Sampling protocol 7-day pot trap with vinegar

The proposed protocol is called the Barber Trap. It's about capturing organisms moving on the surface of your garden's soil.

The Barber trap technique consists of inserting a container filled with a liquid into the ground.

Did you know ? This technique was invented in 1931 by the American entomologist Herbert Spencer Barber (1882-1950)

How long to leave the trap inserted in the ground?

The trap must necessarily remain one week in your garden without disturbance to better assess the biodiversity ( 7 days in order to follow the protocol usually used by scientists) before you can take it and identify the fauna thus captured.

What material to use?

- Waterproof cardboard (milk brick type) - 4 wooden stakes (skewer) - Bulb planter or small shovel - White (or red) vinegar - Plastic glass (or container of the same diameter)

How to do?

1- Preferably, prepare a roof to protect the container in case of rain during the trapping week. To do this, simply cut out the waterproof cardboard and insert the skewer skewers at the four ends.

2- Dig a hole with the bulb planter (or the small shovel) where you want it in your garden.

3- Fill the glass with a third of vinegar and place it in the hole you have just dug (The cup must be slightly below the surface of the ground and against the walls of the hole so that the fauna can fall into the trap). Protect the trap by planting the roof you made (unless no rain is forecast).

4- Recover the glass a week later then transfer the contents to facilitate observation in a salad bowl or another transparent container, then identify the organisms thus captured for a given trap thanks to image recognition on a computer or via the dedicated tab on the smartphone app

5- For a given trap: write the number of organisms obtained for each group on the Record observations form (be careful to complete one form per trap) and upload the form thus completed to a computer or via the dedicated tab on the smartphone app. To access this form, you must first be registered.

This form asks you to enter the total number of organisms sampled and counted for 1 given trap after 7 days left in place - trapping duration (example: in my trap installed next to my composter I counted for 7 days: 10 ants + 15 woodlice + 12 slugs...)
For undetermined organisms, please count them anyway and write their number in the category "undetermined individuals"
Finally, for very small invertebrates, which are difficult to count and identify with the naked eye, please fill in the dedicated box "Number of very small invertebrates difficult to classify (not counted previously)"

Attention flies, mosquitoes and adult butterflies are not part of the soil fauna, they are therefore not considered in Jardibiodiv

https://ephytia.inrae.fr/en