ants, Ants, ANTS!
01-09-2006 | 03:38 PM
#26
Thread Starter
幹他媽!
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,078
Likes: 3
From: San Gabriel Valley, CA
ouch. i hope i don't have a dead rat in my engine... guess another reason to buy german cars: no way for rats to get inside under the hood. mazda has some learning to do still i guess...
01-09-2006 | 08:29 PM
#28
Mad as a wet hen
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 486
Likes: 0
From: Big Blue State on the LEFT
Originally Posted by Detrich
ouch. i hope i don't have a dead rat in my engine... guess another reason to buy german cars: no way for rats to get inside under the hood. mazda has some learning to do still i guess...
A rat set up housekeeping in both my 8 and my Miata while they were (I thought) safe and covered in my garage... the @#$%^ rodent gnawed holes in several coolant hoses and disabled both cars for weeks until the parts came in.
While at my dealer recently for something unrelated I happened to peek under the hood of another 8 that was there, and saw immediately that a rat had been at work in that one too. The insulation padding in the engine compartment was all gnawed and shredded.
01-09-2006 | 08:38 PM
#29
Aratinga: Now your'e starting to scare me. That really sucks that it happened to you, especially having it happen to BOTH your cars.
If you don't mind me asking...did you have to claim it with your insurance? Out of pocket expense?
Detrich: Bring your car to the Speedway this weekend and we can take it apart and take a look. You'd be surprised how easy it is to take an RX-8 apart...all you need is a 10mm socket. LOL
If you don't mind me asking...did you have to claim it with your insurance? Out of pocket expense?
Detrich: Bring your car to the Speedway this weekend and we can take it apart and take a look. You'd be surprised how easy it is to take an RX-8 apart...all you need is a 10mm socket. LOL
01-10-2006 | 08:46 AM
#30
Guest
Posts: n/a
I'm surprised no one has gone all Discovery Channel about this so far - haven't you ever seen that annual 'day of the ants' thing at your place? I might not get this exactly right, but I'll try - there is one day every year where several (hundreds?) new queens and new males mature and fly away to start colonies of their own. When this happens most of the ants in the colony pour outside and mill around. You can recognize the queens and males because they have wings.
I saw that on some National Geographic show or something like that about 15 years ago, but what really makes me remember it is there was a 'day of the ants' for a colony that lived behind/under out air conditioner (which was on a concrete slab behind the house). It was interesting to see. They were *swarming* over a 10 foot radius. Then I got a can of Raid and exterminated them. My mother-in-law found the same thing a week later and she called an exterminator and signed up for a $250 treatment thinking it was the start of a massive invasion. Turned out to be money wasted - neither of us had further ant trouble, but my treatment cost $3. According to the show the new queens and males will fly quite a ways away and the rest of the colony just returns to business as usual underground. It just kills me how panicky folks can be when they've lived in the suburbs too long. I don't even get excited about the bear that wanders across our farm from time to time (okay, I guess I'd be pissed if he messed with my Rx-8, but otherwise: no big).
Anyway, Nature lessons aside - I'm a big fan of the foggers and ant-traps. If you can safely use foggers (some garages have a heater with a natural gas pilot light - not good) I'd say set off a few of those and go crazy with the ant traps (every ~5 feet along the walls and every corner of the garage).
I saw that on some National Geographic show or something like that about 15 years ago, but what really makes me remember it is there was a 'day of the ants' for a colony that lived behind/under out air conditioner (which was on a concrete slab behind the house). It was interesting to see. They were *swarming* over a 10 foot radius. Then I got a can of Raid and exterminated them. My mother-in-law found the same thing a week later and she called an exterminator and signed up for a $250 treatment thinking it was the start of a massive invasion. Turned out to be money wasted - neither of us had further ant trouble, but my treatment cost $3. According to the show the new queens and males will fly quite a ways away and the rest of the colony just returns to business as usual underground. It just kills me how panicky folks can be when they've lived in the suburbs too long. I don't even get excited about the bear that wanders across our farm from time to time (okay, I guess I'd be pissed if he messed with my Rx-8, but otherwise: no big).
Anyway, Nature lessons aside - I'm a big fan of the foggers and ant-traps. If you can safely use foggers (some garages have a heater with a natural gas pilot light - not good) I'd say set off a few of those and go crazy with the ant traps (every ~5 feet along the walls and every corner of the garage).
01-10-2006 | 05:33 PM
#31
Lubricious
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,425
Likes: 4
From: SF Bay Area, California
This stuff is useful for mopping up ant attacks. It smells nice and is non-toxic. And just kills them instantly on contact, which is pretty satisfying. :muwahaha:
But like everyone is saying, you don't find large numbers of ants unless they're being attracted to a food source. I left a small bag of lemon drops in my Miata once -- oh mama!
The only other thing I could think of is a colony decided to relocate in your engine compartment (have a lot of rains lately?). In which case they will give up when the queen dies. But seems like an odd place for them to choose.
But like everyone is saying, you don't find large numbers of ants unless they're being attracted to a food source. I left a small bag of lemon drops in my Miata once -- oh mama!
The only other thing I could think of is a colony decided to relocate in your engine compartment (have a lot of rains lately?). In which case they will give up when the queen dies. But seems like an odd place for them to choose.
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