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bob the b

Spiders are eating my hard drive!

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Fitted 2 sata 300gig hd's on a gv-1000 and the nightime activity of spiders is really munching away on the storage.

I have a couple of (well5) cams with ir in and the little b------s love them!

Iknow the rule of thumb is not to use ir cams and go for seperate ir but these cams are really to notch.

Is there a successful method to treat the cams to keep them off?i mentioned earlier i have used a feater duster taped to a 16 foot 2x1

but this only keeps them at bay for 24 hours.

This problem will soon get worse as the dark nights set in,any tips

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seems like we need a cmaera that has low light, mechanical color filter, and a mechanical feather duster, all in one

 

what kind of system are you using? Is it MPEG4? I have the same problem and since I upgraded to a MPEG4 system the issue of how much hard drive space those spiders eat is no longer a problem. I'm running 14 camera's, all out door, and on motion. Yes, I get some spidy activity but I don't really care. I clean my camera's up once a week. I have a 200Gb hard drive that stores over 2 months of video with no problems. Rain, spiders, birds, dogs, cats, and even the insects of the night have been caught on motion and i'd rather have more video than missing video.

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Im using geo mpeg4,the spiders are building webs over the cam so when the wind blows it is basically recording everything full on when it is dark.

About 6 seconds of recording on 2 cams = 1meg

x that by 3 then by the hours of darkness and it soon adds up.

My playback log now looks like araknaphobia

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have you tried bug spray, not on the glass, but the housing, this normally keeps them off for a couple weeks at a time, at least using the bug spray that we get down here ... we used to have regular service calls at the local food store chains just spraying the motion detectors every couple weeks so the spiders and other insects, wouldnt set them off, it would last a while then it would start to get congested again, and just needed a good spray .. course didnt stop the man size rats they have in the stores down here! (we have a basically non existent health dept so you can maybe imagine how dirty the food stores are here)

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Thanks Rory

Nice to be nice.

 

Tell you what if the tird wurld has no health regs, i,ll skip lunch with you and just take the advice

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yah sure? I can email you a fried conch snack if yah like, some from the over da hill chicken shack at 3am ..

I know the medical in the UK is pretty good so you should be ok

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This is probably NOT a good suggestion, but thought I would offer it anyways.

 

How about installing a dim light somewhere in the area of the cams, but not really close. Like 20 feet away.

 

I imagine the spiders will only build where they feel there is a good opportunity to catch bugs - if the bugs have moved over to the light, I imagine the spiders might too?

 

I think Rory's suggestion about an industrial class insecticide is probably what you will want.

 

-WC-

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Wut bout wrapping the edge of the housing in that sticky stuff used to catch mice? I made the mistake of touching one by accident and it was hard to get off my finger.

 

Guess one prob though, is that small birds would stick to it also.

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You could try (now don't laugh), a thin film of vaseline or silicone grease around the front area of the camera housing - don't get it on the glass or any suspects caught on camera will look ever so gently soft focussed!

 

Insects, slugs, snails absolutely hate any 'non setting' tacky film - it may do the job, but you'll have to look to wipe off and replace periodically to keep it active through the summer (that's five more days in July and three in August this year).

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Cheers cooperman

im not laughing all suggestions are taken on board.

 

Btw longest day tomorrow then the dark nights set in

 

More hard drives

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Gonna look for my passport

 

Wait though dont you have termites that eat camera's insted of just starting motion detection

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Rory,

 

I'd think you'd have a problem with the Gecko lizards crawling over the cams trying to eat the bugs.

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no, but since you mentioned it .. there is huge increase in lizards last few days .. couple weeks ago was the termites, now I have these giant lizards attacking my space .. whats up, is the animal kingdom gone crazy or someting ..?! I mean they hiding in the wood work literally, I go after them they hide in the cracks in the wooden door frame .. they all over the trees and my main door, and climbing all over the walls and ting .. they even got in my shower now ... dont know what to do, cant use bug spray .. gues i just gotta keep kicking their butts out with the broom hey

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