Post by David Murray on Mar 12, 2007 15:22:56 GMT -5
Spring is here in Texas and already my home is being invaded by wasps wanting to build their little evil nests all over my house. I had to go buy a can of wasp spray and kill them all this weekend. But I know they will be back. There will be more, and I'll continue to fight them all summer long..
I found myself looking at those lasers on www.wickedlasers.com and wondering if those expensive ones might be able to kill a wasp. Lets say I built a tripod and mounted a laser on it with a rifle scope. Then I could modify the laser so it ran in a low-power mode with a switch for turning it to max power. I should be able to stay at a safe distance, point the dot right on the ilttle wasps head and press my exterminate button, and zap! His head is fried and he falls off the nest. the rest of the wasps will be oblivious that anything has happened, so I can continue to zap the rest of them. Once they are all dead, I burn the stalk that attaches the nest to the eve of the house, and it falls off. Environmentally friendly, safe, quiet, etc..
Unfortunatly it appears the cost of building such a thing would likely be close to $400. So before even thinking about it too much, I needed some expert advice (there are usually experts in every field on this group) The two main issues I need answered are:
1) What kind of output wattage would I need on a laser to be sure it would kill the wasp before he had a chance to fly away? I mean, some of these 200 mW units claim to be able to burn through metal, but how fast? Surely a wasps head would be easier to burn than metal.
2) Does a high-powered laser have the ability to run at a lower power setting? Or do they just not do anything until enough power is fed to them? This wouldn't be a huge problem as I'm sure I could rig up a traditional low-power diode right next to the high-power, but the aim would be a little inaccurate.
I found myself looking at those lasers on www.wickedlasers.com and wondering if those expensive ones might be able to kill a wasp. Lets say I built a tripod and mounted a laser on it with a rifle scope. Then I could modify the laser so it ran in a low-power mode with a switch for turning it to max power. I should be able to stay at a safe distance, point the dot right on the ilttle wasps head and press my exterminate button, and zap! His head is fried and he falls off the nest. the rest of the wasps will be oblivious that anything has happened, so I can continue to zap the rest of them. Once they are all dead, I burn the stalk that attaches the nest to the eve of the house, and it falls off. Environmentally friendly, safe, quiet, etc..
Unfortunatly it appears the cost of building such a thing would likely be close to $400. So before even thinking about it too much, I needed some expert advice (there are usually experts in every field on this group) The two main issues I need answered are:
1) What kind of output wattage would I need on a laser to be sure it would kill the wasp before he had a chance to fly away? I mean, some of these 200 mW units claim to be able to burn through metal, but how fast? Surely a wasps head would be easier to burn than metal.
2) Does a high-powered laser have the ability to run at a lower power setting? Or do they just not do anything until enough power is fed to them? This wouldn't be a huge problem as I'm sure I could rig up a traditional low-power diode right next to the high-power, but the aim would be a little inaccurate.