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Buying Nzi Traps
Rincon-Vitova Insectaries
Inc. in California |
Do It Yourself Costs - Keep it Simple! |
 In
Kenya in 1997, I produced 300 Nzi traps as a
practical demonstration of a "cottage industry" for small-scale
trap production. Traps
were produced on foot pedal sewing machines using
informal labour, and locally-available materials.
This is how traps are still typically made in Africa (Newsletter No. 5 at
BIOVISION) |
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Total cost in Africa, including all labour, sundries,
and purchase of two sewing machines, was
only
US$7-9. These very low costs were possible through
direct purchases of fabrics
from textile manufacturers,
and do not include the costs of support poles (sapling trees are cut in Africa, no inner poles are used for the corner sleeves). In contrast, the rock-bottom cost in North America for a practical cloth trap made out of colour-fast outdoor fabrics (seconds), and uv-treated white polyester mosquito netting is about US$25 (materials only), plus the cost of support poles and sewing. I recommend Sunbrella acrylic or Top Notch polyester for making traps. I also recommend use of high-quality white mosquito netting that will last for many years (Mosquito Curtains). Good netting is worth the extra cost. A robust alternative to a cloth trap is a painted plywood or plexiglass trap. My experimental plywood traps have special features and cost about US$70. A more basic format costs about US$50. Plexiglass traps are quite expensive, but have the advantage of not having to be repainted. I have been testing both of these formats for several years and have had excellent results relative to cloth traps. I have provided some recent retail costs of typical materials for North America in an EXCEL spreadsheet below . These prices are for direct "consumer" purchases, and do not include duty, taxes, mail order charges, etc. These "extras" can be substantial when making only a few traps at a time. |
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I do not recommend making traps out of typical "sportsweaer" blue-black fabrics in polyester/cotton that one can easily buy "off the shelf". Although economical, colours will fade outdoors by the end of the first season. Also, the the types of blue fabrics sold for these purposes are mostly not appropriate for catching biting flies. |
