Jun 29 - wrap up

I spent some time putting together the Control document for the SR600 ride, which consists of scanned brevet card and receipts as well as photos from the Controls.  I emailed that off to Gary Dean and snail-mailed the original brevet card and receipts.  He didn't wait for the originals, reviewed the docs and approved; updated the RUSA rides completed and emailed the approval to Sophie Mater in France, the ACP official in charge of these rides.  Job done ... except for my blog from the ride ! 

I emptied the trailer, which is like a list of projects.  Bike -- needs cleaning, some maintenance; brake pads, yeah, we know where those go (for the X5); the aforementioned windshield wipers; and, of course, the Mega Catch. 

I assembled the bug catcher, which really doesn't take much.  It comes with a stand and I also purchased the cart.  The stand is redundant when you have the cart; too bad that you pay for something that you don't need.  The cart only works when you have the CO2 cylinder in place or, as I found, a case of beer in place of the cylinder as a counterweight.  Of course the beer doesn't do anything for catching mosquitoes ...

The device has a number of attractants -- a UV light, some flashing LEDs, a heater -- these are all part of the base unit.  Programmable electronics allow you to set these up for the optimal results for the mosquitoes in your area; trial and error.  Separate from these are the Octenal (sp?) fragrance strip and the CO2.  They suggest trying without the fragrance first and then adding, to see if it makes much difference.  I purchased a spare UV bulb and fragrance strip with the unit as part of a package. 

I phoned around in Sudbury to find someone who would fill the CO2, tracked that down by calling Tarinis, the fish/meat market that Sandy frequents.  They directed me to Praxair who doesn't do the retail work but in turn directed me to a company called Superior Safety, or SPI.  They're on Lorne in Sudbury; the person who does this is out right now (tomorrow is the July 1 holiday) but will be back on Thursday.  Guess where I'll be on Thursday ?   The person that I talked to had no idea how much it would cost to fill; knew that it costs something like $24 to fill the 5-pound tank.  Well, this tank is 27 inches high and weighs 25 pounds empty; I have no idea what it will hold.  It's like a scuba tank (probably could have used a scuba tank !).  The package comes with the regulator and tank.

I've got the thing running up in the garage right now, which always has a ton of mosquitoes around.  While we were able to sit out on the deck, the bugs were in clouds up by the barn.  We may find that a location up there by my propane tank is ideal from an attraction standpoint, as there's good line of sight (and sense) in all directions, and actually serves both us and the Davies.  We'll see.  It's supposed to have something like 120 foot range in all directions.  Putting it down by the house, closer to the lake, won't be as effective, I think. 

I'll be very interested in seeing what's in the mesh bag this morning.  Alternatively you use the included catcher that holds water, which is supposed to be more effective, but I'm starting out this way.  I'll take this one step at a time and see what happens.

There's more, but I've written enough for today ... onward !