collecting live foods

[Chris D]

Hi everyone,
Can anyone suggest a way to collect insects for the outside vivarium ? I have tried everything; leaving a light on during the evening with a whiteboard behind it with a bucket, collecting with a net from hedgerows, trying to attract them with paper dipped in a syrup and sugar solution. All with little success. I was thinking of buying one of the bug collectors spoken about elsewhere in this forum but at £90 pounds (if my calculations are correct) I need to explore other avenues first. Can anyone pass on their experiences that have been effective and collected a good quantity decent sized insects.

[mark68]

It depends on what you are keeping and how you are keeping them, but personally I find it easier just to feed them conventional livefood. I breed all of my own that I need and there are several species that are productive without too much work.

Failing that if the viv is a open air type rather than a enclosed type like a greenhouse, then I would consider using fruit and veg peelings to encourage worms, slugs, woodlice, flies etc. I used to keep many salamanders and newts in this way. I never needed to provide food for them, it just bred in the enclosure with the addition of the organic matter.