Insect Monitoring Traps

Insect monitoring traps are used to detect and track crawling insects so you can spot activity early and confirm where pests are coming from. They suit homes, kitchens, storage areas and businesses, and can be used on their own or alongside other treatments as part of a wider plan. Their real value is that they tell you where to treat, which is the step most people skip.

Where insects travel or hide, such as:

• Along skirting boards and wall edges
• Behind and under fridges, cookers, sinks and cupboards
• Near bins, pantry areas, boiler and utility rooms
• Close to suspected entry points - cracks, gaps, pipework

For a usable read on activity, use several traps and leave them undisturbed. Insects travel along edges rather than across open floor, so a trap in the middle of a room tells you very little.

Replace a trap when it is full of insects or dust, when the sticky surface has stopped holding, or as the product instructions direct. Check them every few days at first, then swap them out regularly so you keep getting a current picture - a full trap tells you nothing about this week.

There is no insecticide in a monitoring trap, so there is nothing to inhale or absorb. Place them out of reach and out of the way of paws and curious hands, since the adhesive is difficult to remove from fur and skin, and dispose of used traps in the general waste.

Not necessarily. It usually means the traps are not on the route. Insects follow edges, walls and pipework, so move them tighter against skirtings, further behind appliances, and closer to where you actually saw something. Give it several nights before drawing a conclusion, and add more traps rather than moving the same two around.

That is the traps doing their job rather than failing at a different one. A monitor catches what walks over it; it does not reach the harbourage insects come from. Use the catches to work out which room and which corner is active, then treat there with a spray or powder, and keep the traps running afterwards to check whether numbers are actually falling.

If the traps keep catching after a full treatment cycle, if activity has spread beyond one room, or if you are dealing with bed bugs or German cockroaches. Look for a qualified pest controller with BPCA membership.