Bugs and Tie Downs

Eric S

Eric S

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
100
Location
East Troy, WI
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X117A
Ok so I'm relatively new to plane ownership (Have owned my Cherokee for just over 1.5 years) and it is normally it is hangared. I'm now on a trip where I will be for the next month and a 1/2 and the airport I'm temporarily calling my home only has grass tie downs and I'm forced to leave the plane outside.

Unfortunately the grass around the tiedown spot is pretty long (I just borrowed a weed wacker, and will fix that problem) and full of bugs. Last time I left the plane for a few days I had a bunch of bugs crawling all over my cowling, thankfully plane perfect waterless wash also seems to kill bugs pretty well.

So for all of you that are out on grass any advice on what to do keep the bugs down. I'm thinking of going down to home depot and just getting a bunch of multi insect killer and spreading it on the tiedown spot, and maybe spraying some liquid insecticide on the sides of the tires, but worried that might lead to some corrosion. Not sure how effective all that would be, but need to do something as don't want my plane to become an insect home.

So any of you that I'm have had this problem in the past have any advice?
 
Spraying the grass will keep them out of the grass but likely won't do anything to stop them from entering the plane if it's sitting out in the middle of a grass field. They'll just fly over from the next guy's tiedown. And anything that's going to act broadly enough to kill all the pests you want is going to be hell on the pollinators. The best you can do is keep things covered up (notably the pitot) and wash the plane from time to time.

As for the grass, I just taxied the plane out of the space temporarily and mowed it. Our airport kept a small push mower in one of the community hangars that pilots could borrow to clean up their tiedowns.
 
flyingron said:
Spraying the grass will keep them out of the grass but likely won't do anything to stop them from entering the plane if it's sitting out in the middle of a grass field...
Click to expand...

Years ago had a friend of mine in Houston spray his large yard, trees, shrubs, everything with insecticide. All the bugs moved into his house.

Cut the grass all around the plane as short as a putting green, and rake up the stuff you cut, and that should help quite a bit.
 
Cowl plugs and pilot covers. Cover every opening that leads to the interior of the airplane. Especially pitot covers, don't ask me how I know.
 
Thanks @flyingron yeah don't want to kill the pollinators, and I do have everything as covered up as I can, so they do not seem to be getting inside the cabin. They were mostly in and around the engine compartment, but the plane cleaner and 2 hours of engine running seems to have removed that infestation. Just want to discourage them as much as possible from making a home anywhere on or more importantly in the airplane.
 
Yeah asked the airport manager to cut the grass a bit, said he would today, and I'm borrowing a weed wacker to flatten it as much as possible. Good point about raking it up.
 
I've had two plugged pitots in my plane and one plugged static over the years it was outside. It's amazing how fast those buggers find the thing the time you forgot the cover.
 
Have you tried spraying bug spray on the ground in a circle around the wheels and tie downs.??
 
Nope not yet but was thinking about doing that, especially for the ants.
 
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