pulled out a kit to work on the other day and found it full of ants. Kit has been around the stack for a while and obviously was no longer sealed. Do ants eat plastic? Found no evidence, just real curious why a small colony set up there.

hmm not sure opened up a strett cabinet today for some meausrements and found a massive ants nest in there could see them moving the larve around looked like they'd tried to munch on some of the metal round the area place was also full of spiders a few cabinets in liverpool had rat in them used to lie on top of the equipment racks to keep warm.....I'd be more worried as to how the ants got there make sure they arent around anywere else

They probably like the darkness and privacy of the box. Som eants may use the cardboard, not the plastic. I believe there are a few entomologists on the site who can probably answer

I don't know about ants but right now my model stash is in plastic totes in a canvas sheller we have to use. We've been having a LOT of rain lately, thank goodness, and I went to check if any of the totes leaked. Didn't see any ants but there were a bunch of bugs that we call ear wigs. They look a bit like centipedes but smaller and with big pincers on one end. I'm not looking forward to dealing with those little bugs when I get back to working on some of those kits.

LOL here if it is not ants it's snakes. First rule of telecom workers here when opening the boxes is to chech for snakes

HalfYank,
Earwigs eat decaying cellolose,so I bet your boxes were getting a bit moldy.I see them all the time,under my lawn mower,feeding off the random grass clippings.

Ciao for now,
Are earwigs the same as silverfish? If so, yes, they do like to hang out in some of my model boxes, books and shoes in the garage.
Ciao for now
Rob

Fascinating. I'm no entomologist but I do have some interests in the little guys. No they don't eat plastic at least not the petroleum based ones anyway.

My guess is your box offered first and foremost Privacy on account it wasn't moved for some time (all of us modellers suffer from over-stocking under-fixing). Secondly the sprues must have been ant house heaven with all the little compartments. Ammo boxes, turrets, tank tracks, etc must seem like Luxury Condominiums as opposed to a dirt tunnel.

Lastly your boxes might be stocked near a food source (i.e kitchen, garbage cans). Look at it this way, you now have an ant nest you could give your kids or your neighbour's kids for "Show & Tell".

No, I took all the little buggers in the box and went out to the street and beat them out of the box. Checked around the area and didn't find any more colonies, of course I didn't check all 70+ kits either. Just thought it was strange and ya'll would find it as humerous as I did.

Well, it could have been a good diorama. "The wrath of the ant colony" :-) :-)

Yea, I could have called them the Brazilian Army ants those buggers are huge. The ones I had are what we call done here in the South (United States) as "sugar ants" very tiny red ants #:-)

It wasn't a kit of a Thornycroft " Ant"ar was it?????


Sorry couldn't resist
Pete :-)

First rule of opening our Telecoms/Cable TV boxes
here is dont get too close as the smell of dog wee knocks you for 6 when opening the door not good after some beers the night before :-)

if these Ear Wigs and Silverfish are the same stuff than I wish these little buggers a slow and painful death.
they just seem to appear from nowhere in boxes that have been freed of the plastic wrap, and they crawl real fast.
anyone knows how to exterminate those things? mothballs maybe?

i can second that!

ive been out a couple of times with our techies, jumpering etc and some of the base units are terrible!

mind you, they often arent as bad as customers houses!

sorry


on topic, an earwig(we call them that too) isnt the same as a silverfish. and due to keeping them in the house, ive never found any bugs in my model boxes!]

cheers

joe