[Lab] yellow jackets and electricity

[Richard Guy Briggs]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 01:32:19PM -0700, Darcy Whyte wrote:
> What about this angle:
> 
> A motion detector of some sort.
> a coil
> a relay
> a 6v battery
> a wire grid over the opening
> 
> When a yellow jacket is detected we charge the coil and then let it
> discharge through the grid.

I think the idea is to keep it charged so that it does its work on
contact.

> The relay is to isolate an arduino from the coil charging action...
> 
> What sort of coil would I need?
> 
> If this will work at all....
> 
> Also, what about detecting the bug when it touches the grid? I suppose the
> problem with that is I'd need to isolate it from the arduino somehow since
> the high voltage will zap the arduino too....

Does it really need an arduino, or just a wired power supply and a way
of forcing all entering and exiting wasps of touching the charged wires?

> On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
> > Perhaps this can be DIYed:
> > http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1421.html
> >
> > I could then just hang the thing near the hole and place some electrodes
> > right there.

I've seen one of those at a friend's cottage.  It is only $10, so it
might be worth just buying one to find out how it works and adapt it for
automatic use with your wasp nest.  We had one in the floor of our
balcony.  It was a nuisance...

You might want to adapt it with very fine wires brushing around the hole
(but if the wire is too fine, it might fuse instead of delivering the
intended shock to an insect...)

> > On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 12:54 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
> >> Let's say I have a nasty yellow jacket nest that's starting to cause
> >> problems.
> >>
> >> I've dealt with these in the past when the next is very exposed but this
> >> time I only have access to an opening about an inch where they are coming
> >> and going.
> >>
> >> Has anybody ever tried to put some sort of zapper near an entrance? Seems
> >> that should be an easy way to get them.
> >>
> >> A trap seems to take long because they only go into it once in a while so
> >> it takes a long while.
> >>
> >> I figure if I put a couple of electrodes near the hole, they could
> >> complete the gap.
> >>
> >> If this would work, I wonder how many bugs a couple of D-cells could zap?


	slainte mhath, RGB

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