Palmetto bugs

My chickens love palmetto bugs when they find one in the wood chip pile. Is there a way to trap them at night so I can serve them up to the chickens in the morning?

Have you tried a tall can buried in the ground? Something with smooth sides that they can't get any traction to climb up. Even cut a 2-liter plastic soda bottle and bury it flush with the ground and see what falls in. As for bait, almost any piece of food waste at the bottom should work.

Get a glass quart mayonnaise jar (plastic doesn't work nearly as well). Take the lid off and set it aside. Save your morning's used coffee grounds. In the evening, put your damp, used coffee grounds into the mayo jar. Lean it up against the house at an angle, so the bugs can climb up the wall and get into the jar overnight. They will be strongly attracted to the coffee, so they will make the trip up the wall and into the jar, but they will not be able to climb out. In the morning, you will have your palmetto bugs for the chickens.

Ronnie Ugulano wrote:Get a glass quart mayonnaise jar (plastic doesn't work nearly as well). Take the lid off and set it aside. Save your morning's used coffee grounds. In the evening, put your damp, used coffee grounds into the mayo jar. Lean it up against the house at an angle, so the bugs can climb up the wall and get into the jar overnight. They will be strongly attracted to the coffee, so they will make the trip up the wall and into the jar, but they will not be able to climb out. In the morning, you will have your palmetto bugs for the chickens.

very very clever!! I will try that!