Glassblowing Exterminator

[EpochGlass]

So a few weeks ago, a wasp was buzzing around the gallery and charged right for Jordan's face for absolutely no reason. (Jordan is the coordinator of the gallery btw) I decided to take care of this pest...glassblowing style.

The wasp landed up on a ledge near the ceiling and remained there. I setup a chair and found a rod of decent length and managed to test the length without the wasp flying away. I went back to my studio and turned on the phantom and quickly got a nice molten gather on the end of the rod. Quickly and safely turned off the torch and hurried back to the wasp.

I proceeded to climb up the chair and approach the wasp with the still glowing red gather. I got within 2-3 inches of the wasp and the ambient heat f'd it up. It spiralled down to the ground.

Then I took the still very hot rod and grilled the wasp and it burned/melted onto the end of the rod...btw...burning wasp flesh stinks @$$...hahaha

Pics attached for your viewing pleasure...or disgust...lmao!

[somberbear]

remember to center it... hope it doesnt cause devit

[IndiePendent]

Oh dude, you gotta kiln strike that shit.

[ramanglass544]

I puntied up to a watermelon once, the trick is getting the heat base right....

[blazemaster83]

I get a lot of big ass wasps and random flying insects in my shop, always flying in my face. I always hit em with the radiant heat of a gathered rod, and if that doesn't work you have to be quick with the handtorch.

[ZombieGlass]

Thats gonna be some bad karma. Just sayin'.....

[styles1 torchlife]

I had a bug fly into the flame one day it smelt like a really tasty cheese burger. Strange......

[ReLo442]

Here in Texas we have a yearly swarm of June bugs. These bugs are stupid as hell and fly towards the light like crazy. You can stand against the wall with a light on it, throw the June bug as hard as you can, and it will fly almost straight back to you. used to do that as a kid in the pool. Anyways they are always flying in front of the torch and getting zapped. That's a good way to test out your ventilation. If it cant suck up a June bug....its too weak.

[somberbear]

... blast shield ftw saved me from these guys once or twice when they lit going full tilt while working

http://www.avivhadar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hornet.jpg

[Chris Juedemann]

That wasp was someone's larvae.
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Dkc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&ei=Se2dTuPWIOLisQLR98DPCQ&ved=0CBwQvwUoAQ&q=wasp+larvae&spell=1)

[standard28]

I think the best one I heard was when my friend had a "FLY", fly by and he used hyrdogen to burn its wings off in flight. The fly fell to the table and he said "look.....its a walk now!" as it walked around the table.

[Hazeey]

Somber that's a huuuge bi*tch!

[EpochGlass]

haha "a walk" lol

I've got a studio fly story too...

One day there's this fly buzzing around my studio and it flies into an empty pop bottle. I happened to see it in there, so I put the cap back on. I happened to have a bottle of isopropyl alcohol that was just under a quarter full. I took the lid off the rubbing alcohol and took the lid off the pop bottle and the fly wanted out of the pop bottle, flew into the rubbing alcohol, buzzed around the empty part for a brief moment, and took a dive into the alcohol...

It was like freeze frame!

The fly's momentum was pretty good so once it entered the alcohol, there was a drift period. During that drift period, it looked as though the fly extended its legs out fully, and then in an instantaneously progress from drunken bliss to total alcohol poisoning, kicked the bucket, rigamortis set in and the legs clenched back in towards the body.

This all happened in a time span of about 2 seconds if even that.

Moral of the story: Alcohol KILLS! Stick to beer or liquor!

[keys4life7]

... blast shield ftw saved me from these guys once or twice when they lit going full tilt while working

http://www.avivhadar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hornet.jpg

if i saw this in my studio i would pack up my things and leave that state/country lol

[CitizenNot]

I grabbed a blow tube off the bench the other day and some spider had decided to make a web in it. I closed off both ends and made it his permanent home...haha, he survived the encasement for a bit

[Boozeclues]

I was moving around sheet metal in the garage yesterday and the noise must have spooked a mouse cause he ran out from behind a shelf.............right under my foot as I putting it down. damn thing killed itself, human assisted suicide. did i mention it stuck to my shoe? nasty!

[EpochGlass]

I grabbed a blow tube off the bench the other day and some spider had decided to make a web in it. I closed off both ends and made it his permanent home...haha, he survived the encasement for a bit

I was thinking of encasing that wasp in a tube and making a pendant...trophy kill...hahaha

I mentioned this to someone and they were all about encasing dead bumblebees. I'm still waiting to hear back from them, but they wanted a few made up and willing to pay to boot!

What y'all think about that?

The tube would have to be at least 3-4 inches as to not scorch the dead insect body.

I also just had the thought of making a time capsule or something of the sort with a bunch of "preserved" insect corpses. It'd last forever unless it got really hot. Imagine 1000 years from now, some archeologist finding all these sealed glass tubes with a bunch of different species. Be cool if a note about the size of a fortune cookie with the english name and latin name of the species on it. The tube might have to be a bit longer.

Oh man! What if someone has a collection like that already? Not just insects, small animals too...or even a human...holy fack!

....that would be some crazy big tubing!

Would that preserve pretty well or would it need to be vacuum sealed?

[BoroZillacate]

While cleaning the shop the other day, Purdyglass found a black widow under some rockboard under his bench. We sprayed some poison, but he still looks all uncomfortable sitting there, checking the floor and under the bench all paranoid. My bench is feet away but theres not much i can do about it so whatever, more reason to sweep often.

[BK]

< had a snake around his bench at ^'s shop.