Hi everybody.
I want to ask what kind of liquid you use in traps. I read some forums salty water, car antifreeze or winegar (nit). Car-antifreeze is very good but so expensive... Is salty water or nit protect the beetles like car antifreeze... Or any other suggestion...
Thanks...

Before preparing specimens preserved in salt water, put them few minutes in pure water, otherwise small crystals of salt will grow on the specimen while it is drying.

hi ozgur

apple vinegar, instead of normal wine vinegar, proved more effective for different kinds of beetles and other insects... even so, for a better conservation add salt to the liquid

note that insects caught with such traps are better prepared glued on labels, not pinned; even weak traces of salty winegar remaining inside will attack and destroy the metal of the pin within relatively few time

p.s. for long time staying traps, i usually use salt enough, that part of it remains undissolved

p.p.s. for special cases of "difficult" targets, a component of antifreeze fluid, the propylene glycol (1:3 dilution), may prove highly effective

NOTE: DON'T USE ethylene glycol, it's effective as well, yet it's very dangerous to manipulate (for humans, epatotoxic and possibly cause of liver cancer) and highly toxic to most organisms and harmful to environment (when traps are collected, the fluid is usually spilled on the ground; moreover, traps are not unlikely to be found by small to medium-sized mammals, and their content eaten)

Hi ,
I use a liquid for kill and conservation with alkool 60% acid acetyic 15% and 5% Glycerin and the rest with water.
You can let your beetles in this one a long time.
For traps it's not a problem because Acid acetic is very good

But Alchool and acid acetyic get vapour so fast.. For a long term trap I think they are not so suitable.