uchuck@ecsvax.UUCP (Charles Bennett) (08/26/89)
This may be rather bizzare, but what can one do about cockroaches in
PC's. PLEASE no comments about debugging it or get a MAC, Sun, etc.
Liquids and/or powders are not good for the disk drives ;-(. What
about a gas in a plastic bag??
--
Chuck Bennett e-mail (any): uchuck@unc.bitnet
University of NC uchuck@ecsvax.uncecs.edu
Medical CAI uchuck@med.unc.edu
Phone: 919-966-1134 uchuck@uncvx1.acs.unc.edubrown@m.cs.uiuc.edu (08/26/89)
Written 4:29 pm Aug 25, 1989 by uchuck@ecsvax.UUCP in comp.sys.ibm.pc: >This may be rather bizzare, but what can one do about cockroaches in >PC's. PLEASE no comments about debugging it or get a MAC, Sun, etc. >Liquids and/or powders are not good for the disk drives ;-(. What >about a gas in a plastic bag?? As an undergrad, I worked as a PC programmer at a department of entomology. Since pesticide use was absolutely forbidden in the entire building, cockroaches were rife. The roaches absolutely *loved* the PC's--the cabinets are dark and warm. If water were available, a computer would be cockroach heaven. (So getting a Mac wouldn't help, anyway. :-) ) Since the department forbade insecticide use, there was little that we could do at the time except put up with the roaches. As long as you don't mind the damn things, they really don't seem to cause any harm (I've opened PC's and seen a dozen or more roaches run from the sudden light). You might even get used to the sight of cockroach nymphs (young cockroaches) running around under your keycaps. :-) :-) Eventually, we were moved to a building away from the entomology department, and needless to say we needed to get rid of our roaches. If you're dead set against any liquid or powder poisons inside of your case, you might try traps (ala Roach Motel, although these take up a good deal of space inside a PC). There are also pesticide strips that you can place inside (on the walls of the case, the power supply and so on). Either of these should be attached to the walls of the case, the power supply or some other flat area. They should not be placed on the motherboard, as they'll interfere with the cooling of the components that they cover. When delousing our PC's, I used over-the-counter spray pesticides (Raid, and the like). As you've pointed out, it's necessary to protect the disk drives (and the power supply). To do this, I disassembled the PC and sprayed the inside of the case heavily (including the area under the motherboard, after removing the motherboard), and the top and bottom of the motherboard and cards lightly (avoiding the connectors). I didn't spray the power supply or disk drives at all. After spraying, I reassembled the system. If I remember correctly, one treatment like this was enough. (It may have just driven them out into the room. :-) In any case, do spray the surrounding room also.) If the problem persists (which might happen if they've laid eggs inside your PC), keep spraying at fourteen day intervals until they're gone. William Brown brown@cs.uiuc.edu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
sharon@asylum.SF.CA.US (Sharon Fisher) (08/28/89)
In article <8000054@m.cs.uiuc.edu> brown@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > If the problem persists (which might happen if they've laid eggs inside >your PC), keep spraying at fourteen day intervals until they're gone. My experience with roaches is that they have "live births." -- "Goldfish are quiet, under the water. "Girls who keep goldfish are sometimes quite loud." -- The Jazz Butcher
brown@m.cs.uiuc.edu (08/29/89)
Written 12:26 pm Aug 27, 1989 by sharon@asylum.SF.CA.US in comp.sys.ibm.pc: >In article <8000054@m.cs.uiuc.edu> brown@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: >> If the problem persists (which might happen if they've laid eggs inside >>your PC), keep spraying at fourteen day intervals until they're gone. >My experience with roaches is that they have "live births." No, they really do lay eggs (A Ph.D. entomologist pointed them out to me). The egg sacs (many eggs are in a single sac) are a light gray/brown color. The ones that were pointed out to me were fairly large (for roaches)--around 3/16 of an inch in overall diameter. The roach nymphs hatch out in a short time--within about two weeks. (I suspect that all of these parameters vary depending on the kind of roach--I believe that our roaches were German cockroaches.) Maybe we should move this discussion to rec.roaches? :-) William Brown brown@cs.uiuc.edu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign