Man invents wasp vacuum and ends up with box of wasps

[beschizza]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/11/man-invents-wasp-vacuum-and-en.html

…

[KathyPartdeux]

That’s what the flame thrower is for.

[JRLu]

I had to do something like this once in my younger years, with a tool shed and a much worse infestation.

Found the hole in the roof where they were entering, and rigged up an old shop vac with the nozzle nearby. I let it run for a few days (shed was a distance from the house so the noise didn’t matter) and then wrapped the entire thing in a black plastic contractor bag and let it sit in the direct sun for a week. Killed all of them quite nicely.

[ingoschi]

I assume that wasps are not protected animals in the US?

[JRLu]

If they were, I still wouldn’t care and would still decimate them with equal fervor. I realize that they’re pollinators too, but I’m way more interested in keeping the bees around, since they’re far less likely (at least in my area) to be aggressive and destructive to my property.

[tuhu]

I will use any excuse, no matter how thin, to post this gif.

[Boundegar]

No, do not read The Wasp Factory. Never ever.

[L0ki]

@KathyPartdeux

That’s what the flame thrower is for.

This is more his style:

https://woodgears.ca/airgun/index.html#supersonic

Shooting stuff with supersonic M&M candies

Although:

https://woodgears.ca/physics/venturi.html

The Venturi effect

He makes a lot of cool stuff.

[deedub]

There are a couple weeks every October where a particular species of diving spider in my area has its mating season, and they all come to my swimming pool at night to get together. The skimmers in the pool act in a similar manner to this device, and I’m greeted with this scene the next day:

[AnthonyI]

[NashRambler]

I’m just grateful you didn’t stoop lower and go with that Nick-Cage-head-full-of-oh-no-not-bees nonsense.

Edit: Curse you AnthonyI

[tuhu]

I try to stoop within reason.

Also,

[karl_jones]

These things go wrong so easily, it’s just human nature and you can’t fix it:

[generic_name]

Probably a lot spicier than that can of bees I bought.

[evilkolbot]

Not read it for a while, and I wonder how it plays in our shiny post-binary world. Perhaps if that’s what you’re fixating on in such a novel you’re doing it wrong.

[Faffenreffer]

Q: What should I do with this box of wasps?

A: Fit them with little crocheted collars and monofilament leashes, then market to hipsters. Presto! Instant exotic pet fad.

[Ratel]

@KathyPartdeux

That’s what the flame thrower is for.

The dragon was a Frisco flamethrower, a thing like a fat anglehead flashlight. Case checked the batteries, shook it to make sure he had enough fuel, and went to the open window. The hive began to buzz.
The air in the Sprawl was dead, immobile. A wasp shot from the nest and circled Case’s head. Case pressed the ignition switch, counted three, and pulled the trigger. The fuel, pumped up to 100 psi, sprayed out past the white-hot coil. A five-meter tongue of pale fire, the nest charring, tumbling. Across the alley, someone cheered.
‘Shit!’ Marlene behind him, swaying. 'Stupid! You didn’t burn ‘em. You just knocked it off. They’ll come up here and kill us!’ Her voice sawing at his nerves, he imagined her engulfed in flame, her bleached hair sizzling a special green.
In the alley, the dragon in hand, he approached the blackened nest. It had broken open. Singed wasps wrenched and flipped on the asphalt.
He saw the thing the shell of gray paper had concealed.
Horror. The spiral birth factory, stepped terraces of the hatching cells, blind jaws of the unborn moving ceaselessly, the staged progress from egg to larva, near-wasp, wasp. In his mind’s eye, a kind of time-lapse photography took place, revealing the thing as the biological equivalent of a machine gun, hideous in its perfection. Alien. He pulled the trigger, forgetting to press the ignition, and fuel hissed over the bulging, writhing life at his feet.
When he did hit the ignition, it exploded with a thump, taking an eyebrow with it. Five floors above him, from the open window, he heard Marlene laughing.
He woke with the impression of light fading, but the room was dark. Afterimages, retinal flares. The sky outside hinted at the start of a recorded dawn. There were no voices now, only the rush of water, far down the face of the Intercontinental.
In the dream, just before he’d drenched the nest with fuel, he’d seen the T-A logo of Tessier-Ashpool neatly embossed into its side, as though the wasps themselves had worked it there.

[spetrovits]

Well, he’s Canadian, so it would be Canada that doesn’t protect wasps. Here in the US, we’re more about protecting WASPs. Usually from themselves.

[Pensketch]

I wonder if leaving off the screen would have solved the need to wait five days? Or would it have gummed up the works? Not having to have the box in place would have probably helped with the suction level as well.

Also, it’s awesome to see an actual engineer who’s far more cluttered than I am.

[Gyrofrog]

I was fully expecting that the video would end with someone running around and flailing his arms in the air, batting at impossible targets and yelling “Oh goddammit goddammit…,” because it’s funny when it’s someone else.

Disappointed.