Fertile Ant Queen . . . YIKES!!!!! =8-O

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Just captured a swarming ant queen roaming the grlf's dining room floor at my feet!

Possible conquest of the founding denizen of the long anticipated and muuuuuuch delayed MacAntFarm™ colony! [] ]'>

 

[Gorgonops]

Ugh. I hope it's not a carpenter ant. If you find a winged ant (or worse, more than one) in your house it's probably time to start snooping around the baseboards looking for the sawdusty hole it came out of. Been there done that.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Just finished putting the rest of the ant baits around the house. I found one worker next to HP-Maxi and did that one in. I'd already killed off the colony in my bathroom for the year when I put out the first Magic Black Box before she went to visit family for a week.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

COOL!

Now I've got about ten queens a couple of live drones ina @L Pepsi Bottle! I also found the smiling dead bodies of a few more [] ]'>

 

[Gorgonops]

I actually found that plain old 20 Mule Team Borax does a great job with ants. Mix it with a little sugar or grain and scatter it where you you see their trails and they'll track it home. Even worked outside. (One day I saw a big trail marching from under a bush across the driveway, so I sprinkled maybe a tablespoon of borax across it leading up to the entrance of their hill. If I didn't kill them all they at least stopped coming out that way...)

 

[IIfx]

I hate ants. I had a problem with them last year coming to my office for no reason. (No Food Here) and its on the 3rd floor of a townhouse.

Go figures.

Sneaky little things they are. (well the ones I deal with are tiny)

 

[mcdermd]

For whatever reason, those little, tiny crazy ants are really attracted to the stand-alone UPSs around here. To the extent that we pulled apart a flakey one and found them moving eggs around inside.

 

[IIfx]

You may have found my source of the problem. However, mine is pretty new, from 2009, and never gets hot.

Why do they like them?

 

[Scott Baret]

Not sure if you've ever checked out SimAnt on the old Mac, but it really helps to break down the life of ants in an interesting and interactive way. It should help you understand and gain an appreciation for those fascinating creatures.

A MacAntFarm would be interesting. Maybe gut an iMac G5 for that?

Never have tried Borax, but baking soda also gets rid of them. Worked for me when I saw some on a baseboard. They never came back and its been two years.

 

[waynestewart]

A few years ago I was doing some repairs at night on the 23rd floor of an office building and noticed a few ants wandering around. There seemed to be more of them near some potted plants but I never looked into it.

I hate ants. I had a problem with them last year coming to my office for no reason. (No Food Here) and its on the 3rd floor of a townhouse.
Go figures.

Sneaky little things they are. (well the ones I deal with are tiny)

 

[mcdermd]

Why do they like them?

I'm not sure but I think they like the electricity for whatever reason. I've heard of them infesting power supplies and AC units too.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Before my roommate became my roommate, I helped to fix his computer. Turned out his external HDD and computer were infested with tiny roaches that had clogged it up. I"ve liberated a few buggy Macs over the years as well. The first thing I do with a new piece of hardware is BLOW THE SUCKER OUT!

No canned air for me, we're talking pressure nozzle on a job site compressor at highest PSI rating.

I don't care if chips fly off the board or static ZAPs the snot outta the boards ICs, it's an ironbound Zero Dust, Zero Dirt, ZERO BUGS Importation Policy!

Kinda like the California border . . . [}] ]'>

I'm glad I couldn't find a starter kit for the MacAntFarm today, tomorrow morning I'm going the BIG plexi sheets/spacers/duct tape route to see which of the Royals survive and thrive after I unstick their wings from where the water in the bottle trapped them.

Some are still kicking! [] ]'>

p.s. this turned into one off the wall thread . . . me likes! :approve:

 

[Dark Goob]

Ants are attracted to electrical equipment due to ferromagnetite crystals in their magnetoreception system being affected by the electromagnetic fields (EMF) in the equipment. It is thought that like birds, ants use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. Much like moth are drawn to a light (since they navigate by the moon, which is normally stationary relative to their position over time), so also ants are drawn to electrical equipment. If you keep the moon always on your left, then you would go in a straight line at night. If you however think a streetlight is the moon, and keep it on your left, then you will go in circles, and likey spiral in towards it if you use normal mean adaptive path correction.

In Texas, ants have killed several times by infesting traffic signal control boxes!

 

[MacJunky]

In Texas, ants have killed several times by infesting traffic signal control boxes!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/ !!!It is just the beginning!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

In NC, termites have killed many a domicile.

Luckily, I caught or slaughtered what was, hopefully, the first swarming of the first infestation of my grlf's house. :-/

The dead royals from the more destructive of the two wood munchers are now entombed in the Pepsi Bottle Chamber of Death, pending high magnification identification of their remains.

The MacAntFarm™ hack is once again, back off track. However it is legal to buy/sell fertile ant queens within the boundaries of these fifty states! So when this hack finally hits the front burner, I can choose a medium sized species more appropriate for a visual display . . .

. . . and more substantial prey for the carnivorous denizens of the vinyl tubing connected StudioDisplayMacQuarium/Terrarium™ where the feeding station for the MacAntFarm™ will be located. [}] ]'>

 

[techfury90]

I believe it. I've had carpenter ants here before, and I live in the same county as you...