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Spider web Defense

CaliGirl

CaliGirl

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What is the best spider web defense you have come up with?

We are in the forest. Spiders everywhere. What works best so far for me: a thick layer of vaseline around the camera lens. And spider insect spray around the tree trunk near where it is mounted.

As soon as it got warm I started getting a bigger influx of spider webs :(

Wish I could share some cool photos of it but it has gotten so cumbersome to upload from iphone to computer to this web forum?
 
GFM

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How far away from the camera lens is this effective? Seem to have a bad influx of the 8-legged creatures here too this year. The broom with the long handle is not keeping up! Been very dry here and not as many bugs flying around as usual, so I suppose the spiders have to be more aggressive with their webs.

CaliGirl said:
thick layer of vaseline around the camera lens
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CaliGirl

CaliGirl

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I put the Vaseline right on the outside of the sunshade. Do not get anywhere on the lens but obviously completely cover the camera housing towards the lens area. My cameras cant be reached for several weeks sometimes, so I have to take extra measures over a broomstick.

Does anyone else have tricks that work?
 
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Aengus4h

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with the 2 external bullets I have, vasoline and silicone spray helps to some degree, but the little beggars manage to span across the IR/lens from the vegetation so its only so effective. Heck they even span from the washing pole across to the garden fence. Best solution is to use separate IR a few feet from the lens, tho you'd lose the intensity smarts on cameras that have that feature. Wonder how effective one of them air freshner things that sprays every now and again would be, strategically placed and loaded up with spider spray or chestnut oils... the green lot would freak tho lol
 
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Aengus4h

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or a headlight washer jet with large tank, triggered with the relay output on the camera, perhaps...
 
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tigerwillow1

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Aengus4h said:
yep, rest of mine are separate IR, no spider/insect issues plus better visibility in rain/snow and no red/devil-eye effects :)
Click to expand...
With summer here, I forgot about the rain/snow issues, which make the internal IR close to useless.
 
CaliGirl

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When you guys add external IR lights, how do you power them? Can I piggy back off my POE connection near the camera? That would be ideal for me. I have long cable runs through the forest floor and it is just to much work for me to lay more cable and run it into the house. Thanks for everyone's ideas! Including compressed air spider defense cannon :)
 
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tigerwillow1

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The common way for powering the external IR is with a "POE splitter". You take the network wire that goes to the camera now and plug it into this box. The box has two outputs: A network wire to the camera, and a DC power output. You need a POE splitter whose DC output is 12 volts. Unfortunately, the splitters do not pass the POE power on to the camera. What's usually done is to use a splitter cable plugged into the POE splitter, so power can be run to the camera's DC input jack and to an external IR light. Many POE splitter support do not support more than about 15 watts, so if you're using POE+ you have to take that into consideration when choosing a splitter.

This unfortunately makes the wiring at the camera more complex, with more connections that need to be shielded from the elements. A nice improvement would be if the POE splitters were changed to pass the power through to the camera, or if the cameras would provide a DC output for external lights. Maybe one or the other will crop up in the future.

Here's a picture of a POE splitter. I'm not recommending this one, it's just for illustration. As usual, there are other ways to get the job done. http://www.forenix.com/dw.php?file=Spec_AFPS-103E.pdf
 
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strathglass

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The wiki has so many IR lights listed ... anyone have a recommended IR light model that they have used and are happy with?
 
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