts on that detached leg, but I suppose that one was there for only part of the time? The whole image has a poignant feel of desperation to it.

About the subject here, I think it's a midge, not a mosquito -- plumose antennae and no proboscis.

Flying insects, sure, a net works fine. Keeping them alive but not moving after you've caught them, nearly impossible. Some critters will anesthetize with CO2, but the more different kinds I try, the worse the odds get.

For discussion of how to dispatch specimens, see http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=7122 and the links therein.

Storing bugs live in the refrigerator is a good way to keep them for a few days, assuming tolerant housemates, of course. My fridge usually has a few in it.

--Rik

Harold Gough
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Post by Harold Gough »

rjlittlefield wrote: Storing bugs live in the refrigerator is a good way to keep them for a few days, assuming tolerant housemates, of course. My fridge usually has a few in it.
It is also a good way of delaying the hatching of insect eggs, many of which do so in about three days.

Harold
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lauriek
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Post by lauriek »

I bought 100 of these little pots, plastic, around 2" high, around 1" diameter, with screw on lids. I just sneak up on bugs and catch 'em in these, it's a bit hit and miss but I get quite a few! A net would definitely be easier but I haven't got round to getting one! A pooter would also be good for catching smaller bugs. (Pooter: Google it, this is a small device with a container and tubes, you suck one tube and the bug gets sucked into the container via the other tube).

The legs folded up underneath problem is the main reason I shoot mainly portraits. With careful comp you can avoid showing up bits which show the bug is dead...

Harold Gough
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Post by Harold Gough »

lauriek wrote:I bought 100 of these little pots, plastic, around 2" high, around 1" diameter, with screw on lids.
Here is a source of such pots in the UK:

https://secure.thorne.co.uk/cgi-bin/cgi ... =167468394

(Third from last item on page).

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

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