Roaring Cricket Megaphone Apparatus

I made it at Techshop. http://www.techshop.ws/

It is cricket season and even thought I like the sound of crickets; I do not like crickets in my garage or barn. I wanted a non lethal way of removing the crickets. My idea is to capture a chirping cricket and place it in the cage with some food. Take it out away from the home and point it back towards the home. The cricket sound is amplified by the megaphone. I hope to draw the crickets to the louder sound. Call of the wild.

Main components of project:  Large plastic soda bottle, house hold window screen, metal pencil holder and metal paper clip holder (from local dollar store). Not shown is 3 springs, 3 paper clips.

Cut the end off of a large plastic soda bottle for the megaphone (as shown). I used a razor knife to start the cut, and then switched to household scissors. I used the old trick of cutting outside the line, then go back and re-cut to the line to get a smoother edge. I was planning on leaving the label on for a cutting guide, but I ripped it off too soon. So I used blue tape as a guide to follow.

I used a small paper clip and wound it around a small pin punch in the middle.

Then I cut it into two useable pieces:

Upper spring clip to be use as the permanent mounting point for the spring

Lower spring bracket for the movable mounting point

I put a permanent crimp to the Upper spring clip and the Lower spring bracket to each end of the spring (did this for all three springs). I am calling this the spring assembly.

 

 

I needed the bottle cap to act in two functions. One to hold the cage onto the plastic megaphone and the second is to keep the cricket retention screen in place. I needed the shoulder to hold the screen and keep the threads functional; so I cut a hole using a modified saw blade. (Side note: I just broke off the end of a jigsaw blade and used it in my large razor holder.) I traced the bottle cap onto house hold door screen and cut it out with house hold scissors. I cut outside the traced line to ensure coverage in the cap.

Drill hole in shorter paper clip holder and mount on plastic megaphone

I used a hole-saw to cut a hole in the bottom of the small paper clip holder. I cut it to a slight undersize in relation to the outer dimension of pop bottle mouth. This allowed me to use the threads of the mouth to mount the small part of the cage. I also added 3 spring assemblies.

I crimped the Upper spring clip on the side of cage as the permanent mounting point.

I will use the other end to act as a moveable mounting bracket.

Attach the large cage component by stretching springs and putting the moveable mounting bracket into a hole.

Please note: The large cage can be easily removed to put food and crickets in.  I plan on changing out the cricket so that no crickets will be harmed. I know this apparatus amplifies sound. I will need further testing to quantify the effects on crickets.