Fig 1.
The automated insect trap mounted on a street-light pole.
While the commercially available transparent flight-interception trap remains unmodified, the insect sampling unit is optimized: a turntable containing seven cups is rotated by a stepper motor fed by a rechargeable battery. The seven cups contain a liquid (e.g. water with/without biocide) and collect insects during seven user-defined time intervals (e.g., nights).
Fig 2.
(a) Design and components of the turntable to optimize insect sampling including a list of required components and their approximate costs. Labor costs are not included; (b) position during periods of sampling (cups placed underneath the trap funnel) and non-sampling periods, when insects are released through the pass-through hole.
Fig 3.
Comparison of the mean number of caught insects for automated and manually operated insect traps during 71 nights (data from summer 2018) for two traps.