Insects were sampled in a Douglas-fir forest in California to evaluate differences among inexpensive survey methods. Sampling was done with sweep nets and with window, sticky, light, suspended cone, and two kinds of yellow pan traps. Also examined were effects of trap location in the given tree and the following tree species: Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii Franco), canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis Liebm.), tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus Rehd.), Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii Pursh.), and big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum Pursh.). Relative abundance and faunistic similarity of the 9662 insects caught varied greatly by trap type and little by tree species or trap location. Family-level taxonomic richness differed among the diverse trap types, tree species, and trap locations.