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Lady Bug Troubles


Gary N

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I set up a spiral tree for the first time, turned out great. I have been playing with it, to figure it out, everything is going well.  Today, A great weather day, 70 degrees in northern WI. I was put up lights and a buddy stopped by, I showed him how the tree worked. I went back to work and noticed that a strand of lights was lite on the tree.  I figured a something was wrong with the controller. It turns out it was full of lady bugs, some how one of them made a connection. I knocked them out and it works fine, I was afraid a triac was bad. Damm bugs!, they are in every thing this time of year.

On the other hand set up is going very well, I have been working on it for a couple of weeks now. I am about 70% done, Its starting to become more work, then fun, its all worth it at show time.

Happy Set Up

Gary

 

 

 

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I know what you mean. Was setting up 2 spiral trees last season, up on the top of the 7ft ladder and the lady bugs were everywhere! Kept landing on me and i swore the bit me, like to feel off. Asked the wife to goooogle if lady bugs bit and turns out they do! Yep, i hate em and have the perseption of being so cute ? glad you got figured out.  

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I was having some issues with bugs and stuffed lightweight foam into the cord entry voids. No more bugs.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...

No bugs in my controllers, I use the gray foam that is used to cover PVC water pipe, small diameter and cut it to a size I can stuff one small piece in through the bottom of the entry hole and another from the upper hole above it.  This has kept lizards, bugs, wasps, spiders and other vermin out of my controllers.   Make sure you also use this around your CAT5 cable entry/exit areas too, that is the prime location for bugs and vermin to get inside the controller with the most ease!  Also use the gray foam, the wasps really hate it and leave it alone, the white or other colors I've tried, the wasps will eat it and make nesting material out of it, but for some reason they really hate the gray insulation foam.  And the best thing is, these only cost about $1.00-$1.50 for a 6-12' long piece and will make a lot of barriers for your controllers to keep the critters out!

And if using the white or other color foam, when the wasps eat it, they also open an entryway into your controller.  They eat holes in the stuff, again the gray insulation foam for PVC piping is what I use and have found that the critters avoid it.

 

Been using the gray foam going on 6 years now, no vermin or critters have ever been found inside my controllers since I started using it to keep them out.

Edited by Orville
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I haven't had problems with bugs; I have problems with squirrels chewing my light strings.  I had to replace 8 strings this year because they chew through the wire and so often right up by the socket so you can't rewire it.  Anyone come up with solutions for keeping squirrels away from their wires? Any one else having this problem?

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  • 1 month later...

I know this is crazy, but it works to keep the bugs out in the summer as my controllers are out year round: BOUNCE (yes the fabric softener sheet) buy them in bulk at Sams or Costco and put 2 in each controller. It also keeps mice and wasps and and other critters out. They don't like the odor!

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On 2016-11-15 at 3:15 PM, tomsusie said:

I haven't had problems with bugs; I have problems with squirrels chewing my light strings.  I had to replace 8 strings this year because they chew through the wire and so often right up by the socket so you can't rewire it.  Anyone come up with solutions for keeping squirrels away from their wires? Any one else having this problem?

I never had a squirrel chew up any of my cords.  I cut up a black garbage bag into square pieces, wrap the connection in it and seal it with black electrical tape.  Blends into the soil.  Anything that is remotely shaped like an acorn they are into, that is why they go after the sockets.  The cord is just the stem they are chewing off to get to your acorn (socket).

Alternatively, go to a hair salon and get some human hair to spread around your connections. Animals do not like the smell of human hair.  Pepper, cayenne pepper will do too.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/15/2016 at 9:45 PM, pikadroo said:

Are you sure it's lady bugs and not those weird orange bugs that look like lady bugs?

Drew

Would you believe those orange ones are the "female" of the species and the pretty red and black polka dotted ones are the male of the species?

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2 hours ago, Orville said:

Would you believe those orange ones are the "female" of the species and the pretty red and black polka dotted ones are the male of the species?

Yep, that's with most bugs and birds.

Did you also know that they love tan and beige houses and once they breed in your home they will forever return. Ask me how I know! They leave a scent that attracts other lady bugs. I also have a lot of fat lizzards.

I once thought about bagging and selling them, there is a big market out there if you google it. I will vacuum up about 1 huge shop vac full every year.

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