Help!!! I\'m under attack!

[Tylith]

Alas!
My room has been invaded!
My monitor to be specific...
Invaded...
By ants!!!
When I woke up this morning and turned on my monitor (19\" LCD) there was an ant on it!
I tried wiping it off (Can\'t squish, LCD) but the ant could not be moved!
It was INSIDE my monitor!
Before I left a noticed a second.
I\'m praying they find a way out, or utleast don\'t die in the center of the screen.
Any advice guys? I don\'t like having ants in my monitor.

 

[vincegamer]

Hmm. That\'s very odd. If you leave it on, won\'t it get hot? Maybe they will leave as it gets too hot.

I had ants invade a houseplant once, but never a monitor - and the solution wouldn\'t help you.

With the houseplant the solution was basically to over-water it. Keep the soil submerged until the ants all climbed up onto the green part of the plant and touch that against a convenient wall and watch them all flee the plant onto the wall (and up to the neighbors\' unit but hey, not my problem any more right?).
I do not recommend submerging your monitor in water, thoug I bet it would get rid of the ants.

 

[Rodnik]

I was a bench-tech in a former life----you need to fix the problem immediately. Aside from being general pests, the ant can potentially short out the circuit boards in the monitor----I\'ve seen in *multiple* times with roaches....

The best I can tell you is to open the monitor up, and examine what it will take to get rid of \'em. Perhaps a little ant killer in the general proximity of the open monitor. If they aren\'t nested in there, it should be easy enough to just brush \'em all out.

 

[Tylith]

I\'d feel fine opening a CRT, but is it safe to pull open an LCD? I don\'t know much about them.

 

[supervike]

Was it Adam Ant?

Never seen an ant in a monitor, but I once saw an Uncle in the CPU.....

 

[Itchy]

Eh, not so sure you\'ll short much these days. Back in the old days they used to leave the copper traces uncovered, but now a days if you look at MOST electronics you\'ll find a dark green covering over the traces, so there\'s very little chance of shorts. Some surface mount ICs will still short though. If there are ants in your monitor, then there are holes big enough for ants in your monitor. Unplug everything and have a look around... see if you can find a hole and maybe shot some air in there to freeze them to death, then plug up the holes?

 

[Wren]

Maybe you could try to tempt them out? I have some problems with ants in my kitchen if I leave any dishes out, they home in immediately on soda residue in glasses or a little sugar spilled on the counter. Pour some Coke in a saucer and leave it by the monitor, turn the lights out and leave the room for an hour or two and see if they take the bait.

 

[Tylith]

I just got home...
No ants in the monitor!!!
Maybe they died and fell to the bottom...
Or maybe they just crawled out ???

However, I will be spraying around my desk...

 

[Itchy]

Try one of these maybe?

 

[Tylith]

I found the ants.
They died
And fell to the bottom.
But you can still see them at the very bottom ([size=-2]shit[/size])
Driving me crazy.
Sprayed around my desk though. Friggin sugar ants :flame:

 

[Ogrebane]

Im a computer tech and I\'d have to tell you that I would be more comfortable opening an LCD than a crt. The CRTs have a HV of about 12000Volts where as the LCDs run of about 5Volts. Still 240VAC or 110 for you yanks will still smart if you touch the wrong thing.

Good luck getting the bodies out. Not an easy task.

 

[airhead]

I told him to plug it in and jump into the pool with it. That will teach those ants.
:flame:

 

[dauber22]

Originally posted by airhead
I told him to plug it in and jump into the pool with it. That will teach those ants.
:flame:

Ummmm, isn\'t Tylith the one dating your daughter that you said you had no problem with ??? Naughty, naughty, daddy. No killing of your daughters\' boyfriends

(God, am I ever glad I had boys )

 

[TAB Studio]

Go to home depot get boric acid powder or pharmacy...mix with tooth paste leave in a small container soda lid by the monitor it will draw them out then get rid of them. Sugar ants will fall for this...they can not resist.
I would also set more by bathroom etc if you do not manage the problem quickly they are hell to get rid of.
Boric acid is not harmful to you pets etc. Sprays for the little ones will only chase them this will get them long gone.

 

[james9487]

Sorry about your monitor. That is pretty wierd. My solution to ants involves a can of WD-40, a lighter, and some evil laughter, but that wouldn\'t have put you in a better spot.