More Hacks (Tips). Worth a look.

[SLAG]

The SLAG is back!

Have a look at the embedded topic.  It is extremely useful tips (hacks), or (truc), for the house and shop. Actually some of them are really superb, that I wish that I had known years earlier.

Here Are 13 "Life Hacks" That I Wish I Learned Sooner (msn.com)

Enjoy!

SLAG.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Good to see you posting again Slag. I have used a couple of the hacks in the link but learned some new one's. Now if someone will come up with a good one to keep the pesky fruit Flies out of the trash can and kitchen in general, I would be eternally grateful. Thanks

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Randy

i take a left over pickle juice in the jar and punch a bunch of little holes in the top, it works a wonder for catching fruit flies 

[Frosty]

Good to see you posting again Slag! I saw the notification when you posted and was sure I replied but nope, I zee No ting! Heck, I even added one of my favorite hacks in the response. I think my computer is haunted! The stupid thing does exactly what I tell it to! ARGHHHHH!

One of my favorite hacks is to roll a sleeping bag, put in a plastic garbage bag and take the vacuum cleaner to it. It'll slip into the stuff sack so easily you can sometimes get two bags in one sack.

See if I can actually hit "Submit" this time.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  You did post that and I said "Hi".  I don't know where it went.

[SLAG]

Hi Mr. Dragon. Frosy, and Scott N.C.,

It's nice to be back.

Fruit flies are a nuisance. Here are a few ways to deal with them.

The obvious solution is to clean the kitchen (sweep and damp mop). Wipe the counter tops. That gets rid of the crumbs that build up.  Also, clean out the garbage cans regularly, and dry out any standing water. Ideally, keep the trash containers out of the kitchen, or, better yet, outside the house. The flies love feeding in the trash, and/or standing water. Keeping grocery produce in the refrigerator also helps.

But you all knew all of that.

For trapping and killing fruit flies, get some beer or, a vinegar and water, solution add a drop of dish detergent to the beer or water solution.  Get some small glass containers (shot glasses work best for me).

Also, get some Kling film. Fill the glass with the liquid.  The fill level should be 50% full. Completely cover the glass top. Now put some holes into the center of the film. You can do this by using a toothpick.  But I have developed a better way to accomplish that.  Get some matches. Strike one of them and let the head burn out then, quickly blow out the flame.  Quickly touch the hot match head in several places in the film.  It makes neat holes. The reason we make the holes toward the center, (and not near the rim), is that the lured, and trapped flies walk along the inner rim trying to get out. They rarely walk near the center of the film and escape. Eventually they tire or touch the liquid, and drown. The small amount of detergent lowers the surface tension of the liquid, and the flies readily fall through the water surface and sink.

Use several traps where the flies congregate. Renew the traps every 2 or 3 days. A heavy infestation can be cleaned up in a week to nine days.

It really works.

While you are exterminating, why not kill drain flies too. Use a Chlorox-water, one to three dilution, solution to wipe out the inside of the drain walls, about 4 or5 inches.  Do it periodically. It, also, kills any microorganisms in the slimy film.

Hope that helps, Good Guy.

Regards to you and all the rest of the site denizens.

SLAG.

 

[Frosty]

The dish soap solution breaks the oily surface tension on the hairs on insects legs. The hairs prevent water from blocking their breathing (thingies) so they don't drown. A bit of dish soap and they drown on a damp leaf. 

It's also the secret to making an effective water trap for rodents, they hit the water, their fur soaks to the skin and they drown immediately IF they can't climb the container PVC pipe at a steep angle with a smear of peanut butter a couple inches from the top works a treat. You can spray the yard, shrubbery, trees, with soap treated water and handle a LOT of insect pests. 

And counter to the old saying you CAN catch more flies with vinegar than honey add a drop of dish soap there too.

If there's a big mosquito pond close by about IIRC 1/4 tsp of garlic oil per acre will eliminate mosquito larva and any mosquitoes landing on it.

Mosquitoes, no see ums and white socks are a real thing here and I'd rather not spray insecticides, burn coils, etc. so . . . . 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[George N. M.]

If you are in an area that gets lots of miller moths you can put a light bulb a few inches above a pie pan of soapy water the moths will circle the light, hit the water, and drown pretty instantly.  It works best at night when there are no other lights in view.  You may have to stir up the millers resting on the cieling and walls with a broom or a towel to get them flying.

When they are on the ceiling and walls and are kind of torpid at night you can use the wand of a vacuum cleaner to suck them up.

Millers are harmless but annoying.

GNM

[SLAG]

Herr, Frosty,

The technical word for insect "hearing thingies"  if spiracles.

Oil on the water surface "softens" the water on the surface so the insect cannot stand on the surface tension water molecules.

Cheers,

SLAG

'

[Frosty]

Okay, insect ears are spiracles. What do you call their breathing structures(better?) they aren't noses. Are any of them in or close to their leg joints? Breathing through their leg joints would really be the Bees Knees. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

On 3/8/2024 at 9:07 PM, SLAG said:

The technical word for insect "hearing thingies"  if spiracles.

On 3/9/2024 at 6:01 PM, Frosty said:

Okay, insect ears are spiracles. What do you call their breathing structures(better?) they aren't noses.

No, the word for breathing apparatus is indeed "spiracle", from the Latin "spirare", to breathe.  This is the same word from which we get "respiration". 

The technical term for insect hearing thingies varies according to the insect, as not all insects are capable of true hearing (although most are sensitive to vibration). In grasshoppers, for example, the term is "tympanal organ" or simply "tympanum", which is the Latin for "drum". Like the human tympanal membrane (the eardrum), this membrane (located on their knees) picks up vibrations from the air, converts them into nerve impulses, and send these to the brain.

 

[Scott NC]

  Bugs have no lungs.

[JHCC]

That is true, but (like us) they do have tracheae. The difference is that they absorb oxygen through the surfaces of the tracheae, while ours serve to transport air to the lungs, where the oxygen is absorbed. The spiracles are the open ends of the tracheae.

[Scott NC]

  Bugs have legs, so why don't they have arms?  Preying mantis kind of do.  They sort remind me of T-Rex's.  Ant's could probably use them, as industrial as they are.

[Frosty]

How do you  know bugs don't walk on their hands? They can certainly grasp and hold things with them. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

SLAG here.

JHCC, You are grammatically correct.  And I cannot but agree on your Latin analysis.

But spiracles is the adopted term used entomologists and other scientists.

Frosty's phrase "hearing thingies" is wrong and I regret that. 

The spiracles, most insects use are for respiration. Most species do not have lungs but 'breathe' through their spiracles.

I consulted Google's "co-pilot"

My question was "What do insects "breath" air through."

Copilot's answer,

""Insects have a fascinating way of obtaining oxygen without lungs. Unlike humans, they lack lungs and do not transport oxygen through a circulatory system. Instead, their respiratory system relies on a simple gas exchange process.

Here’s how it works:

Spiracles: Insects have external openings called spiracles. These spiracles act as muscular valves and allow air to enter their bodies. Think of spiracles like tiny breathing holes along an insect’s abdomen.

Tracheae: Once air enters through the spiracles, it leads to the internal respiratory system, which consists of a network of tubes called tracheae. These tracheae are like a sponge, allowing oxygen to bathe the insect’s tissues. Tracheae deliver oxygen directly to the cells.

Carbon Dioxide Removal: As insects engage in metabolic processes, they produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. This waste exits their bodies through the same spiracles." "

Insect sound generation is another matter. Insects have a great number of ways to make sound. For example, grass hoppers rub their legs.  Etc.

I hope this note clears up the confusion.

Regards to all.

I remain,

SLAG.

[Frosty]

I don't recall slag, is there a mechanism for moving air through the tracheae?

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

Jer,

Muscles do the pumping. Probably mainly by peristalsis.(check peristalsis in google, it gives a good explanation). The cells in the insects' plumbing channels also use that method to move things along. Insect blood is called hemolymph. The oxygen is dissolved in the hemolymph and it is exchanged for carbon dioxide.  The CO2 exits the insect through the spiracles.  This breathing system is not particularly efficient, and that limits the size that insects can grow these days.  In the carboniferous age the percentage of oxygen was much greater, (about 30%) so insects, were much larger.

I seem to remember that dragon flies could be three feet long.

(I'm too lazy to look it up, at this moment).  

So lighting up a smoke, in that era, could set off a forest fire.

Regards,

Herr,  Good Guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5%and insects, therein, were much larger. I seem to remember that dragon flies could be three feet long. I'm too lazy to look it up, at this moment. 

[George N. M.]

Carboniferous oxygen levels are estimated to be about 35% versus 21% today.  This allowed terrestrial arthropods (insects, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, etc.) to grow much larger than they do today.  Dragonflys had a wingspan of 2.5 feet, millipedes were 8' long and 1.5' wide, and scorpions were about the size of a house cat.  Here is a link to an article on Carboniferous creepy crawlies:  https://owlcation.com/stem/The-Carboniferous-Period-When-Giant-Insects-Ruled-the-Land-and-Sky

GNM

[gewoon ik]

17 hours ago, SLAG said:

 

I seem to remember that dragon flies could be three feet long.

I didn't know you where that old

[George N. M.]

My son, who was raised by two geologists, insisted that his mother and I had been born in the early Cambrian.

GNM

[SLAG]

Mr. George N.M.  (a.k.a. r. Monsson), and Mr. Gewoon, I. k.,

George strange that we never met back then.

Ships in the night?

SLAG.

[George N. M.]

Gondowanaland was a big place and not many folk around.

G

[Nobody Special]

This also depends on what you call a bug, and for that matter what you call a lung. If you include arachnids, then you get book lungs, at least for some of them. Book lungs don't work like people lungs though, they're basically a bunch of folds that increase the amount of surface area the arachnid can absorb oxygen through without having to be moved. Kind of like an air-cooled Volkswagen, surface area matters. They probably evolved from specialized gills, although some of the smaller arachnids, like mites, breathe in pretty much the same fashion as insects.

And while I'm thinking about it, keeping spiders in your trash would probably cut down on the fruit flies, but I'm not sure that it's practical, although it would be fun to refer to the kitchen trash can as Cirith Ungol.

[Frosty]

Until the wife found out you planted spiders in the garbage can on purpose! Deb is, shall we say NOT a fan of spiders.

Frosty The Lucky.