[Lab] yellow jackets and electricity

[Darcy Whyte]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the note.

I figured keeping a coil charged might be expensive on the batteries. Seems
the next place to go is keeping a capacitor charged. As I mentioned in the
blog post, a disposable camera may have enough hardware to do this. May not
be as high a voltage but it might work.

So it just comes down to triggering the high voltage thing.

I'm all ears on how to trigger it but I figured I could just use an arduino
because the labor content may be lower. There might be something that can
save some pennies but I think for the pain a community of yellow jackets
causes, it's okay if it uses an arduino for a couple days.

Even if the Squirrels steal it.

Darcy






On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 8:59 PM, Richard Guy Briggs <rgb at tricolour.net>wrote:

> 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
>
> --
> Richard Guy Briggs               --  ~\    -- ~\            <
> hpv.tricolour.net>
> <www.TriColour.net>                --  \___   o \@       @       Ride yer
> bike!
> Ottawa, ON, CANADA                  --  Lo_>__M__\\/\%__\\/\%
> Vote! -- <greenparty.ca
> >_____GTVS6#790__(*)__(*)________(*)(*)_________________
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://artengine.ca/pipermail/lab/attachments/20110829/1e82aeae/attachment.htm>