Can I Outsmart a Wasp on My Window?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rach3
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around strategies for dealing with a wasp that has entered a home, exploring various methods for removal or incapacitation. Participants share humorous, practical, and speculative approaches, reflecting on the challenges and risks involved in confronting the insect.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Humorous

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses concern about provoking the wasp and considers their plans overly complicated.
  • Another suggests using insecticides like imiprothrin or cypermethrin, questioning their effectiveness on contact.
  • A participant proposes using heavy objects, such as physics books, as a potential solution.
  • Multiple participants suggest throwing honey or treacle at the wasp, with some questioning the practicality and effectiveness of this method.
  • There are humorous suggestions for building an anti-insect flamethrower, including using aerosol cans and lighters, with warnings about potential fire hazards.
  • One participant recounts a failed attempt with organophosphate insecticides leading to a slippery floor and a lost wasp.
  • Another participant humorously suggests forming a friendship with the wasp as a non-lethal alternative.
  • After a series of attempts, one participant claims victory over the wasp, attributing their success to the insecticide used.
  • The discussion includes playful banter about the potential for retaliation from other wasps and a humorous claim of being a swarm of wasps in disguise.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best method to deal with the wasp, with multiple competing views and humorous suggestions remaining throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Some methods proposed involve significant risks, such as fire hazards from using flammable materials. The effectiveness of various insecticides is also uncertain, as participants question their advertised capabilities.

Rach3
There's a large, sinister-looking wasp on a hard-to-reach window. What to do? I don't want to risk failure, or provoke an angry wasp. So far my plans are about as sensible as Rube Goldberg machines.

Maybe I should have posted this in an engineering forum?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I think Rach3 is penguino, both have lost their balls.

Maybe I should start a thread about how a squirrel looked at me funny and now I am afraid to go outside.

Thread Locked.
 
Huh. What do you know, it was already dead.
 
Aaaaahhh! It's moving!

:eek:
 
Do either imiprothrin or cypermethrin kill wasps on contact (though they're not advertised to)? It's either that or some heavy objects. Maybe physics books.
 
Okay, I've found me a 3kg reference. Meanwhile I turned the thermostat to 45F = 6C, maybe I can slow it down or give it hypothermia.
 
Throw a glob of honey/golden treacle at it.
 
It's very much alive, it was climbing down the wall. But now it's not moving again. Hmm. I hope it died.
 
Just some guy said:
Throw a glob of honey/golden treacle at it.

(i) How do you expect me to aim that?
(ii) What will that accomplish?
 
  • #10
Does anyone know an easy, foolproof way to build an anti-insect flamethrower?
 
  • #11
Rach3 said:
(i) How do you expect me to aim that?
(ii) What will that accomplish?

1: I dunno, flick a spoon and hope for the best?

2: What harm can it do if it's coverend in honey and can't move :biggrin:
 
  • #12
Rach3 said:
Does anyone know an easy, foolproof way to build an anti-insect flamethrower?

An aerosol can and a match?

Or, if you have a lighter, place the lighter (lit) nearish the wasp, fill a water pistol with petrol or lighter fluid and squirt the fuel through the lighter at the wasp. Of course, you'd then have to deal with your house being on fire, but at least you wouldn't have to deal with the wasp.

[edit]P.S. I wonder if you could suck it up with a vacuum cleaner[/edit]
 
  • #13
Plans backfiring. Organophosphate insecticides made floor slippery. Room stinks of petroleum products - opened window. I lost the wasp - it's somewhere, not sure where. Like in the Alien movies.
 
  • #14
It's behind books on the shelf. !
 
  • #15
You should try to make friends with it. Maybe you could develop some sort of mutually beneficial relationship...maybe you could feed it, and it could guard your house. Personally, if I wanted to rob you blind and I saw a giant bloodthirsty death-wasp descending on me...I'd run. Run far away. And never come back.

So if you think about it, neither of you really has to die. It's a win-win situation.
 
  • #16
I'm removing things one by one from the shelf. If I find it still alive and vicious, that'll be bad. If I don't find anything at all, that'll be much worse.
 
  • #17
Archon - Shame on you for making fun of a very serious incident!
 
  • #18
Rach3 said:
I'm removing things one by one from the shelf. If I find it still alive and vicious, that'll be bad. If I don't find anything at all, that'll be much worse.
And you have to sleep some time. It knows that. :devil:
 
  • #19
HURRAY! VICTORY IS MINE!

Three cheers for insecticides!

How the story of my great military victory came about:
So It wasn't on the shelf after all. I decided that looking for it in one place would leave me vulnerable to attack from the [elsewhere hidden] wasp, so I searched the whole rest of the house first, to eliminate that possibility. It was in fact on anoter windowsill. And apparently the cypermethrin had hit the mark. I officially declare this wasp incapacitated!
 
  • #20
I'm free from the wasp overlords! This calls for some sort of celebration.
 
  • #21
Rach3 said:
I'm free from the wasp overlords! This calls for some sort of celebration.
His buddies saw what you did. This isn't over.
 
  • #22
I can feel the paranoia rising... muahahaha!
 
  • #23
Well...now that the battle is over...I think I should come clean. I'm really just a swarm of wasps that has temporarily taken human form in order to type these messages. I (we) just wanted to save Joe over there, and maybe foster a nice spirit of cooperation between humans and wasp-kind...but you had to go and kill him, didn't you!? So now...history will remember you as the guy who doomed humanity. Wasps forever!
 
  • #24
Rach3 said:
It was in fact on anoter windowsill.
Are you sure that it's the same wasp? :devil:

Rach3 said:
Does anyone know an easy, foolproof way to build an anti-insect flamethrower?
While I certainly don't recommend this to other people, I use a can of WD-40 and a lighter. That definitely needs to be chosen only if the surroundings aren't terribly flammable. It only takes about 1/4 second of exposure to burn the wings off, which doesn't really cause any damage to woodwork or whatnot. You probably wouldn't want to use it in the bookcase scenario. :biggrin:
 
  • #25
Rach3 said:
Aaaaahhh! It's moving!

:eek:
Okay, I've found me a 3kg reference. Meanwhile I turned the thermostat to 45F = 6C, maybe I can slow it down or give it hypothermia.
Do either imiprothrin or cypermethrin kill wasps on contact (though they're not advertised to)? It's either that or some heavy objects. Maybe physics books.
A shotgun is the easiest way to solve this.
 

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