Bug Report

My rain totals seemed to be off, when I investigated I found a paper wasp nest built on the tipping mechanism.

That is funny. You guys must not get alot of rain or the wasps wouldn’t have had time to build that nest would they?

BTW,
What kind of rain guage is that?

It’s a Davis Vantage Pro.

thats odd… you think the wasp would build on the inside of the cone, rather than a moving piece.

thats odd........... you think the wasp would build on the inside of the cone, rather than a moving piece.
Good guess, there were several attempts to build on the surface of the inner cone. The tipping piece has two little nubs of plastic on the bottom that hit the adjusting screws, and the nest is attached to one of those, so maybe the wasp likes something to start from. The nest weighed almost nothing, it isn't completed, there was a dead wasp trapped by a spider up where the inner and outer cones meet so I think that's why...

I did read that one person had wasps in his unit, Seems they were crawling in where the wires came around the base of the cone. He was worried about stings. I can imagine what else might lurk in our stations.

I can see it now some monster movie, camera zooms in to a New Zealand Weather software writers farm. In the distance looms the rain collector with things flashing about, yep I can see it now .

remember New Zealand would have all sorts of crazy insects… Flying slugs that smell like cabbage… flies the size of dinner rolls… some sort of marsupial-spider… I am scared already… :spider:

Or wife in garden with software developer.

garden surrounded by hobbits and cows. shiver…

peter jackson is doing a remake of King Kong !

I think the Wasps felt that the babies would be more content if rocked.

Maybe the Wasp died when the stop bolt conked him in the head and
then the spider came along later to lay claim.

If you hit that thing with an areosol hornet kill bomb that sends foam
30 feet out, what would be the conversion factor to rain?

Did you ever consider that bugs think of our weather gear as an amusement park?

Seems like we are constantly dealing with bugs of all kinds.

Your encounter with the wasp nest on the rain gauge brought back a memory of a problem I had several years when I noticed that for some unknown reason my outdoor temperature reading seemed to go haywire at times on cold winter days/nights.
The answer was finally discovered when one day I noticed that several birds were using the shelter as a haven against wintry weather. When they perched together close to my temperature sensor, voil

don’t hit the sucker with an bug bomb.

The solvent in one of those suckers will dissolve your ISS board and other plastic goodies. Your best bet is the water hose or put one of those wasp traps nearby the ISS. But don’t zap it with a bug bomb.

same problem here with little frogs, they were entering through the holes in the base of the rain gauge,( they liked see-sawing on the tipper ) make sure you seal it with silcone.

Cheers
Cyclone
http://www.gorgecreekorchards.com.au

SHOCK 8O HORROR :twisted:

MEMBER OF WEATHER FRATERNITY FINDS BUG THAT SUPER PROGRAMMER BRIAN HAMILTON CANNOT FIX !!!

Well my rain Gauge quit working yesterday and my problem ended up not being a but but those dang Maple tree “helicopters” plugging the hole.