[Chemistry4me (OP)]

As I was really bored, I tried to squash/kill this insect by blowing on it [:X], suffice to say, it did not work and the poor thing just flew off. But maybe it would be possible to do it with compressed air?
Whatjathink?

[John Chapman]

I have spent the last hour trying to find online a product that used to be sold in a local toy and novelty catalogue we subscribed to. No luck, I’m afraid, but I’ll describe it to you. It looked a little bit like a large diameter megaphone with a rubber diaphragm at the mouth end. The diaphragm is pulled and released and shoots out a ‘sonic pulse’ which was supposed to kill (or at least disable) flying insects. The closest to it I can find is this

http://www.pestfree.co.uk/mega-sonic-scatter-cat-gun.htm

When I was a kid me and my twin brother used to have tournaments killing bluebottle flies and I can suggest some other fun ways to kill them. One of my personal bests was achieved with a miniature blow dart gun made from a drinking straw and a dressmaking pin with a small ball on tissue rolled round the pinhead. I once managed to impale two flies on the same pin with one shot. YESSSS!

My brother perfected the elastic band and paper pellet. He rarely missed even at about 15 or 20 feet but he tended to splat them. The lampshade in our living room became covered in red splatters over the course of one summer. Our Mum never figured out where they came from.

More recently I’ve discovered that if you shine a laser pen onto a bluebottle you temporarily blind it and then it becomes easy to swat.
 

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

Hey John Chapman
Man, you're a genius!
I've seen kids playing with these toy air guns: http://www.tootoo.com/d-p17490282-Air_Gun_toy/
but I never even thought about trying them on insects

[Geezer]

Pretty sure compressed air won't quite hack it, but liquid sodium ought to do the trick.

Now here's an idea. Around here we get an awful lot of cracked windscreens from small rocks thrown up by other vehicles. It's really bad in the winter because they put "gravel" (rocks) on the roads to improve traction. Laminated windscreens cost about $50,000 to replace.

Sooooo, how about a radar controlled rock deflector? The rocks don't really come at you all that fast. They just kind of hang around until you drive your windscreen right into them.

Seems like a fairly trivial exercise for someone to create a thing that tracks the incoming rock and deflects it with blast of air, water, or even liquid sodium before it does a number on the $50,0000 windscreen.

What do you think?

[John Chapman]

Did you say $50,000.00 for a car windscreen? That's 50 thousand smackeroonies?

I only paid 300 quid for my last car. What is it you drive, Concorde? For 50 grand you can buy an entire village here in Wales. Complete with sexual rights to all the females. In parts if Scotland I understand you can get sexual rights for as little as 10 Benson and Hedges. I heard that some Scottish Guy once got passage all the way to the Selkirk Mountains in the USA for a packet of fags and 3 cans of Special Brew. I don't know who he was, though.

Anyway, back on topic, how about this for a neat fly killer...

 

[Geezer]

OK, OK. A minor exaggeration. Probably more like $350. But still a lot of money for a Scotsman

[John Chapman]

Chem. I've just had a brilliant idea about killing flies with compressed air. Do you think you could get close enough to shoot it up the fly's arse? This is a link RD found for a different thread:

Compressed Air Kills:
In the U.K., workers were cleaning their clothing with compressed air. One worker stuck the hose between a fellow worker’s legs, from behind. The man suffered bruising and bleeding in the rectum; shock; air in the tissues around his stomach, chest and neck; his hernia canals in the groin area filled with air; the abdomen filled with air; his lower bowel was torn open in 3 places; the abdominal cavity filled with bowel material and blood from his lower bowel; and the lining of his abdominal cavity was torn in several places. Despite surgery, he died 3 days later.

Mind you. it might take 3 days for the fly to die!
 

[Geezer]

Nasty stuff compressed air. If you happen to knock the valve off a bottle of compressed air/nitrogen/oxygen, it turns into an unguided missile. It will fly through walls as if they were not there.

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

Chem. I've just had a brilliant idea about killing flies with compressed air. Do you think you could get close enough to shoot it up the fly's arse? This is a link RD found for a different thread:

Compressed Air Kills:
In the U.K., workers were cleaning their clothing with compressed air. One worker stuck the hose between a fellow worker’s legs, from behind. The man suffered bruising and bleeding in the rectum; shock; air in the tissues around his stomach, chest and neck; his hernia canals in the groin area filled with air; the abdomen filled with air; his lower bowel was torn open in 3 places; the abdominal cavity filled with bowel material and blood from his lower bowel; and the lining of his abdominal cavity was torn in several places. Despite surgery, he died 3 days later.

Erm...thanks?
Now I've got to finish my regurgitated sandwich

[Karen W.]

YUCKKKKKY!

[RD]

... It looked a little bit like a large diameter megaphone with a rubber diaphragm at the mouth end.
 The diaphragm is pulled and released and shoots out a ‘sonic pulse’

Vortex cannon ?, a.k.a. Airzooka^TM ...

 [ Invalid Attachment ]
 
Must see the Heavy duty version ...

 [:0]

[John Chapman]

That's the one! I've found it in my original catalogue now.

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

 
I don't know how you manage to find all these fantastic YouTube clips, RD.
 

[RD]

I don't know how you manage to find all these fantastic YouTube clips, RD.

I saw the heavy duty vortex cannon on BBC TV ...

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyAyd4WnvhU

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

That's the one!

Hey dude, that was the one in me link.

[RD]

Sorry C4M, I did read your link but did not click on it, it said "air gun" which to me means the same as a ball bearing "BB" gun.

BTW there is a TNS article on the subject ... http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/vortex-cannon/

[Nizzle]

I've just read the article.

So is this the same principle that smokers use to blow circles with their smoke?
Just shape their mouth in a circle and puff out the air?

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

Back to the question John my dear Chapman:
Are you SURE this works???
You're telling me that this little device can kill a fly?

[RD]

To a fly it would be like a tornado, (which is also a vortex), so would certainly render it incapable of controlled flight.

[John Chapman]

Well, 4me my dear Chem,

I reckon it doesn't work. I notice in the product description it no longer mentions insects at all but refers to the dubious pleasure of knocking off peoples toupees and hats and disturbing piles of papers. But as RD just said it's got to at least disorientate them temporarily. I still prepfer home-made blow darts. They worked better than you'd expect!
 

[Nizzle]

Here's an alternative:


source:http://www.crazygifts.nl/images/flygun1.jpg