Ants have taken over my rain gauge!

[Gina]

My rain gauge has been showing nothing in spite of several hours of fine rain and some a bit heavier. So in a lull in the rain I went and investigated. I found a colony of ants had set up home in the gauge!! I gave it a shake out and checked the bucket part tipped OK, blew out any muck in the tiny filter and put it back together. Now to see if it's working again. I know the electronics is working because the data is showing 0.1mm - one tip of the bucket. It's pouring again now so I'd expect to see more rainfall at the next 10min update.

LATER... Well!!... I'm looking out the window at sheets of rain pouring down and absolutely nothing happening with the rain gauge! No! I'm NOT going out in that lot to look at it!

Tomorrow is another day and the weather may be better.

[Gina]

Actually, the rain eased off and I went out and had another go at it. The buckets and surrounding area are/is pretty dirty and I think could do with a good wash off. I'm not sure if the buckets are free enough to tip with rain water - difficult to tell using fingers. Anyway, if it's not too wet tomorrow, I'll give it a good service.

[wd40]

Fire ants are a constant battle in the South. Not had any in the rain gauge but they really like my Okra in the garden.

Randy

[serowe]

Had to reply to this - ants are one problem. Back in March (I was interstate at the time so the kids had to solve this one) during the hail storm we had in Melbourne which caused millions in damage, the gauge stopped working.

When they checked (as they could also see the rain bucketing down) all they could see was a huge hailstone seemingly sitting on top of the rain gauge!

Turns out it was large enough to push the metal strainer shield down (virtually inverted it) and with the other hail also falling on it formed an ice shield around the top of the gauge - they had to wait until the hail stone melted before the gauge was working properly again as it was too dangerous to go outside during the storm! Fortunately another gauge across the road from me 'lent' me the readings so my data wasn't missing the 25mm of rain (1 inch!) in under 15 minutes.....

[teg]

Perhaps you should put some netting round the gauge. I had a problem with spiders so I've used the wife's tights wraped around the unit.

Regards

Trev

[daj]

Perhaps you should put some netting round the gauge. I had a problem with spiders so I've used the wife's tights wraped around the unit.

I hope you told the wife first!

I used mosquito netting -- we don't have fire ants, but spiders and Earwig's were my problem

[Gina]

Perhaps you should put some netting round the gauge. I had a problem with spiders so I've used the wife's tights wraped around the unit.

Yes, I think that's the answer. If I haven't thrown all my old tights out.

[Gina]

I thought the rain gauge was working yesterday but a moderate shower this morning failed to register so I've brought it indoors for a good clean.

Later... Have the case and bucket assembly soaking in a bowl of water, having taken the circuit board out. I've now got the spare installed instead.

[nking]

It's very useful having spares and the offer from Maplin is certainly cheaper than buying individual parts - I'm glad I got mine

[Gina]

Yes, very useful and glad I got mine too

There's a design change in the rain gauge. The old one has large square holes where the buckets tip out their water whereas the new one has a grid of smaller holes. Not as small as I'd like to see but they would keep out larger spiders

[Charlie]

Yes, very useful and glad I got mine too

There's a design change in the rain gauge. The old one has large square holes where the buckets tip out their water whereas the new one has a grid of smaller holes. Not as small as I'd like to see but they would keep out larger spiders

Before I installed mine, I glued a piece of scrap window screen over the holes in the bottom. So far, no bugs...touch wood

[dw5869]

well to add to the thread... ive had my wx up for about 2 weeks... started to get some odd readings
seems the little buggers managed to get in where the cable is (tiny little gap) and setup a nice little home. Given a nice cleanout, wrapped the cord with some gladwrap, and also on the top when seating the lid shut
shall see how long it keeps them out for =) if they come back maybe some sealant

[nking]

I've had my PWS for 10 months and noticed that my rain reading was almost double those from other PWS close to me. Opening up the gauge I found that a spiders web had been constructed tethering one of the tippers with what acted like a piece of elastic so that it would tip but the tension would then return the tipper back to it’s first point, in effect double counting. It seems that you just have to keep a close eye on your rain readings and be sure to give it a clean at least annually if not every 6 months.

[Super-T]

I just unplugged the rain gauge and sprayed the whole lot with wd40

[serowe]

Be wary of WD40 with ants though - they seem to like it for some reason!