SUGGESTIONS FOR FIELD COLLECTING OF INSECTS

Read Chapter 47 (Collecting and Preservation, pages 641-652) BEFORE going into the field.

Safety.  It is a good idea to wear long pants, socks, and a decent heavy pair of shoes. I will admit that I typically wear tennis shoes, but thick shoes will help prevent harm from thorny plants, insect bites/stings, poison ivy, etc. As far as snakes are concerned, it is incredibly unlikely that you will encounter any poisonous snakes (probably even in your lifetime), but they are out there, hence another good reason for the heavy shoes/boots and long pants. Sunscreen for protection from UV radiation is also recommended. Take water along, and even a snack. A small back pack is a good idea, not just for food/water, but also to carry along collecting equipment (such as your kill jar and extra ethyl acetate). If at all possible, when collecting away from home, go with a companion, again in case of the unlikely incapacitating injury (for example, a broken ankle). If you are unfamiliar with a specific insect you capture, do not handle it. You can transfer such an insect from net to jar without actually touching it (this will be demonstrated in class). Many insects are safe to handle, and you will come to know which in this class. However, you will be required to collect some potentially stinging insects in this class, and these must be handled with greater care. IF YOU KNOW YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO ANY STINGING INSECT, then see me before doing any collecting.
        It will take you a while to get used to catching insects in a net, and some may escape even if you successfully catch them. If this happens with a stinging insect, do not freak out! Stinging insects will fly AWAY from you when they escape from the net. They have no sense of revenge. The only real chance you have of being stung would be improper handling or CLOSELY approaching a NEST of social bees or wasps. Do not try to collect stinging insects off of nests (DUH!). Also, be aware that some wasps build nests in underbrush, so don’t bash the plants with your net or plow through the brush after an insect without searching carefully beforehand.

When to collect. You can literally collect insects at any time of day or night, in any weather. Yes, there will still be insects out and about even after it gets cold in November. However, many of the insects you are likely to collect will be day-flying insects, and a lot more diversity is available in the warm months on sunny days, so GET STARTED on your collection RIGHT AWAY!  I mean TODAY!  Don’t wait until November, as you will not be able to get some of the required insects at that time. We will have at least a couple of field trips, including at least one night time field trip. You will want to collect nocturnal insects as well. It is in many ways EASIER to collect insects AT NIGHT than during the day, as they will come to lights at your house, convenience stores, etc. instead of you having to chase them. Also, lights concentrate the insects, so that you can collect a lot of different species in a short period of time.  There are also a large number of insects that you can only encounter at night, including some representatives of a couple of the required/recommended orders and families.

Where to collect. All of the required insects can be found, in numbers, right here in Whitfield Co. If you are out during the day, check flowers. Flowers are nectar sources for a variety of butterflies, bees and wasps, beetles, and some insects that eat other insects. Try NOT to knock flower heads off of the plant when you swing your net. Check on the ground as well, or even under rocks and logs (be careful when turning these over, as you may discover a wide variety of not always pleasant living creatures). Many beetles, ants, termites, etc. can be found this way. Also check along creeks and ponds, as a lot of insects can be found flying around waterways or even skimming across the surface of the water. Furthermore, you can often find aquatic insects by pulling up plants from shallow water, though be careful as some of the aquatic insects can bite.
        As mentioned above, check out lights at night as well. White, unpainted bulbs are minimally necessary. Black lights may be more attractive, and higher wattage mercury vapor bulbs, such as those around some convenience stores, are often quite productive. Be aware that in areas where there are lots of other competing lights, individual lights will not attract as many insects as single light sources out in the middle of nowhere.
        Feel free to collect insects on any trips you may take during the semester.  Also feel free to recruit others to collect for you. It is not necessary for you to collect every insect in your collection, but it IS necessary for you to prepare and identify each one.

        The “Don’t’s”. Do not chase insects near roadways. Do not chase insects in dense underbrush on hillsides or in swampy areas where you can’t see the ground. Do not chase insects on private property without permission from the property owner. Do not chase insects in State or National Parks (however, National Forest lands are accessible for collecting, and power line cuts are often some of the best places to catch a variety of insects). Do not chase insects in severe weather!  DO NOT BUY insects, from other people or off of the internet.  Anything that you buy and try to include will be discarded from your collection.  And don't think I won't be able to tell!!

Responsible Collecting. You will not be required to turn in more than one of any insect species you catch, so there is no need to collect huge numbers of any species, though collecting several of the same insect can enable you to get some pinning practice and to trade with other students!

Nets. You will receive, ON LOAN, one aerial net, called aerial since it is intended to be used in catching flying insects. It can be used to catch some ground dwelling insects, and for scooping insects off flowers or walls.  A number of insects can be collected directly into jars off of flowers and off of walls around lights, so sometimes you don’t even need a net.  I personally rarely use a net to collect any, even flying, insects at night. Treat this net with respect. Do NOT swing it through heavy underbrush, thorny plants, and do not use it for collecting underwater insects – there are heavier duty aquatic nets, which I can make available to you if you so desire.

Killing Jars. You will be using a killing jar this semester. The active ingredient you will use is ethyl acetate, which will kill insects but is quite non-toxic to humans. To properly prepare your killing jar, you will need to lightly wad up a kleenex or paper towel and place it loosely in your jar (do NOT cram your jar full of tissues). This helps to keep the insects more separated in the jar, and also prevents them from rolling around. You will need to pour A LITTLE ethyl acetate in the jar before using (this will be demonstrated in class). If the jar does not seem to be killing the insects effectively, you will need to add a LITTLE more. Keep it in a cool place when not in use, and do not jostle it around once you have a number of insects in the jar. Empty the dead insects (make SURE they are dead) out of your jar with some frequency, so added insects don’t damage the ones already in the jar. Since butterflies and moths have scales on their wings that come off in the jar, you might want to keep a separate kill jar for the butterflies and moths.
    Do NOT let the insects sit in the kill jar at the end of the day and for several days after that, ESPECIALLY in a hot car (!). If you are not ready to pin them immediately, then I suggest you put your insects into another relatively small air tight container and put them in the freezer (if you and other family members can deal with that!). This will keep them fresher until you are ready to process them.

OTHER COLLECTING METHODS:

Collecting into alcohol. Some small, soft-bodied insects (like springtails, termites and silverfish) are best kept in alcohol (not pinned).  You can collect these insects directly into vials, so it would probably be a good idea to take a few small vials into the field as well. You can use rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) you can buy at the store. Alternatively, you can take empty vials into the field, collect the insects, and add the alcohol when you return from the field.

Sweeping. You can catch a LOT of small insects, and the occasional larger one by using a technique called sweeping. Sweeping is when you take the net and sweep it gently through rather flimsy vegetation – grasses, flowers (for example, asters/goldenrods), bush branches, vines, etc. Any insects that sit on the vegetation can end up in the net this way, and you may catch so many that you may have to pick and choose from what is in the net. Make absolutely certain that there are no plants that have spines/thorns on them where you want to sweep BEFORE you sweep.

Beating. Sweeping clearly will not work for any vegetation that has thick branches or thorns. There is another technique, however, that can help you get insects off of such vegetation. The technique is called beating, and this can work for smaller vegetation as well. The idea here is to put a clear white sheet on the ground under the branches of tree or part of a bush, and then use a stick to firmly tap the branches, or simply shake the branches/bush. Insects then fall off the vegetation and onto the sheet, from where it will be much easier to collect them.

Pan and pitfall traps. There are a number of insects that are attracted to brightly colored objects. The main reason for this is, of course, that bright colors very often mean flowers and nectar, and may also mean fruit for some insects as well. Brightly colored bowls or pans with water in them can be used to catch some very small insects, as the insects some to investigate the colored objects and end up stuck in the water. If you are NOT interested in quite small insects, this technique is not for you, as the larger insects can typically avoid or extract themselves from the water. Pitfall traps can work well for ground dwelling insects, including some of much larger size. The idea with a pitfall trap is to take an open top can, preferably decent sized (a large coffee can, for instance), dig a hole in the ground such that the can can be placed down in the hole so the edge is flush with the surface of the ground. Walking insects on the ground may drop into the can and become trapped. If you want to insure that the insects stay in the can, you can bait it with a little rotting fruit, or even rotting meat, depending on what insects you are after.

Baiting. Various insects are attracted to various substances other than flowers. I just mentioned above that fruit or meat can be used in can traps. Rotting fruit can be used to attract a wide variety of insects that can then be collected off the fruit. You can mix together bananas with other fruits, add extra sugar or something else sticky sweet (molasses, syrup), and simply put a pile of the mixture on a rock or on the ground, paint the mixture on trees, etc. This will attract both day-flying and night-flying insects (moths in particular).
          Other insects may be attracted to other substances. Ground up meat will attract various flies and beetles in particular, and if you can stand to do so, carcasses (road kill) may provide you with some interesting insects. Do NOT manipulate rotting flesh with BARE HANDS!! Always use sticks to roll small carcasses over and to chase insects you may be interested in off of the carcass, or net the insects carefully off the carcass. Wet spots on the ground can attract all sorts of insects (they are after the minerals in the soil), so many insects can be found “puddling” after a rain. Not to gross you out, but urine has minerals that are also attractive to many insects, and most of you are also aware of the fact that other “excrement” can also be attractive.

MAKE SURE YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHERE AND WHEN YOUR INSECTS ARE
COLLECTED. YOU MUST LABEL EACH SPECIMEN WITH THIS DATA (this will be
discussed in lab). IF YOU ARE OUT COLLECTING AND VISIT MORE THAN ONE
LOCATION, PUT THE INSECTS FROM EACH LOCATION IN A SEPARATE LABELED
CONTAINER UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO PIN THEM.

RELAXING SPECIMENS:

Chances are that sometime during the semester you will catch some insects that you don’t prepare right away, and don’t get into the freezer either, so that the insects in turn dry out. If you try to stick a pin through a dried out specimen, you will find very quickly that this doesn’t work very well, as parts of the insects come flying off. So, what can you do?

The answer is that you can RELAX the specimens. This involves rehumidifying the body of the insect so that the body parts become flexible again and can be moved into appropriate position. To relax specimens, you need to put them in a humid container. My relaxer is a tupperware container with a thin suspended screen inside. I fill the bottom of the container under the screen with warm water, put the dried specimens on the screen, then close the container. You can also make a relaxer by putting fine sand in the bottom of a container, followed by warm water (not covering the sand) and then laying the insects on top of the sand. Even big insects should be relaxed in a couple of days, and small ones sometimes within hours. Make sure you put moth balls or some chemical in the relaxer to avoid mold growth!!