Fire ants - computer bugs
in [Repair]
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From: Meat Plow on 28 Jun 2010 11:30 On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:44:03 -0700, William Sommerwerck ǝʇoɹʍ: >>> Watched a nature TV prog on swarming behavior. Apparently these ants >>> have stowed away on planes and taken up residence in airports in S USA >>> states, infesting computers in air traffic systems, etc. No mention in >>> the program why jungle creatures have electric-charge sensors in their >>> antenna (stated in the narration) but they naturally home in on live >>> circuit boards apparently and then swarm all over, causing mayhem. >>> Anyone have any operational experience of PC failure due to swarms of >>> fire ants? > >> I purchased an anteater for insurance against a fire ant attack on my >> electronics. > > But won't the anteater's saliva leave conductive traces on the board? > These could cause anything from minor problems to catastrophic failure. If you would have just Google'd 'anteater saliva' you would have seen that its saliva conforms to the RoHS directive.
From: Phil Hobbs on 28 Jun 2010 13:22 On 6/27/2010 11:45 AM, Ron wrote: > On 27/06/2010 16:36, Meat Plow wrote: >> On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:59:49 +0100, N_Cook ǝʇoɹʍ: >> >>> Watched a nature TV prog on swarming behavior. Apparently these ants >>> have stowed away on planes and taken up residence in airports in S USA >>> states , infesting computers in air traffic systems etc. No mention in >>> the program why jungle creatures have electric charge sensors in their >>> antenna (stated in the narration) but they naturally home in on live >>> circuit boards apparently and then swarm all over, causing mayhem. >>> Anyone have any operational experience of pc failure due to swarms of >>> fire ants ? >> >> I purchased an Anteater for insurance against a fire ant attack on my >> electronics. > you know what they say, aardvark never killed anybody ;) Cheers Phil Hobbs (And it's illegal in some places: http://www.despair.com/effort.html ) -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 email: hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
From: JeffM on 29 Jun 2010 13:56 Jeff Liebermann wrote: >carpenter ants[...]got into the TV antenna amplifier. >Nothing was eaten, but they secreted some kind of acid, >that ate the copper traces. > http://google.com/search?q=ants+formic-acid Some birds have even figured out that squashed ants are useful. http://google.com/search?q=ants+crows+formic-acid There has been speculation that they get a buzz off this.
From: Cydrome Leader on 29 Jun 2010 14:28
William R. Walsh <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi! > >> Anyone have any operational experience of pc failure due to swarms >> of fire ants ? > > Well, the circuit didn't fail and they weren't fire ants...but... > > I had a massive ants nest show up in an Optimus STA-795 stereo > receiver. I noticed them moving around on the front panel, so I picked > it up and WOW! Ants were pouring out of the bottom of the unit. The > manual was underneath it, and they'd made some kind of a big white > thing on top of it. I don't recall exactly what I did to evict them, > but they never came back again. > > William bugs seem to like heat, so things like vcrs were popular places for roaches to live in. you could tell from looking at a customer at the shop if you had to open their electronics on newspapers and have a can of electronics cleaner ready to kill anything that would run off. |