All-terrain, modular Malaise trap for canopy-to-ground sampling

The SLAM trap (Sea, Land, and Air Malaise Trap) is a modular, self-supported flight-intercept device that operates on land, in water, or suspended in the air.  It assembles quickly with shock-corded poles, reduces orientation constraints with cross baffles, and allows component-level replacement to minimize downtime.  The design is patented.

Detailed Description

Traditional Malaise traps can be slow to erect, require large open areas, and rely on external supports.  The standard SLAM trap II overcomes these challenges with a freestanding frame of shock-corded poles and clip points, allowing quick deployment across varied habitats.  Cross baffles collect from four sides, reducing dependence on wind direction and sun exposure for placement.

The trap’s modular design allows the fabric body, collection head, and poles to be replaced individually if lost or damaged.  Deployment options include aerial suspension (for canopy access and daisy-chaining to achieve vertical stratification), ground interception, and aquatic use with a simple flotation frame for wetland sampling.

Functional Advantages

• Modular design: Major components can be replaced individually to extend service life and minimize downtime.
• Freestanding, fast setup: Shock-corded poles and fabric clips enable rapid assembly without external supports or guy ropes for typical conditions.
• Four-sided interception: Cross baffles collect insects from all directions, simplifying placement decisions.
• Multi-mode deployment: Operates on land, suspended in air, or on water using a basic flotation frame for wetland transects.
• Specimen quality: Removable moth excluder (1 × 1 cm grid) limits entry of larger insects such as Lepidoptera and Odonates; optional bottom collector preserves insects (e.g., Coleoptera) that drop upon impact.

Field Notes

• Placement: Position along trails, forest edges, stream corridors, or canopy gaps; intercept expected insect flight paths.
• Clear entry: Keep approach areas free of vegetation; moderate shade helps reduce evaporation in warm weather.
• Servicing: Check collection bottles on a regular schedule (e.g., weekly), adjusting for temperature and catch volume.  Re-tension lines after strong wind or a heavy catch.
• Preservative & labels: Use a preservative compatible with your analyses (e.g., ethanol for morphology/DNA).  Include trap ID, date/time, and preservative on labels.
• Hot/dry conditions: Monitor preservative levels and top up to prevent desiccation.
• Multiple traps: Space units 50–150 m apart to reduce spatial dependence; record effort in trap-days and covariates (weather, vegetation structure, edge distance).
• Orientation studies: For directionality experiments, consider the dual-head ez-Migration trap to collect both directions separately.

ℹ️Disclaimer: Field Notes provide practical guidance and examples.  Actual procedures should be adapted to site conditions, study objectives, and institutional protocols.  Users are responsible for safe deployment and compliance with local regulations.

Pack Contents

• 1 × Fabric Trap Body
• 2 × Shock-corded Poles (L309 cm)
• 1 × Collection Head (pre-installed)
• 3 × Collection Bottles (1 pre-installed)
• 4 × Guy Lines
• 5 × Alloy Pin Stakes
• 1 × Carrying Bag

Recent Literature Related to This Product Line (click to search more)

• Assessing baseline stress physiology as an integrator of environmental quality in a wild avian population.  Madliger et al. (2015).  Biological Conservation, 192, 409–417.
• Naturalization and control of Coptotermes gestroi in a Taiwanese forest.  Chiu et al. (2016).  Journal of Economic Entomology, 109(3), 1317–1325.
• Fly and wasp diversity responds to elements of the fire mosaic.  Brown & York (2017).  International Journal of Wildland Fire, 26(5), 434–443.
• Overview of Mitaraka survey: research frame, study site and field protocols.  Touroult et al. (2018).  Zoosystema, 40(1), 327–365.
• The pitfalls of biodiversity proxies across Amazonia.  Ritter et al. (2019).  Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1–13.
• Practical field ecology: a project guide.  Wheater et al. (2020).  John Wiley & Sons.
• Standards and best practices for monitoring and benchmarking insects.  Montgomery et al. (2021).  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 579193.
• Measuring the impact of conservation: the growing importance of monitoring fauna, flora and funga.  Stephenson et al. (2022).  Diversity, 14(10), 824.
• Differentiating effects of organic management, pesticide reduction, and landscape diversification for arthropod conservation in viticulture.  Kaczmarek et al. (2023).  Biodiversity and Conservation.
• Arthropod traits as proxies for abundance trends in the Azores.  Oyarzabal et al. (2024).  Ecography, 12, e07457.