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Post by Adam Cotton on Jul 24, 2015 14:26:42 GMT
I've been away for the past 3 days taking my wife and son on a little holiday, so apologies for lack of input.
Firstly, dehumidifiers are available in Thailand, but not easy to find. I bought one in 2008, but I had to order it from Bangkok via the local HomePro DIY store. They are not generally on sale, but the store had a catalogue.
One good way to avoid ants is to use 'ant cups' on table legs and put any fresh specimens and setting boards on the table. Ant cups come in sets of 4 and are available in any cheap plastic ware shops. They consist of 4 bowl shaped cups maybe 4 inches across, and the inside of the cup has a plastic tube standing up in it. You put a cup under each table leg (the legs need to be thinner than the diameter of the inner part of the cup) and then put water in the outer part. The ants cannot cross the water to climb up the table, and anything you put on the table will be safe from ants, but not from anything that can fly, like cockroaches. One solution is to use an aluminium 'food cabinet' with mosquito mesh sides, which you can stand on the ant cups. There are shops that sell these in all sizes, but make sure you buy one with high enough legs below the bottom shelf to put the ant cups on the legs. Many of them have a very low bottom shelf. The shops can often get them made to your own design, for instance a non-standard depth and all mosquito mesh instead of glass fronted doors.
Adam.
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Post by Paul K on Jul 24, 2015 14:49:29 GMT
Thanks Adam
I have checked HomePro in Bangkok also and couldn't find dehumidifiers there and all they were offering to me for sale were actual fans with humidifiers. I guess I have to check their catalogue as you said and order it. Perhaps maybe they have online store now, have to check on that. Aluminum cabinet it is a great idea.
Paul
Ok Adam , Homepro online you can order from there directly and I found dehumidifier there at cost only...29500 THB ! That is about $1150.00CAN. In Canada can buy bigger more efficient unit for $250.00CAN. And who says Thailand is cheap...
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Post by wollastoni on Jul 24, 2015 16:20:30 GMT
Only people who have never been there say Thailand is cheap ! :-)
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jul 24, 2015 18:42:41 GMT
Thailand is not cheap for many things nowadays, and never was for electrical equipment or vehicles due to exorbitant import duty. However, it is still a great place to live I don't think my dehumidifier cost that much a few years ago, but it wasn't exactly cheap, and at that price it's better to buy an airconditioner. Mine is permanently on standby in case my airconditioners fail for any reason. One thing that you do need to bear in mind is that the room with the dehumidifier installed needs to be reasonably sealed, otherwise all it will do is suck the humidity into the room from outside and run up your electricity bill. I tried silica gel in my draws back when I first moved out here and I didn't have airconditioning. In my opinion it doesn't really help, as the gel very quickly changes colour to indicate it is saturated with moisture, and once that happens it is no longer absorbing moisture from the air in the draws. Humidity will actually pass through the wood of the draws, even if they are virtually airtight, at least to a certain extent. To be even a little effective you would have to change the gel regularly, and of course every time you open the draw you let in new humid air. Adam.
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Post by Paul K on Jul 25, 2015 5:52:29 GMT
Interesting facts
If we look at the weather forecast for today the humidity is as follows: Wroclaw-Poland : 78% London-England: 83% Toronto-Canada : 73% Krabi-southern Thailand: 62% Bankgok-Thailand: 46% Vientiane-Laos ( rain season) : 74%
That indicates that some parts of Europe and North America should be worried more about keeping collection then in some tropical countries .
Paul
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Post by nomihoudai on Jul 28, 2015 8:09:42 GMT
...and now look at the temperature in these parts, and then look at how much water air can suck up in function of the temperature. Also look at the night day cycle of the drop in temperature. You will see that Europe will have less amount of water in the air and that during the night a lot of it will be gone due to colder air. I have been in Houston for over 3 months this year (subtropical), I have very sensitive lungs, in the beginning it felt like my lungs are rotting from the inside due to all the humidity there. I became used to it, and now that I am back my mouth is always dry and breathing feels like rubbing sand paper through you... Sry for the rant
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Post by Paul K on Jul 28, 2015 10:38:28 GMT
...and now look at the temperature in these parts, and then look at how much water air can suck up in function of the temperature. Also look at the night day cycle of the drop in temperature. You will see that Europe will have less amount of water in the air and that during the night a lot of it will be gone due to colder air. I have been in Houston for over 3 months this year (subtropical), I have very sensitive lungs, in the beginning it felt like my lungs are rotting from the inside due to all the humidity there. I became used to it, and now that I am back my mouth is always dry and breathing feels like rubbing sand paper through you... Sry for the rant I am afraid your information here is not correct. Here is some definition: Relative humidity changes when temperatures change. Because warm air can hold more water vapor than cool air, relative humidity falls when the temperature rises if no moisture is added to the air. So according to that scientific definition in the night the humidity actually rises due to the lower temperature. However we are not feeling it anymore because our body doesn't need to cool off as much as in the higher temperature at the same humidity level. And I believe that in Houston might be more humidity. Believe it or not Toronto in summer has much more humidity then some parts of tropics. Paul
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Post by nomihoudai on Jul 29, 2015 7:25:10 GMT
I was talking about kg of water per kg of air, I was probably unclear on that.
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Post by Paul K on Oct 1, 2015 9:52:19 GMT
I would like to make a statement that my attempt to keep insect collection in Thailand has failed. During the begin of rainy season the humidity level have raised enough to penetrate airtight wooden drawer ( professional entomological drawer made by Paradox company ) and start to cause fungus and mold grow. Using of desiccant ( silica gel packets ) was useless as it saturate so quickly that it had no effect on lowering humidity to the acceptable level. Following that the infestation of Psocids had began. The Zensect balls product failed to keep pests away and or kill them. The package was new and the ball was in use for 3-4 weeks only and still have orange colour which should indicating validity of the product. Therefor I don't recommend this product to use as it is ineffective and at the first opportunity the pest will likely enter the drawers with no hesitation . I am recommending for anyone who is using Zensect moth proofer balls quickly switched to more effective pest control system to avoid future possible disaster. At this point my all specimens will return to papered stage and will be kept frozen until arrival to Canada. Air conditioned sealed room is necessary to successfully managing collection in the tropics. Perhaps separate room only for that purpose would be ideal as it can be monitored most of the time.
Paul
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Post by trehopr1 on Oct 2, 2015 1:31:39 GMT
Sorry to hear your plans did'nt work out Paul k. Bummer. You did post a photo of one nice drawer of butterflies you collected. Hope you did not lose them all. Anyway, it sounds like you have a good back-up plan in place to ensure better success down the road. Best of luck.
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Post by Paul K on Oct 2, 2015 2:13:05 GMT
Thank you Trehopr1 No I did not lose theme. I have noticed a problem on time, but a bit of work with spreading went for nothing. Now I am in process of putting them back to envelops and freeze. Until I make my mind where to spend the rest of my live and have suitable place to host my collection ( sealed A/C room ) I will keep all specimens in Canada.
Paul
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Post by cabintom on Oct 2, 2015 5:51:46 GMT
Sorry to read about your troubles Paul.
My collection seems to have fared quite well (though I only managed a quick inspection), despite my abandoning it completely for 12 months. I didn't see any evidence of infestation or much drooping. I believe I've been very fortunate.
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Post by nomad on Oct 2, 2015 17:39:53 GMT
I am very surprised there have not been more comments about the failure of Zensect balls, as I believe some others here use them. I will try to get a statement from Watkins & Doncaster tomorrow at the AES, they are Britain's leading and oldest entomological equipment suppliers, as they make the comment tried and tested by us, so it is very surprising they do not work. However their stall, is very busy, so I will ask later in the day and see if they will comment.
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Post by Paul K on Oct 3, 2015 3:50:42 GMT
Peter In one of your previous post you mentioned that your friend tested Zensects balls and they didn't kill a pest he kept in the same box. Well I just hoped that they would at least deter pests to enter the drawer at the first place but Zensects do not prevent. In my opinion using them is the same as using no product at all and I doubt they are a decorated items even with their orange candy appearance.
Paul
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Post by Paul K on Oct 3, 2015 4:10:58 GMT
Update 3 days after installing PDB crystals in the infected drawer there's no more Psocids activity present . Nevertheless the humidity in the drawer was to high as the abdomen of specimen was soft enough to move up and down and possible fungus and mold growth in no air con room made my decision to discontinue housing collection and taking no risk of losing specimens once I am overseas.
Paul
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