Dear Bill and WeatherCat station caregivers,
I might try the fan thing, but think I'll see how the reset site works. The sensors had been about 3 feet off the ground, and there is grass and one shrub nearby. I cut the grass, and trimmed the bush, and the sensor is now up 5 feet off the ground.
I had not had a problem before, so I'm hoping that fixes me up.
It certainly could solve your problems. As long as there is a bit of wind, the existing Davis radiation shield will work just fine. The problem comes in when there is absolutely no air-flow through the shield. The higher you put the probe, the greater the general wind flow.
If not, I'll have to think about the fan idea, although power to the area isn't easy. Perhaps a total relighting...
Well, for the sake of completeness let me give you the two wireless alternatives. For a while Davis sold a daytime only fan kit (i.e. spinning only when there is enough solar power.) It has been discontinued, but a few dealers like Scaled Instruments still carry it:
https://www.scaledinstruments.com/product/davis-7747-daytime-fan-aspirated-radiation-shield-kit/It isn't cheap, but it is almost 1/2 of the alternative below. I bought this kit and powered the fan using a 3 volt transformer. Alas the motor only lasted 6 months before giving up. That's when I switched to a PC case motor. When powered by solar the motors are supposed to last a lot longer.
The top of the line Davis stations have a fan system that includes a solar panel and rechargeable batteries. Normally you cannot buy this as an add-on, but Ryan at Scaled Instruments actually parts out new Davis stations so he can sell this upgrade kit:
https://www.scaledinstruments.com/product/davis-6153s-24hr-solar-powered-aspirated-shield-for-pro2/However at $250, it is expensive.
Returning to your original ant problem, have you tried to keep insects away from your instruments? Decades ago, we used to use a product called tanglefoot to create a barrier that ants and other crawling insects couldn't cross:
http://www.tanglefoot.com/Also, I periodically put out some poisoned ant bait to keep the ant populations from growing too much. I use this stuff, but I'm sure there are a number of products out there:
http://www.terro.com/It seems to work as I intent it, just keeping the populations in check. The ants certainly don't disappear.
I don't know what other WeatherCatters do to keep their stations from being invaded by pests - anyone else have some constructive suggestions?
Cheers, Edouard