10 C. G. Wright, T. P. Nuhn, and H. E. Dupree, Jr. 



are wood cockroaches (Hebard 1917, Beatson and Dripps 1972), the 

 smokybrown cockroach (Fleet and Frankie 1974, Fleet et al. 1978), 

 peridomestic cockroaches (Brenner 1988, Brenner and Patterson 1988, 

 Hagenbuch et al. 1988, Patterson and Koehler 1989), and ants (Wesson 

 and Wesson 1940, Gaspar and Thirion 1978, Kondoh 1978, Pisarski and 

 Czechowski 1978, Vepsalainen and Wuorenrinne 1978, Nuhn and Wright 

 1979, Kondoh and Kitazawa 1984, Majer and Brown 1986, Richter et al. 

 1986, Wuorenrinne 1989. Knight and Rust 1990). Various pitfall traps, 

 such as those designed by Greenslade (1964), Nuhn and Wright (1979), 

 Reeves (1980), and Porter and Savignano (1990), are commonly used to 

 survey crawling insects and their relatives found at the soil level. We 

 present information here on ants and cockroaches that were captured in 

 soil-level pitfall traps placed adjacent to private dwellings in a suburban 

 environment while conducting a study on the efficacy of selected 

 insecticides in band applications around the exterior of houses (Wright 

 and Dupree 1984). 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Owners of 35 single-family dwellings in Wake Co., N.C., agreed to 

 participate in the survey. There was no pest control being done outside 

 these dwellings according to the owners, and no earlier pest control 

 attempts were reported. Each agreed to trap placement and retrieval 

 from around their homes five times during an 8-week period. Traps 

 made from 480-ml, round cardboard containers (8.6 cm wide x 9.5 cm 

 deep) were placed in a row of three, 2.5 cm apart, against each of the 

 four sides of the house, unless that placement was prevented by 

 structural barriers. The containers were buried in the ground with the 

 lip at the soil line. A mixture of petroleum jelly and mineral oil (1:1) 

 was applied as a narrow band inside the lip of the container to prevent 

 escape of animals that had entered. 



By random selection each of the three traps per house side was 

 baited with 1/4 slice of white bread or with one tablespoon of boiled 

 raisins or was left unbaited. Ground cover around the traps was 

 assigned to one of three categories: (1) bare ground, (2) mulch (including 

 pine bark, pine needles, and hardwood leaves), or (3) ivy cover with or 

 without mulch. A piece of 12-mm hardware cloth (30.5 x 61 cm) was 

 placed over all three traps and fastened to the soil with a 25-cm spike in 

 each corner, to prevent squirrels and other small animals from removing 

 the cloth and taking the baits from the traps. Traps were placed, left for 

 24 hours, and removed; trapped specimens were put in 70% ethyl alcohol 

 or pinned. An initial trapping was done prior to application of an 

 insecticide during the week of 15-27 July, and additional trappings were 



