Making a beetle/bug trap

[King Herald]

My Red Eared Slider turtle loves to eat bugs, particularly small beetles. We find them in the garden occasionally but not very often.

Any suggestions how we can attract or trap them?

[Japveesix]

Pitfall trap. Get a big plastic bottle and cut the top off (you may need a bucket where you are considering how big the bugs get). Then just bury it in the ground so the edges are completely flush with the ground and see what falls in. Bait it with something sweet might help.

If you want to go a bit more over the top then a cover etc is good:

[King Herald]

Thanks for the info. I might have a go at something like that. Not too sure about the antifreeze, as the turtle needs to eat them afterwards, live bait preferred......

Here's one I found a couple of months ago, trapped upside down, but I think he'd eat the turtle rather than the other way round.

[Japveesix]

Yeah the anti-freeze may not be a great idea. Standard pitfall trap is the best way of recording ground based insect activity in an area, they work pretty well.

Perhaps you could train your vast dog horde to learn to collect bugs. Put a massive bucket in the garden somewhere and just watch hem wandering about all day dropping giant beetles and deadly spiders into it?