This week I visited the Pink Houses in Brooklyn, NY. Here is a picture of the farm site:
On Wednesday I met Kelly Guevara, the grower, who is growing kale, spinach, collard greens, and tomatoes. Kelly and I, along with my supervisors Yolanda and Sam, discussed the best places to set the traps as to not interfere with the plants’ roots, and to allow them to receive enough sunlight to attract insects like bees. We set up two pitfall and two pan traps in the raised beds; the pitfall traps include a container that goes into the soil with the top edge parallel to the soil so walking insects will fall inside, and are filled with a soap and water mixture and have a plastic rain cover on top to prevent rain from washing away the insects. The pan traps include a yellow bowl and a blue bowl about a foot apart also filled with a soap and water mixture and are placed on top of the soil with a rock inside to weigh them down.
Here are some pictures of us setting up the traps:
On Friday I returned to the Pink Houses to collect the traps. I was surprised by the number of insects we caught in only 48 hours; about 300 in total! We then began sorting, identifying, and counting the insects:
Due to timing and weather, I packaged the remaining insects in sample containers and took them home to finish counting. Here are some notable insects I found:
Left to right: Butterfly (pollinator), aphids (pests), rove beetle (natural enemy)