We received an email from Anita in Gulf Shores:
Spider Traps from Traps Direct are the bomb. I bought 72 traps because my basement always seemed to have some frightening crawler wandering across it every time I went to do laundry.
So after looking at prices (I am on a fixed income) I decided that more is better, since sticky glue traps will keep indefinitely if left in a cool location. After reading reviews I decided on the 72 trap Spider Infestation Package because of price and it also qualified for free shipping.I put traps all over the basement, especially under the stairs, in closed areas and along the top edge of the foundation where the 2×2 frame of the house sits (the area is always covered in spider webs).
Over the next several weeks I would find traps filled with insects I had be scared by, and some that I didn’t even know were in my house.
The picture above is a trap that was between the washing machine and the wall. As you can see, it caught all kinds of insects.
I am very confused.. I bought some insect monitors for a low price, but I don’t like how ulgy they are so I am looking at spider traps instead.
From what I can tell comparing one brand of spider trap to another is not very easy because the real power of a spider rtap seems to be how big the trap is.
One site I found was talking about using Active Trap Field Entrance that was called ATFE as a way to compare different traps. Can you tell me about how it works ? Isn’t bigger always better?
Thanks in advance
Ramona, we completely agree with you about using insect monitors as spider traps. Insect monitors are meant to be used by pest control pros (ie exterminators) but now consumers have access to them as well..
As pest control devices design was all about the purpose, and no consideration was made to the presentation.
Your question about bigger is better when it comes to how traps work is an interesting one. We’ve been watching a couple industry boards lately and found conversations about how the ATFE – active trap field edge? entrance? allows an apples to apples comparison between brands. We’re going to try to find more details, and either post another comment, or if there is enough, we’ll blog about it also.
Until then, thanks for your response!
Hi again Ramona.
We tracked down more information about the use of Active Trap Field Entrance as a metric to compare competing spider and insect traps in a fair objective way. In short, it’s all about the entry edge (the side bugs come in). The more entry edge, the higher the catch power of the trap. Ratings are displayed as a number followed by the abbreviation ATFe (sometimes all caps ATFE). Here is the full posting Active Trap Field Entrance – Fair Compare