To Kill A Cicada Killer (Wasp)

Let me begin with a statement that I am not normally a garden pest killer. I prefer to get rid of the pests' attraction to my yard as the method of elimination. That has proven to be the most successful solution over time. However, this instance wasn't that easy.

Several years ago, we noticed a nest of Cicada Killer Wasps in our yard. I wasn't too alarmed because my research had revealed that these ground dwelling insects were relatively harmless and almost certain not to sting under any circumstance. That didn't make the wasp any less intimidating though. With a length of over two inches, menacing coloration, and active swarming, they can put the scare in just about anyone.

The good news is that the wasps have a relative short life-span and are only around for a few weeks a year at the end of July / beginning of August. They propagate by laying their eggs into the bodies of Cicadas that they capture and kill, so you are most likely to see them during the same time that Cicadas are present. Since the wasps are attracted by Cicadas and the favorable soil conditions of our yard, there was no way of making this site less attractive to them (i.e. We weren't willing to cover the yard in several inches of mulch or attempt to eliminate the Cicadas!).

The bad news is that they apparently found the conditions our yard favorable for nesting and over the course of a several years had multiplied to a good-sized colony. This year dozens of nests appeared throughout the yard; we decided that something had to be done about them.

I found several commercial insecticides that would do the trick, but we were concerned about using these types of toxic chemicals around our family's pets.

We read about physically killing them... literally swatting them out of the air with a tennis racquet and smashing them by foot. Uh. No thank you.

One home brew method captured our attention. It required the application of household ammonia into the underground nest; something that would be harmless to our pets in the manner in which it would be used. It would also be a relatively inexpensive solution compared to the costly commercial insecticide sprays and powders. We decided that it was worth a try.

The idea is to identify the Cicada Killer Wasp nests during the day while the insects are active. That was easy. The wasps actively swarm low to the ground and emerge from the soil from a distinctive hole (about 1/2 inch in diameter) with a pile of excavated earth beneath the entrance to the underground nest. We flagged each of these nests with a colorful plastic knife; something that would be easy to see under low-light conditions.

Later that day, in the evening when temperatures had dropped and the wasps were back to their nests and inactive, we returned with our materials. We came armed with a flashlight, small funnel and a bottle of household ammonia (scented is okay). At each nest, we inserted the funnel and poured about one (1) to two (2) cups of ammonia into the hole. Then upon removing the funnel, we covered the entrance hole with some of the excavated soil and tamped it firmly in place. This process was repeated at each nest location identified earlier in the day.

There are a number of wasp nests in our yard, and since the larvae don't all hatch on the same date the inhabitants continue to emerge over time. That means there have been new nests appearing almost each day. However, all of the nests that we have treated with our solution have remained sealed and inactive. Success!

We fully expect that we will need to repeat this process again for the next few years before we completely rid our yard of these pests, but based upon our effort to-date, the solution has worked. There is a noticeably smaller infestation of the Cicada Killer Wasps in our yard then what there has been over the past few years. Hopefully, this process will work for you as well.

When is an Oxygen Sensor not an Oxygen Sensor? My Honda Element Repair Experience.

My daughter came home from college for Spring Break concerned that her beloved 2004 Honda Element DX had a problem. The check engine light had recently came on, and she was worried that there may be something amiss with "Elle".

I stopped by my friendly neighborhood mechanic, and he reported that the ODB-II code came back as P1157. According to Honda's list of ODB-II codes...

P1157 Air/Fuel Ratio (A/F) Sensor (Sensor 1) AFS Line High Voltage

P1157 Air/Fuel Ratio (A/F) Sensor (Sensor 1) Circuit High Voltage

P1157 Air/Fuel Ratio (A/F) Sensor (Sensor 1) Range/Performance Problem

In Honda-speak, the Air / Fuel Sensor is also known as an Oxygen Sensor. The Element has two O2 sensors, one located right before the catalytic converter, and one located immediately after. There is a difference, so be certain you are working with the correct sensor.

Based on this information, it looked to me like the front O2 sensor had gone bad. With about 70,000 miles on the vehicle, that seemed about right.

A quick look online provided several possible sources for a new replacement. Auto Parts Warehouse is one of my favorite Internet auto parts retailers based on positive experiences with parts availability and competitive prices. Always being one to try and save a little money, I decided to purchase the replacement manufactured by Bosch (part no. W0133-1613479) with a list price of $211.52 and a sales price of $51.95. Other Bosch parts have performed well, so I assumed that this would be a prudent purchase.

The new Oxygen Sensor arrived quickly. The Element went up on blocks to provide easier access to the exhaust system, and the original sensor came loose from the exhaust manifold after applying a bit of penetrating oil. I noticed that the old sensor was manufactured by Denso (part no. 234-9064).

The Bosch replacement looked very similar, and the electrical connection was identical to the original equipment. This should be any easy repair, right?

After installing the new sensor, and resetting the Honda's diagnostic computer memory, I starting the engine anticipating a successful job. Unfortunately, after about 30 seconds the check engine light reappeared. Bugger!

The next day I drove the vehicle for several miles, and reset the computer again, all in hopes that the new Oxygen Sensor would be recognized. Unfortunately, the efforts were in vain as the check engine light remained on. A return trip to my mechanic revealed the same P1157 ODB-II code. 

Based on my experience with other Bosch products, I doubted that this part was defective, and since it had been installed, it was no longer possible to return it to the retailer for a refund. However, it was possible that the Bosch sensor was not really a good candidate to be an original equipment ("OE") replacement. Was this the retailer's fault? Maybe, but browsing online revealed that many other retailers listed a number of different replacement sensors from a number of different manufacturers.

Browsing back to the Auto Parts Warehouse website, I found the Denso replacement with a list price of $134.37 and a sales price of $73.95. Hmmm. This Denso model (part no. W0133-1839108) had a list price significantly lower than the Bosch model. Could it be as good? Since the original sensor was manufactured by Denso, I was willing to make the leap of faith that maybe this would resolve my problem.

A couple of days later the second replacement arrived. Although the catalog number was different, the part number on the box was the same as the original sensor that I had removed. I was feeling more confident now, and I had the replacement installed in short-order. This time after resetting the diagnostic computer memory the check engine light stayed off and has remained off for another few hundred miles of travel.

So why did the Denso O2 Sensor work, while the Bosch model did not? I am guessing that the Honda engine's computer expects readings from the various sensors that fit in a rather narrow range; something that the Bosch replacement could not deliver. This was an instance where a replacement part from the original equipment manufacturer ("OEM") actually made a difference.

My lesson was learned. When dealing with Honda vehicles, an Oxygen Sensor is not an Oxygen Sensor; stick to the original brand! I hope that this information may save you some time and money with your next vehicle repair.

Ford Escape Hybrid - Electric Motor Cooling Pump, Do It Yourself Repair

[Editor's Note: This blog post is one of our most popular and it has prompted many excellent questions from interested readers. Please take the time to read through the comments at the end of this posting as the additional information may be very useful in your own efforts.]

My 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid has served me fairly well. With slightly more than 120,000 miles, it has only had one major issue (please see My Ford Escape Hybrid Brake Repair Experience - The Brakes Broke the Bank! and Ford Escape Hybrid Brake Failure - Revisited).

Resolving Slow / Delayed OfficeJet Printing Through an Airport Express

We run a mixed bag of computers in our house. There's a few desktop machines, and several notebooks; and they run operating systems that include different flavors of Apple's OS X, Microsoft Windows and our favorite Linux variant, Ubuntu. They all operate under a wireless network served-up nicely by an Apple Airport Extreme. The network also features an Airport Express that is dedicated to extending the wireless network via the WDS ("Wireless Distribution System") capabilities of the Apple devices, and another Airport Express that is used to provide for the remote location of a printer. Overall, the set-up has served its purposes nicely.

The remote printer is an older Hewlett Packard all-in-one device; an OfficeJet 7410 that is located in my office and near the children's rooms. It's a convenient location for a printer and the old HP inkjet has been a real workhorse having printed several thousand pages of reports and homework over the course of a few years.

The OfficeJet 7410 is connected to the Airport Express through a USB cable. The computers throughout the house are configured to access the printer through a Standard TCP/IP Port, using the IP address of the Airport Express and Port 9100. This is easy to configure on most any operating system and works best if you establish a set IP address for the Airport Express so that it does not change every time you power cycle the routers.

The Airport Express provides a secure connection to the printer, and printing speeds are reasonable for a wireless network. It's been great for the children who may choose to print from their notebooks from various locations throughout the house. This configuration has been used successfully for a few years with nary a hitch... that is until I upgraded the children's notebooks to Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium.

For some reason, once I upgraded the AMD 64-bit processor powered Dell Studio notebooks from Windows Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium, we encountered a printing problem with the OfficeJet 7410. The printing job would start in a timely manner and zip through most all of the document, but then it would hang for several minutes on the very last line or two of the document. Left to its own accord, the document would eventually finish and spit-out of the printer. However, the three to five minute wait for that last line to print would often seem like hours.

The interesting thing to me was that this problem was only with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium and the HP OfficeJet 7410. Installations of Windows 7 32-bit Home Premium, Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, and Windows XP on other computers in the house were able to print to the OfficeJet 7410 without a problem. The upgraded notebooks were able to successfully print to a network connected HP OfficeJet Pro L7780. And as you might expect, there was no printing issue with the Mac OS X or Ubuntu installations. What was the problem with the 64-bit version of Windows Home Premium and the network connected OfficeJet 7410?

Searching through the HP website for a solution was useless, and I could not find anyone else on the Internet who had this same problem. I tried a number of fixes; uninstalled / reinstalled the printer, installed new drivers, and changed IP addresses and ports. Nothing seemed to make a difference. 

After months of frustration and on a whim, I unchecked the "Enable Bidirectional Support" box under the Ports tab of Printer Properties. Presto! The print jobs now zip through to completion with no delay at the end, and there is no perceivable printing speed difference with the bidirectional support disabled.

I cannot explain why this solution works, I can only attest that it does. If you are experiencing slow or delayed printing with an HP printer network connected through an Apple Airport Express, this solution may work for you as well.

Creating a Disk Image of Your iLife '11 DVD

Let me begin with a disclaimer. I do not endorse or approve of software piracy. However, I do believe that the legal owner of a software title should be entitled and able to make an archival copy of the original software media for safe-keeping.

After being inconvenienced and financially disadvantaged more than once after misplacing or damaging my original application installation disks, I have made it standard practice to create a copy of any software title that I purchase; especially the expensive ones. These copies are stored in a fire-proof location, separate from the original disks, just in case they are needed at a later date for a fresh installation.

Roxio's Toast has been my go-to application for creating back-up copies. It has never failed to provide an accurate copy of an original application CD or DVD. That is, until now.

I recently acquired the latest version of iLife from Apple. The updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand installed without issue and brought many new features that make using our Apple computers even more enjoyable. The problem I encountered was when I tried to create my back-up copy of the iLife '11 DVD. Toast gave a valiant effort, and spun the DVD for quite some time, but it eventually returned error codes and messages that suggested the disk was copy-protected. The same result was obtained whether I tried to duplicate the DVD, or create a disk image. Bummer.

The obvious fall-back was to use the capable, but sometimes intimidating, Mac OS X Disk Utility. The Disk Utility app offers several powerful features for managing your Mac's disk drives; an indispensable utility application! It's also entirely capable of making your computer completely unusable if you are not careful. Hence, the "intimidating" description.

After opening Disk Utility with the iLife '11 DVD in the optical drive, I selected the DVD from the list of mounted disks in the column to the left. Then from the Disk Utility menu, I selected File->New->Disk Image from "iLife '11 Install DVD." Again, error codes and messages that suggested the disk was copy-protected. How could I get around this "feature" from Apple?

Back to the Disk Utility menu, but this time I selected File->New->Disk Image from Folder, and selected the iLife '11 Install DVD as if it were a folder. I chose an image name that's meaningful; usually the default DVD title. I also use the "Read-Only" Image Format to prevent accidental changes to the copy. A compressed format is also read-only, but it takes more time to create and to open the final image. After hitting the Save button, I was happy to watch Disk Utility successfully create a copy of the iLife '11 Install DVD.

With a good disk image having been created, I was able to burn the file to a DVD for safe-keeping. Only time will tell if Apple will allow iLife '12 (or other software titles) to be copied in this way, but for now I am happy. I've got my archived copy of iLife '11 safely put away.