Have you checked your observatory lately?

[thunderchildobs]

On Friday night I went into the observatory for a session after the rain we had in SE Qld. At the end of the session I heard a strange noise and couldn't work out what it was. I had apparently disturbed a nest of ants that have made their home behind some posters to be get out of rain. The sound i heard was tens of thousands ants moving over the posters.

Today I check a metal cabinet I have in the observatory, when I open the door all I could see was a moving mass. Think of a bad B grade movie. Absolutely everything was covered by hunderds of thousands of ants. After the biology war had died down, it took me 3 hours to clean up the mess.

Luckily the ants didn't get into the scope and thankfuly I don't keep the computers or cameras in the observatory.

Brendan

[Ric]

Eek, how scary is that. Like you said Brendan it's good news they didn't get into the scope, that would have been a total disaster.

Cheers

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I checked for an observatory in the front paddock just now and there isn't one there. Darn it. LOL

Gee I agree with your B Grade Horror Movie analogy. I'm glad things weren't too bad though.

[netwolf]

Get yourself some Aint Raid from Franklins or Wollies. That stuff works. You put it in there path or aound the house and they take it back to the queen and kill the nest. No animals were hurt in the writing of this note.

[hookedonsaturn]

while building my observatory I placed it on treated wood pileings set in cement >the hole and water used for mixing was laced with"pigeon pest controler" the same was done to all floor boards and studs.A frew drops will kill a nest so i recon 10 ml should protect me for a while.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

but what was it that attracted them in the first place???

[KG8]

I had the mongrels in a cupboard up in the garage and they were eating a roll of dense foam rubber I had set aside for padding a scope box? They destroyed it!!! I got even though, I stitched them up with a dose of some old "white ant" poison I had laying around. Keep an eye out for these pests, who knows what else they eat.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

A friend of mine her scanner stopped working. She sent it in for repair under warrenty and when it was opened, there were thousands of ants living in there and they apparently ate the layer of gel that is under the glass plate.
( I know nothing of the anatomy of scanners. Is there a layer of gel under the glass? )

[Shawn]

There is a product called Creepy Crawly, its a barrier spray that last for ages, but be carefull not to lock anything in,,,. It works ver well...

[Doug]

Originally Posted by netwolf

No animals were hurt in the writing of this note.

[GrahamL]

creepy crawly works great as shawn mentions but is a little expensive if you want to do a large area like (under a slab) prior to pouring concrete .
The active in the above is called diazinon it works well and is very toxic to handle .. the same product can also be bought with a polymer coating
which stays active even longer and is a little safer to handle (penside).
webzone is another that gives long protection ( 10 years? )against ants ..etc when used as a soil drench prior to laying a slab.. which is were
I'd be looking to control these little suckers long before they ever get near any astro gear

[Sausageman (Mike Boggan)]

I had the little pests eat a tent once. I packed it away in it's bag and stored it in the garage. It was a waxed linen 2 room tent with the poles on the outside, there was not much left of it.

Mike.

[thunderchildobs]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably with ant rid and regularly spraying.

Brendan

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

You can get 2 litre bottles of spray on Surface spray at the supermarket these days. Has a squirt gun like the Pros use. Just cover the scope and spray everything!!! Walls, ceiling, floor.

I sprayed inside my little cubby Observatory a few weeks ago and about 300 spiders fell to the floor

Luckily they haven't climbed into the Toucam and scopes yet.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

....I sprayed inside my little cubby Observatory a few weeks ago and about 300 spiders fell to the floor....

Having second thoughts about coming to Snake Valley this Friday

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by erick

Having second thoughts about coming to Snake Valley this Friday

Be more worried if 300 snakes fell to the floor

[LX200]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

I sprayed inside my little cubby Observatory a few weeks ago and about 300 spiders fell to the floor

I gave my Ob's a severe dose before moving in also under the floor
No major problems the odd Huntsman visit now and again
I spray under the floor with surface spray every 2 months

[Zander]

i once found a whole nest of ants in the oven

we just turned it on and they got a lil warm

scary to think they can make it there without us even knowing. spose it says sumthin about how much we use it