Cotinis bait

[Dynastes]

Anybody have a good recipe for Cotinis bait? I tried the molasses and yeast years ago with no success but saw someone put a fantastic bait on a tree in Arizona at the ATS and SASI conferences in 2014 and I would love the try it. The reason I ask now is I found one (male of course)and I have never before seen one in my state. This area has an ancient beach and most areas of the state are clay which may be the reason (their pupal cells).

[JKim]

I collected a quite number of Cotinis nitida using very well ripen bananas only back in 2008-2010 (Shreveport, Louisiana). My colleague also shared with me a recipe of mixture of ground banana + regular beer to collect numerous numbers of Cetoniinae, Cerambycidae, and many different butterflies.

My trap was just simply a bottle of water flipped upside down with two or three 1.5" holes on top side (bottom of water bottle), and cut banana at the bottom. Trap is installed before the noon, before the highest temperature of the day is reached.

[JunkaiWangisme]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:12 PM, Dynastes said:

Anybody have a good recipe for Cotinis bait? I tried the molasses and yeast years ago with no success but saw someone put a fantastic bait on a tree in Arizona at the ATS and SASI conferences in 2014 and I would love the try it. The reason I ask now is I found one (male of course)and I have never before seen one in my state. This area has an ancient beach and most areas of the state are clay which may be the reason (their pupal cells).

Cotinis range is moving north, they are even in Michigan now in certain parts! Wine mixed with bananas might yield okay results, though the easiest method to get lots is to intercept them in a open grassy field in flight. 

[Agapema]

I've collected literally hundreds of Cotinus-- along with hundreds of other beetles, flies, wasps, moths, etc using this method:

I use a 1:1:1  beer - red wine -water bait fortified with white sugar, maybe a dry cup of sugar per gallon. Mix well and I let this sit for 2-5 days to re-ferment with a stopper of clean rag in the mouth of a 1 gallon plastic jug  (It may explode if you seal the jug airtight). Use jugs with a screw on cap... if you need to transport the mix, you can just screw on the cap and go (loosen the cap if the fluid must be static for any length of time). Do yourself a favor and set the jugs in a cardboard box with multiple layers of newsprint or rags on the bottom to keep spilled fluid from your vehicle's upholstery while transporting them.

For traps, I use plastic half gallon jug traps made by cutting two entry points on the flat sides of the jug--horizontally-oriented, maybe 3" across by 1" high near the top of the jug--preserving the cut out at the top edge to make a flap of plastic which I bend up. I buy cheap plastic fabric shower scrubbers ("shower poufs "), cut the binding ring carefully to yield tubes of plastic net several feet long. I cut pieces to stretch over the outside of the jug...tie at jug bottom, stretch to the top of jug allowing about 3 or 4 inches of extra net length at top. Now fill the jug halfway with your bait mix. Put the cap on. Stretch the net over the top and put on a removable twist tie, wire or even string to tie off the net at the top. Slit the net -- a single horizontal slit--over the holes you've cut in the jug. Bend up the 'rain flaps'--the plastic flap you've allowed to remain by cutting three sides of a rectangle entrance hole.  Hang in a tree or bush high enough and far enough out on smaller branches to avoid raiding by mammal varmints. Revisit after 3-4 days with a colander and receptacle to pour out fluid to sort insects. Or retrieve the entire jug for processing at home or camp. Any more time than that and drowned insects will rot.

In southeastern Arizona, I've taken a fair number of nice beetles in these traps with this bait...Cotinus impia, Stenaspis verticallis, Hologymnetis, Tragidion, Trachyderes, Chalcolepidius. .. the traps are often filled completely with Cotinus and brown click beetles along with many small moths.