The 'sticky stick' would be a 4ft long pole with a replacable tip. The tip would be covered in contact adhesive. Remove the protective cover to expose the adhesive and poke at the wasp as it crawls around the less accessible corners of your ceiling space.
Once the wasp is stuck firmly on the tip of the pole, replace the cover, remove the tip and dispose in the trash.-- st3f, Dec 05 2005 Nice, but why not have a retractable tip to push them off and save on replacement tips?.Happy Hunting!.-- gnomethang, Dec 05 2005 semi-sticky stick. poke it out of the window and they finally wriggle free.
I can just visualise st3fy swinging around and holding on for dear life to a pole thats stuck to the ceiling-- po, Dec 05 2005 When I was but a wee bairn, some time in the last century, my mother used to use used jam jars, half filled with water, as wasp traps. The remnants of the jam sweetened the water and attracted the wasps and other pests, but invariably they fell in and drowned. When we were done, she would simply put the lid back on the jar and throw it away.
I have long wondered why no one makes a commercial version. (Because used jam jars are free? Because I haven't been looking hard enough?)
Anyway, if you sweetened the end of your sticky stick, it would help snare said wasps, which might otherwise be inclined to avoid it.-- DrCurry, Dec 05 2005 Looks like it's dead. It crawled inside some electrical equipment and stopped buzzing. The electrics still work, though. Will give it a few days and disassemble.
(ah... maybe I don't mean contact adhesive, then).-- st3f, Dec 05 2005 there are some glues that require contact with one surface only. can anyone explain the difference to me?
actually, DC is right - a blob of jam would probably work temporarily.-- po, Dec 05 2005 [Visions of st3f futilely trying to explain the jam spots all over the ceiling to an irate significant other.]-- DrCurry, Dec 05 2005 Enter the attack wasp, attracted by stick wielding antics which it easily evades. I'm breeding them right now.-- xenzag, Dec 05 2005 You should make it contact explosives.
Also, arent all adhesives "contact" adhesives?-- DesertFox, Dec 05 2005 My experience with wasps is that they are sufficiently aggressive that I'd not be comfortable having a stick for my attack mode - too easy to evade the sticky pad.
I think I like the vacuum-cleaner-hose-on-a-pole approach...and just spray some toxin down the tube after you have the wasp in their.
Spraying them with WD40, or any other lubricant can be effective also, but sometimes you just get a well-lubricated and very pissed off wasp.
[DrCurry] has the right approach, methinks.-- normzone, Dec 05 2005 No, contact adhesives are those that effect an immediate, non-repositionable bond when adhered to themselves.-- bristolz, Dec 05 2005 Wasps land and stand still often enough. Get a blow gun, and feel the power of piercing said wasp/fly. Tougher to use on mosquitoes and gnats.-- sleeka, Dec 05 2005 what if the wasp/hornet is coming at you? those bad boys are quick and surely there is a risk to lamps and stuff when wildly swinging a 3 foot stick around. Or is the stick purely meant for stationairy wasps? I use a long stick to change channel on my TV as I lost the remote. Its not easy and If the button was a wasp I'm sure it'd go for me and this would result in my primary scenario above.-- Yosarian, Dec 06 2005 What's wrong with good old Force lightning?-- DocBrown, Dec 06 2005 stationairy wasps? hee hee.
my no 1 son always used a three foot bamboo cane to change channels-- po, Dec 06 2005 Aren't all sticks sticky? - apart from those which are completely unlike sticks, of course.-- hippo, Dec 06 2005 //my no 1 son always used a three foot bamboo cane to change channels// My big bro used to do this too - he used it to persuade me to change channels for him.-- coprocephalous, Dec 06 2005 + Last summer I had to remove a wasps nest from a roll of carpet I was saving. They are smarter than you'd think, after the first five or so got scracked they figured out that it wasn't the electric flyswatter that was attacking them but the two legged idiot holding it.
Final score :Home team-56Visitors-2-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 06 2005 random, halfbakery