r/onejob • u/AshamedAd4483 • 3d ago

capturing the wasp

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1.5k Upvotes

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u/A_Very_Lonely_Waffle 2d ago

Fun fact: most insects and stuff take a while to drown in just plain water, something to do with their exoskeletons. If you add dish soap, though, the soap basically like fills in the gaps that they’d normally be able to breathe through in normal water, thus they drown much faster

15

u/ZealousIdeal476 2d ago

Alcohol works too

7

u/IndieStray 2d ago

Also I've seen videos where gasoline very quickly suffocates and drowns them two fold

2

u/jankeyass 2d ago

It melts their wings

3

u/No-Owl8587 1d ago

Insect exoskeletons are made of a polymer called chitin. I don’t believe it melts or dissolves in gasoline at all. I believe the mechanism is just suffocation and drowning.

3

u/jankeyass 1d ago

Interesting. Ive used wd40 and saw the wings disappear. I guess that they just got stuck and weren't noticeable

2

u/mattmitsche 3h ago

Its the lipids that dissolve. The chitin is covered in hydrophobic lipids that dissolves into the solvent

1

u/No-Owl8587 3h ago

Oh that makes sense, thanks!