Running engine attracts bugs

Look out Frank, they're coming to get you ........... ( Jaws theme music ) :)))))))

you dont have to run your vehicle to get them - at night they are every where, just shine your torch around and all these little reflective diamonds shine back - THATS why you have a swag that zips up all the way

Thanks Frank, you have made my day. In future as I sit in the desolate outback with the peace and quiet marred only by one of those ba*!#@s running a generator I'll think of all the spiders and bugs heading in their direction!

Greydemon

Hi frank
Make sure your in a Landy Defender they dont vibrate
Cheers Axle

Hi Frank
Make shore your in a Landy Defender they dont vibrate

Cheers Axle

sorry about that log on problem
Axle

Ahh, I feel safe then. I've had the Rodeo for 7 months now at not one sign of spiders anywhere!
It's a smooooooth V6 petrol.

Interesting about the vibrations though. I watched a doc. on spiders once and the males would tap on their web to attract females for mating.
If the female didn't like the "beat" they just simply ate the male! Typical. hehe.
Maybe the Troopies have got some serious mojo goin on? All for the wrong species though

Frank.
Blood sucking insects use the carbon dioxide and heat of there victims to home in, I suspect the vibrations is the conclusion of a not so well informed science teacher.
Eric.

The program was the 7:30 report. The transcript from the ABC website quotes

Transcript here

Quote:
MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: Those later consignments were gathered by a more arcane method, which even scientists can't fathom - a motor vehicle, preferably diesel powered because it vibrates more than a petrol engine, is parked in the bush with the engine running to attract spiders.

DR ROBERT RAVEN: We do know now, from large collections held in the South Australian Museum, that the curator there figured out that if you leave a four-wheel drive or a tractor idle that a lot of animals will come to the vibration. And, you know, most of the collection in the South Australian Museum has got the word "vibration" on it and that's how we got them.

MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: The trick seemed to work in Maningrida. The students did comparative studies to prove the point.

SCIENCE STUDENT #1: We turned the car on and caught, yeah, 15 spiders. But when the car was turned off, we caught only two spiders. So, we caught more spiders when the car was on.

Unquote:

The show referred to Dr Robert Raven as Australia's leading expert on spiders. If he and the South Australian Museum believe this to be true, that's good enough for me.

Cheers Frank.