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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Welding safety for insects
- - By devo (***) Date 03-02-2010 19:07
Sorry if this has been posted here before, but this is hilarious.  What do you think the pulse parameters are? <url>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmlDCMhdsCI</url>
Parent - - By Lawrence (*****) Date 03-02-2010 19:19
That's funny!

Icarus  D.  Bug
Parent - - By Mat (***) Date 03-03-2010 03:39
Moths are worse, but I think the biggest thing that I ever had fly into my weld was a dragon fry...  :)
Parent - - By devo (***) Date 03-03-2010 13:41
Are the bugs attracted by the light, or the heat?  I have watched several spiders, ants, and flies crawl directly toward my puddle while tig welding.  Sadly, none of them made it.
Parent - - By welderbrent (*****) Date 03-03-2010 14:39
I have often wondered if it was the sound of the arc frequency being emitted as you weld. 

The most common for me has always been bees drawn into the arc while I was welding.

Have a Great Day,  Brent
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 03-03-2010 16:56
Bumblebees....I tease welders about the Bumblebees when I find porosity in their welds....honeycomb.
Parent - By Tyler1970 (***) Date 03-03-2010 18:26
i wouldnt like to smell it. i had moths fly into my weld pool. and they stink
Parent - - By raftergwelding (*****) Date 03-04-2010 03:44
In the cellar of a drilling rig welding on a head at night I've had anything from moths to blister bugs fly into my hood an my weld i personally think its the light. Ihave also had killer bees swarm around me while grinding during the day. So who knows. No i didnt get stung they were just swarming the grind area it was wierd ill admit i dropped the grinder and ran lol.
Parent - - By mcostello (**) Date 03-04-2010 04:00
I do farm type welding and hardly ever get to use a rod as big as 3/16". Last time I used abig one I lifted the helmet up and stood there admiring the almost greatest weld on earth. when a big blow fly came slowly buzzing along, seen the possibly still red hot bead, made a dash for it and ran into it. Made a big "pop" and blasted me with  blow fly chunks. Not everyone can arrange that!
Parent - - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 03-05-2010 16:21
When I was tig welding boat hulls....you would get bottle flies, regular flies and occasionally a wasp.  Poof... lift your hood and see what you got with no legs or wings spinning around in it's death throws on the hull.   I always thought it was the buzzing of the high frequency that brought them in.....
Parent - - By Mat (***) Date 03-10-2010 01:30
It's pretty simple really, why if we look at "A Bugs Life," the reason is quite obvious...

[two mosquitoes fly near a bug zapper; one flies towards it, as if in a trance]
Bug zapper mosquito #1: Harry, no! Don't look at the light!
Harry the Mosquito: [entranced] I-can't-help-it. It's-so-beautiful.
[Harry gets zapped, falls]
Harry the Mosquito: Woo hoo!

So there we have it...they fly towards the light because It's-so-beautiful!  :)
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 03-10-2010 02:16
Now I understand why I am the way I am. :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By welderbrent (*****) Date 03-10-2010 19:19
You telling us you are part blood sucking mosquito there John?

Must be a politician at heart.  LOL!!

Have a Great Day,  Brent
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 03-11-2010 12:09
LOL, nope. I am just "drawn to the light". :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By mtlmster (**) Date 03-11-2010 13:39
You guys are making me cry!  I thought I was the only one who accidentally killed bugs with an arc.  I try real hard to save them from themselves but they just won't listen.  Sinse there are so many accidental deaths, perhaps we should have a special holiday, or a bug memorial, for all of the insects who gave their life trying to feed their families, or for whatever reason they fly into the light.

Another concerned American citizen for the protection of insects from the bright light. (CACPIBL)
Parent - - By welderbrent (*****) Date 03-11-2010 14:24
Whatever you do, DO NOT LET THIS GET OUT TO THE PRESS!!!

We will end up with more insect protection laws, another government agency to inforce them, and special interest groups for the rights of and to save the lives of all these poor insects.

Can you imagine what the future of welding will look like when we have to protect the area of our work from hapless insects flying into our weld pool.  OH MY!  Wait until they think about all the poor micro organisms we are putting to death every time we strike an arc.   OOOPPPSSS!!!

Have a Great Day,  Brent
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 03-11-2010 15:43
I bet they could tie the emissions put off by a burning bug to global warming as well. LOL

jrw159
Parent - - By mtlmster (**) Date 03-11-2010 21:22
I can't help myself, I've just got to post this!  I think they have already begun a sensus.  Check out the last couple of paragraphs.

Whether you're talking about a swarm of bees buzzing about, a cluster of butterflies sucking down nectar or a nest of cockroaches hidden in a corner of your house, insects are plentiful. Really plentiful.
Scientifically speaking, the term "insect" denotes a member of the class Insecta. For brevity's sake, if you have a head, a thorax, an abdomen, three sets of legs protruding from your body and often a pair or two of wings, perhaps for making a quick getaway, then you're most likely an insect. So how many are there?
It seems like an impossible question for good reason: We don't even know how many different insect species there are, which makes it difficult to perform an all-inclusive worldwide insect census, according to David Hogg, an entomology professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in population ecology and pest management.
Insect Corner
•  How Colony Collapse Disorder Works
•  Insect Quiz
•  Discovery.com: 10 Insect Myths Quiz

Add to that monumental task the often brief life span of an insect, such as the adult mayfly -- a mere 24 hours -- and you'd have some serious difficulty physically counting all the insects filling the planet's air at any given moment [source: Turpin]. If you were really interested in this endeavor, you might have more luck counting insect queens of the ant, termite and bee varieties, which may rule their colonies for years. In fact, a termite queen may reign for as long as half a century [source: Turpin].
Of course, entomologists are interested in more than just the ruling class of the insect world, so they've devised automated and old-fashioned ways to survey, count and classify insects present in a select area.
One novel technique for measuring biodiversity may surprise you: A group of scientists sought to find out how many different species of insects inhabited two different regions. To collect the raw data, they used the front bumper of a moving vehicle and the open road. The resulting bug splatter on the bumper contained a treasure trove of genetic evidence from the various insects that struck it. The scientists then sequenced the DNA samples from the splatter and compared it with existing sequence databases for insects [source: Calicchia].
The method isn't perfect, but it does attempt to classify, if not quantify, those buzzing masses.
Parent - By welderbrent (*****) Date 03-11-2010 23:46
I want the government grant they must have used to do that test. That is just too funny.

Thanks for the treasure trove of info there mtlmaster.  How's everything in your neck of the woods?  Been a few days since I looked to see if there was new news on your blog.  I'll check there rather than hijack this thread any further.

Have a Great Day,  Brent
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Welding safety for insects

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