Bears

[Stuart Fullerton]

my opinion. i am not sure what the purpose of your collecting is. however,
i find that 75% isopropyl works fine for all the material i am working
with. any higher and the critters become to brittle for me to deal with.
so first i would suggest a lower percent. (but i am not a braconidist). i
would strongly suspect that the fumes of the ethyl would attract the bears
(it certainly would me!!!!) as well as the tabinids and you are correct
that the buzzing might also attract the bears. bears are very inquisitive
critters in their own.  if it sounds like food, smells like food, and
tastes like food, check it out!. again, we found that after the initial
investigation by the bear(s) we had no more problem.

enough from this part of the world. good luck and keep me (us) posted.

cheers!  rof



On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Carolyn Lewis wrote:

> To all:  I am collecting in the Ouachita National Forest of Western
> Arkansas.  Black bears are the problem. I will be collecting from June
> to September--the trap is set-up with 95% ETOH in order to collect
> braconid wasps. I will run them for one week each month-June was a
> success. We situated the traps away from obvious trails.  When I collected
> five years ago it was a very hot, dry summer and the large tabanids would
> hover around buzzing inside the traps.  I thought perhaps the bears came
> to the noise of the tabanids. Also, the locations in question were quite
> open and the traps were visible, that isn't much of a problem this year.
>
> Carolyn
>
>
>

Stuart M Fullerton ROF, Research Associate in charge of Arthropod
Collections (UCFC), Biology Dept. University of Central Florida, Orlando,
Florida, 32816, USA. stuartf at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu