Active Trap Field Entrance – ATFE – Defined

Tired of being scared witless by spiders?
Don’t like walking into a web in the basement?
Hate Roaches racing across your feet?

Now the reason that pushed you to use an insect / spider trap is less important than how to compare the variety of spider traps.

There are MANY factors that influence what might be considered the best spider trap including: trap design, appearance, glue surface, trap surface margins and the Entrance to the Active Trap Field.  Today we explore why the entrance is so important.

Entry required

Any insect trap requires the insect to be in the trap.
Common sense right?
To get caught a spider has to walk into the trap, cross the entry margin and wander into active trap field.   The width of the trap entrance determines the effectiveness of a spider trap  But the shape of the adhesive surface matters when comparing traps.

Active Trap Field Entrance ATFE = trapping power

Active Trap Field Surface layout = trapping power

In the two examples above, both spider traps have 9 sq inches of sticky glue trap surface.  You may have noticed that the rectangle has an Active Trap Field Entrance of 12 inches but the square only has a 6 inch zone an insect could enter.  Did you?  If so then you already understand the logic behind an ATFE rating.

ATFE = sum of entrance widths

To determine a trap’s ATFE, simply sum the width of all trap entrances.  In most cases this means laying the trap flat (prior to assembly) and measuring the sides that are not lost when the trap is assembled (this area is called the assembly margin).

The key to an accurate ATFE is knowing which sides of the trap are entrances and which are lost in the assembly of the trap.

ATFE orientation matters

Trap Entrance is the open edge an insect can enter.

In the picture above the YELLOW lines indicate the entrances to the trap.  What becomes very apparent is the that the RED rectangle orientation would result in only a 3 ATFE because only the two 1.5″ sides of trap surface are serving as an entrance.  Where the exact same sized GREEN rectangle has a 12 ATFE.

So of the 3 spider traps in the example, all with the same 9 square inches of trap surface, the Active Trap Field Entry varies almost 4x.

  •  3 AFTE  RED Rectangle
  •  6 ATFE  Square
  • 12 ATFE GREEN Rectangle (BEST TRAP)

ATFE of consumer products

As spider traps become more common, and consumerism grows, we are seeing more brand display the ATFE rating of their traps.

For example the  catchmaster 288i has a 6 ATFE, and Traps Direct Advantage Spider Trap has a 14 ATFE.

( update: Bell Labs, Trapper has a 6 ATFe )

We will be going through older posts and reviews to determine if enough information exists to provide an Active Trap Field Entrance rating.  If the information is there, we’ll add a comment, and the ATFE score as well..

Feel free to post comments when you see ATFE ratings ‘in the wild’

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Loretta June 26, 2014
  2. Roger Adams July 16, 2014
  3. Step August 2, 2014
  4. Anthony H August 20, 2014