Aquaponics - Spider based sticky traps

Having failed to convince unsuspecting spiders that, after a gigantic stainless steel hoop of wire has ruined their web, they should simply relax and move in, I thought I'd try a different approach.

Each time I'd try to relocate a spider into my new spider pod, they would make a run for the border as soon as they could. I haven't tried floating spider, home and all, in a plate of water as I originally planned, because it seems like a lot of work. Instead, I tried my other tried and true method.

I gave up for a bit.

Luckily I dumped the loop by standing it up in a nice spot in the grow bed.

Today someone moved in.



Only a little someone, but definitely a someone. The right kind of someone too, and they are already building a spider based sticky trap.

I guess if the aphids had moved in, I could just dunk the loop into the fish tank, and would get the same result. In fact that might have been even better, but it was a spider.

Did I mention she was small.

I zoomed in as far as my camera would let me, and magnified the picture afterwards. If I magnified the picture any more, the air became too visible, and got in the way.

Small.

But she will grow and I'll follow her progress. I'm hoping its a girl spider, because I need more predators.

Now that I have successfully made and populated a mobile spider home, I guess I'll just leave it where it is. After all, she probable knows more about eating and trapping small bugs than me, and more about where to do such hunts.

I've probably eaten more, but I didn't even know it at the time, so I don't think that counts as hunting experience.

For now, I'll do what I know best, and do nothing.

Aquaponics - Hatched bugs

A while ago I found a few million eggs deposited under my baby spinach. I wasn't sure if they were going to be my friends, or be pests.

On the up side, they hatched and moved away.

On the down side, they moved to my lettuce.

I think they are aphids.

They look every bit as exciting and sociable as sea monkeys.

I don't think they are going to be my friend.

There are a few ways to get rid of aphids. One way is to wait until I sort out my spider based sticky trap, and the other is to buy a few sticky traps.

After a few attempts at spider relocation, I'm unconvinced that my current method will ever pay dividends, so I guess it's off to the garden section of my nearest hardware.

I've also heard you can use a hand held vacuum cleaner to vacuum them out of your garden. I knew it would eventually be useful. Lucky for me I've been keeping an unused dust-buster handy for the last fifteen years, just in case a mass invasion of tiny bugs should threaten to over run us, and install themselves as our insectoid overlords.

When wearing my foil helmet, and with my dust-buster in its holster, people used to point and laugh derisively at me.

Well, not any more.

Not any more.

Aquaponics - Pest control spider based sticky trap design

Ok so here's the plan.

Get a loop of wire and make a spider live in it.

Stick said loop into your aquaponics system.

Rid said aquaponics system of small flying insects.

Here's the implementation.

I made a loop of stainless steel wire.

It's around 250mm in diameter, and is what I think I'd be looking for in a frame for my web if I had been born a spider.

It has the following feature.

1 x 12mm Poly pipe spider accommodation pod.

From my observation, this is exactly the kind of place spiders that make webs, like to hang out in when they are not out doing maintenance on, or harvesting bugs from, their webs.






My plan, and this is the cunning bit, is to sneak up on a spider going about it's spidery business, and tennis racket the loop over the entire web and spider, instantly transferring the unsuspecting spider and pre-built web to it's new home.

Yeah, I pretty sure "tennis racket", can be used as a verb.

If it works, the spider might not even notice.

If the spider does notice and decides to move on, I have a backup plan.

I'll stand the web house in a dinner plate of water, so that the spider will be less inclined to walk or abseil away. I figure once the spider sees that it isn't such a bad place to live, it might decide to live there after all. I'll help the decision by adding a light to attract extra bugs into its web, and giving it a home free of predators within my grow house.

A reasonable deal I think.

Or at least an offer it cant refuse.

Aquaponics - Sticky bug traps

I've just had an idea.

I posted before on a design for a self cleaning sticky pest trap, but I think I have a better idea. 

Sticky traps are small squares of very sticky plastic that you can hang in or near your garden beds. 

They attract flying insects by being attractive, and keep them there by being sticky. The ones I've seen come in either blue or green, and I think maybe yellow. Once they get covered in bugs, or lose their stickiness they are thrown away and become landfill.

But I got to thinking that spiders might do a better job. 

Spider webs are superior to store bought sticky traps in at least three ways...

1. They clean their own traps.

2. They automatically regulate their number, and the number of pests, by convivially feasting, breeding, and moving on when the task is complete.  

3. They already exist. 

I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Spider webs are the perfect self cleaning sticky trap. 

Thanks nature.

Now all I need to do is figure out a way to make them live where I want, and to do my bidding.

I will be a spider, man master.

They will call me....

Bug boy.

.