There are probably as many types of insect collection equipment and techniques as there are insect groups and entomologists combined. Even the study of one insect may require multiple tools and techniques to collect and curate. Not all of these tools and methods can possibly be described here. However, basic collecting, killing, preserving and displaying methods are described. Given time and the contributions of others, these sections can be expanded to become more representative of the techniques used by the experts!
- Sources for collection equipment
- Hand picking, tweezers, aspirators, fine brushes and cotton swabs
- Jars and bags (zip-lock sandwich bags, cockroach trap, food-baited jars, cricket cages, sorting trays)
- Nets (aerial nets, sweep nets, aquatic nets)
- Beating sheets and cards (beating cards, beating cloths and sheets)
- Vacuum devices
- Berlese funnel
- Irritating liquids, flotation samplers, sieves and screen-bottom buckets, grubbing
- Creating attractive habitats
- Trapping insects (pitfall traps, baited vials, Malaise traps, Epps biting fly trap, window pane trap)
- Colored objects and sticky traps (yellow pan traps with water)
- Lights (black lights)
- Chemical attractants (carbon dioxide, pheromones, baiting for moths and beetles)