Aussie Finch Forum

Hi All,

Are there any insects that are likely to get caught in a moth trap that I should avoid feeding out.

I recently purchased a moth trap and so far have caught small moths, mosquitoes, flying ants, flys and so other very small bugs. Is there ant risk of disease or parasite transmission from feeding mosquitoes or other flying insects?

Cheers Ian

I used to work as an entomologist.

As a general rule and insects that have red,orange or yellow markings are toxic or taste really bad and best avoided.
Blues, full white and purples are best avoided as well.

Fortunately there is a megaton of boring brown,fawn & grey insects out there that are safe to feed birds.

Thanks Mortisha

Yes, so far all boring coloured insects, I'll keep an eye for funky coloured ones.

Thanks Ian

The risk of disease transmission is minimal - the insect that you just randomly sucked out of the sky would have needed to have previously fed on infected bird faeces to become an intermediate host for parasites.

The birds will only eat the palatable ones.

I hope so. The surplus are going to king quail and from what I have seen, they'll try anything.

My set-up attracts bugs directly into the aviary and as in the wild, the birds know what is safe to eat. They particularly don't like lacewings.