How to make a plastic cage for tsetse traps
1. To make a trap cage, you need two plastic bottles, soft (12-gauge) wire, string, a steel ring, a plastic bag, scissors and pliers.
2. Cut the bottom off one of the bottles to make a disc.
3. Trim the edges of the disc to make it neat.
4. It should look like this.
5. Now cut the bottle about 10 cm from the top.
6. Then, make a number of vertical cuts, each about 1 cm long and 1-2 cm apart.
7. Fold the resulting flaps out.
8. The bottle should now be a funnel with a flared base like this.
9.Take the second bottle, and cut it about 10 cm from the base....
10. ...to form a cup like this.
11. Trim the remaining half of the bottle and...
12 ..fit the two pieces together to form a short bottle....
14. You need to make holes in the plastic. This is best done with a length of metal tubing.
16. ...and then make a hole in the plastic disc you made earlier.
17. You will create a hole like this. Remove any flashing and..
18....then fix disc on the end of the short bottle you made earlier.
19. Then make a hole in the side of the bottle and...
20....and attach the funnel which you made earlier.
21. You should end up with a structure like this. The funnel and bottle should have a snug fit but be detachable.
22. You now need a metal or wire ring like this.
23. Sew the ring to the top of the netting funnel inside the Epsilon trap.
24. Attach a length of soft wire to the plastic funnel and...
25. ..secure it tightly around the apex of the funnel.
26. It should now look like this.
27. The cage will eventually be like this, but to attach it to the trap you need to....
28. ...pass the funnel up through the inside of the trap and out through the metal ring.
29. The flared base of the funnel should fit snugly against the ring, like this.
30. Make sure that the flexible plastic tabs are flush against the netting, otherwise they will impede the flies.
31. Secure the wire to the supporting bar of the Epsilon trap and attach the bottle to the funnel.
32. The cage should now be self-supporting like this.
33. Now attach the plastic bag to the plastic cage.
34. When completed, the cage should look like this.
35. You will probably have to adapt the cage design slightly to suit the availability of local materials however....
36. ...be careful not to use large amounts of string or wire to attach the cage to the netting; this will deter flies from entering the cage.
37. Also, be careful not to allow flies to escape by leaving holes between the cage and the netting.
