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If you're trying to attract insects to photograph them, food is usually quite a useful thing to try.

But it's not just food that you can use, as there are chemicals and other concoctions that'll bring the insect to you rather than you chasing after the insect. Most of these insect baits work especially well in a pitfall trap and a butterfly trap.

Mix	How To	Attracts
Sugar Water	Mix 10 tablespoons of sugar into 1litre of warm water and use a spray to spray plant leaves. Throw away and redo after a few days because it goes bad.	Flies
Wheast	Equal parts sugar and yeast, with as little added water as possible to make it into quite a thick paste. Apply on bark or dilute further and spray.	Beetles, ladybirds
Sugaring Mix	Mix a thick syrupy mixture of brown sugar, dark ale, yeast, a teaspoon of rum and a very ripe fermenting banana. Paint 3 rings onto bark or long vertical strips onto fence posts.	Moths, ants
Wine	Heating up a cheap bottle of red wine in a pan and dissolve as much sugar as you can in the wine. Absorb into 1m long strips of material and hang in trees.	Moths
Bananas	Mash up a couple of bananas and let them ferment for a couple of days. Put onto plate outside.	Butterflies
Fish	Raw rotting fish, the stinkier the better. But once it's ripe, it really honks so I have this as bait in the middle of a nearby wood, far away from the house.	Flies, Burying beetles
Perfume	Spray cheap perfume on a cloth or plants	Horse flies, butterflies, bees, wasps, mosquitoes.
Peanut Butter	Spread on 20cm stick and poke into ground.	Ants
Apples	Overripe rotting apples. Just put them on a plate.	Wasps
Pheromones	Buy from specialist service. Used widely in agriculture to attract destructive moths into mothkill traps in US.	Moths
Faeces	Eww. Ask your favourite dog owner.	Flies, beetles
Amyl Acetate	Amyl is a chemical family that smells like sweet fruit, and is used in the perfume, fragrance and food flavouring industries. Amyl acetate was used by early moth trappers but there are now other Amyl members that also look promising.	Moths, bees
Juicy Fruit	Mushy slices of oranges or watermelon.	Butterflies

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