Bug killing power?

[wlchase]

This will sounds goofy, it is, but my wife has a huge psychological great of cockroaches and spiders. I've gotten her to the point where she will let me relocate spiders, but roaches, no way.

So... I'm looking for ideas on what wattage I might need in a blue or red laser (we have green walls) to kill or at least damage a cockroach at, say, 8 feet.

Thank you for and input!
Bill

 

[julianthedragon]

I've tried using a laser to hit those lantern flies that were a menace during the summer, the problem with lasering insects is once they feel the dot for 0.001 seconds they teleport away, unless maybe you use a laser in the watts that can fry them on the spot, but then you need really good aim to not damage your walls, assuming the insect itself doesn't catch on fire. If your walls are green I'd go with a high powered 520nm that you can focus down and purchase some safety goggles as well. The green wavelength will make it absorb less into your walls, lowering the likelihood of damage and it'll probably have better beam specs than a high powered blue. Just be careful

 

[wlchase]

I've tried using a laser to hit those lantern flies that were a menace during the summer, the problem with lasering insects is once they feel the dot for 0.001 seconds they teleport away, unless maybe you use a laser in the watts that can fry them on the spot, but then you need really good aim to not damage your walls, assuming the insect itself doesn't catch on fire. If your walls are green I'd go with a high powered 520nm that you can focus down and purchase some safety goggles as well. The green wavelength will make it absorb less into your walls, lowering the likelihood of damage and it'll probably have better beam specs than a high powered blue. Just be careful

Thank you!

 

[Shmackitup]

 

[wlchase]

Niice!

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
This is how I kill bugs
Rich

 

[Sowee7]

Hi,
This is how I kill bugs
Rich

that is the best way to kill bugs

 

[wlchase]

that is the best way to kill bugs

That would do it! Like to keep the house, tho.

 

[wolfram]

It is the rate of energy absorption. For fast bugs hit them with some topical cold spray. lower wavelengs are better from a distance, and thier energy is absorbed by almost any pigment. I like >1W. They be really stenkyyyyyy! Do not use on anything that you care about. Use saftey glasses. Hey....If you can freeze them though, just pick em up an flush them.

 

[bostjan]

Heh.

Well, this is possible, of course, but there are some serious ethical and safety concerns here that cannot possibly be overstated.

Never ever try this at home, boys and girls...

So, obviously spiders and cockroaches are terrestrial (non-flying) creatures. These bugs are also fairly translucent at higher wavelengths, such as IR and red, so green, blue, or violet works a little better. As pointed out, every living thing knows to run away from danger. If you "zap" a bug anywhere but right in the brain, it'll just make itself not be wherever it was as quickly as possible. So, for there to be the smallest possibility for such a thing to be the least bit humane, you'd have to have a very fine focused point aimed perfectly where it counts. The only way to really do this is to have the focal length marked somehow on your lens adjustment and then to fairly accurately measure the distance from the lens to the "target" before you do any lasing. If you have something like an arduino or rpi with a rangefinder, and then a stepper motor to adjust the lens to predefined positions based on that, it can make the task of focusing a lot less guess-worky, but you'd still need to have very good aim to score a "kill" this way.

Even if all of this goes perfectly, and you manage to take out that roach like a cheating tween playing Call of Duty, there's still a pretty good chance that you will make little burn marks on your walls or floors, or possibly burn your house down. Even more likely that anyone not wearing proper safety glasses in the room where you do this will end up with damaged eyesight. Also possible: housefire, skin burns, etc.

Never ever try this at home. It's a terrible idea. And if you do, please be extremely cautious.

 

[julianthedragon]

Honestly bostjan that was the reality and morality check that this thread needed. Also the concept of laser autofocus really piques my interest

 

[wlchase]

Heh.

Well, this is possible, of course, but there are some serious ethical and safety concerns here that cannot possibly be overstated.

Never ever try this at home, boys and girls...

So, obviously spiders and cockroaches are terrestrial (non-flying) creatures. These bugs are also fairly translucent at higher wavelengths, such as IR and red, so green, blue, or violet works a little better. As pointed out, every living thing knows to run away from danger. If you "zap" a bug anywhere but right in the brain, it'll just make itself not be wherever it was as quickly as possible. So, for there to be the smallest possibility for such a thing to be the least bit humane, you'd have to have a very fine focused point aimed perfectly where it counts. The only way to really do this is to have the focal length marked somehow on your lens adjustment and then to fairly accurately measure the distance from the lens to the "target" before you do any lasing. If you have something like an arduino or rpi with a rangefinder, and then a stepper motor to adjust the lens to predefined positions based on that, it can make the task of focusing a lot less guess-worky, but you'd still need to have very good aim to score a "kill" this way.

Even if all of this goes perfectly, and you manage to take out that roach like a cheating tween playing Call of Duty, there's still a pretty good chance that you will make little burn marks on your walls or floors, or possibly burn your house down. Even more likely that anyone not wearing proper safety glasses in the room where you do this will end up with damaged eyesight. Also possible: housefire, skin burns, etc.

Never ever try this at home. It's a terrible idea. And if you do, please be extremely cautious.

That was quite an exhaustive review of the issues involved, for sure! We're way past the humane questions (shoe soles and flyswatters are the current m.o.), but I'll have to do some careful experimenting with wavelengths and power levels.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Encap]

Using a laser to kill cockroaches is an idea that makes a retarded chimpanzee look brilliant.

There are dozens of better, cheaper, and more effective ways, to get rid of roaches + if you see one or a couple of roaches there are probably hundreds if not thousands of them.

Even as entertainment going after and/or playing with cockroaches with a laser is daft for several reasons not to mention the creepy mental and safety issues involved.

 

[wolfram]

What Encap, you never used a mag glass to vaporize ants?

 

[Sowee7]

What Encap, you never used a mag glass to vaporize ants?

ive never done that, but ive seen many other people do it

 

[wolfram]

Try it ....You will like it!