Spam (madbodger) wrote,
Spam
madbodger
  • Location: Purcellville, VA
  • Mood: vindictive
  • Music: Beat Of My Heart - Hilary Duff

Take THAT, stinkbugs!

My latest idea to discourage (in the sense of extirpate) stinkbugs is to deploy UV-C lamps in the attic. These are low-pressure mercury arc bulbs that emit a bunch of mercury lines from blue to the far ultraviolet, with special glass or quartz envelopes that don't block the shorter wavelengths (253.7nm and 184.9nm). I'm hoping the bugs are attracted to the light and are then attacked by a combination of nasty UV (which wrecks biological molecules) and ozone (which also wrecks biological molecules, and will vanquish the residual stink). If this doesn't attract them, I'll add some phosphor (BaSi2O5:Pb or SrB4O7:Eu) to downconvert some of the UV-C to UV-A, which is known to attract the little buggers (it's the same phosphor used in bug zapper bulbs).

GTL3 and G4S11 bulbs, lit
I currently have a newer GTL3 bulb (still in production) and an old G4S11 bulb in the fixture, run in series with a magnetic ballast. I may replace the ballast with a capacitor to improve efficiency. Originally posted at Dreamwidth.org comment count unavailable comments

Tags: electronics
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