OT: scary

Quite an "ant." Do you know how it got that name?

Next time you see one, take a close look, and I think the answer will be self-evident...

Better yet:

Shows a shot of a female that has dropped her wings (I'd forgotten that they do that once they've established their nest)

Another one, sans wings.

Here's one that still has its wings - It's either a male (and harmless, since the males, like male honeybees, have no stinger - That doesn't stop them from looking and sounding like death on wings, though!) or a young(ish) female who hasn't settled in and gotten her nest started yet.

The ultimate solution is simply Boric Acid.

Roaches think it is cocaine - they must eat it and then they die.

Relatively non-toxic to humans too... I think they carry it back and share it with their friends too...

Use it liberally (nice little plastic lids and metal glass jar lids work fine) around the apartment, out in the halls, etc... behind the counters!! Under the counters. Works on ants too I hear.

Dunno if anyone else mentioned this or not - not gonna read through the whole thread folks...

I think everyone in NYC knows about Boric Acid - it is sold everywhere in the big box Hdwe stores, etc...

_-_-bear

Diatomacious Earth.

(made from Diatoms - little micro organisms that dies eons ago...)

The stuff in scouring powder that does the abrasive cleaning. Buy some. Gardening supply places sell it by the 25 lb bag full.

Sprinkle it about and as one fellow said, spray it into the crevaces too... many of the little buggies get the stuff in and on them... it cuts them into little bits, they die. Dunno if it works on roaches, but it does work on all sorts of other crawly things of various sizes.

That should get rid of about 50% of the pests or more...

WHERE THE HECK DO YOU LIVE???

Gunner mentioned it. Interesting that you don't have time to read responses to your own question.

My question?

Interesting that you don't have time to read headers or names. :-b

Besides, what's wrong with giving good information out, even if it is redundant??

_-_-bear

Let's lay a myth to rest, shall we?

Boric acid kills bugs not through ingestion, but by literally grinding holes in them.

The crystals of boric acid are sharp and abrasive. The insects pick it up on their bodies - maybe due to hairs trapping it, moisture near breathing holes trapping it, sticky stuff of one form or another, or even static cling - and as they move, it wears holes in their hide (properly called "Chitin" - say it as "KY-tin") which makes them start "bleeding", and they eventually die of dehydration/blood (or at least bloodlike-fluid) loss.

Diatomaceous Earth, AKA "DA", AKA "Pool filter aid", works in exactly the same way, but due to the crystal structure being (comparatively) larger and sharper than boric acid crystals, works slightly faster than boric acid. However, it's EXACTLY the same mechanism at work.

In neither case do the targets eat it (other than incidentally as part of cleaning themselves, or getting it along with something that they are actually trying to eat - IE, the "honey and DA" trick someone else mentioned), and in neither case is it the substance that kills them, it's the friction of the substance wearing holes in their bodies - leading to bleeding/dehydration that actually does them in.

Roaches are particularly susceptible due to their (comparatively) hairy bodies, and the fact that they frequently carry a small static charge which causes the powder to cling to them. Other insects are affected by both, but usually to a lesser extent than roaches, unless something out of the ordinary happens to either expose them to larger-than-usual amounts of it, or causes them to spend more time exposed to it (a pill-bottle cap full of honey, surrounded by a ring of DA or boric acid powder that the bugs have to travel across to reach the honey is a prime example) so that they pick up a larger load of it than normal for them.

Now, can we PLEASE stop spewing the mis-information that boric acid or DA somehow "poison" the bugs? They don't. They wear holes in them, which efectively results in the bug bleeding to death.

For the persistant ones, I found a badmitton racquet works well ... sort of "quarters" them if you will. We learned that trick when we kept honey bees in the back yard. 4 hives, about 40,000 bees in each hive during the summer -- always one grouch -- the other 159,999 were good natured

mikey

Yep -- warm day, honey flow on and you know how to handle them, they tend to be very docile (of course there are those fools that think it is macho to have an aggressive hive). You do have to be careful if they get into any pesticide (someone sprays something they find). That tends to make them grumpy !!

Excellent post Don -- you are right - education is our best friend (and our little pets too)

And on the metal working side of things I welded up several hive carriers using square steel tubing that telescoped into the other side. each half looks sort of like the symbol for pi. Lift cleats on the hives - worked very well. Also built several "roll arounds" the same basic size as a bottom board with a lip around it the supers would sit down into so when you have 400 pounds of honey still in the comb you can move it around the basement.

mikey

I think ya got me, Bear! I thought you were the OP. Nothing wrong at all with posting good info, redundant or otherwise. Offerings must often be redundant to be accepted as "majority opinion" and therefore credible. Majority opinion is sometimes wrong but is usually accepted as right. I'm not saying you're wrong or right, just making an observation about how things seem to work.

I note that Gunner had mentioned the boric acid trick. Gunner is no asshole buddy of mine, I merely note his post.

More on this:

Gunner persists in ignoring my honest email inquiry re guidance for a handgu that I might like, though he bleats about how we all should be armed.

I hadda observe that Gunner note the boric acid trick, must further note that in my experience he is more smoke than fire. I don't like being ignored when I make an honest inquiry and request for guidance.

I do respect the value of Gunner's posts of material value re metalworking as and when they occur.

Naw. I would think the ultimate solution would be to burn the building down. Should kill all the roaches and discourage new ones from coming back.

Which email is that? Ive not ignored any such, nor do I ignore any emails from anyone here on any of these groups, with the sole exception of Cliff from AMC.

LOL.....your opinion is noted. Though perhaps it may behoove you to ask the some few here who have actually been to my residence...

Im sorry if you somehow got your feelings hurt, but I honestly have not ignored any emails from you. Please either post it here or on one of my other email accounts such as gunnerasch AT hotmail.com

I will give it my best effort to assist you, as I always do with people, friends or not.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

The wild bees in Michigan seem to have pretty much died out due to some nasty parasite.

Is there any usenet group that caters to beekeeping? I've always thought it would be cool to have a hive out back but never met a beekeeping person to learn from.

John

Roger. I'll try that. Thanks!

alt.hobbies.beekeeping sci.agriculture.beekeeping

Both pretty low traffic, but if you've got a question, squeak up and somebody will almost certainly answer.

The parasite is almost certainly either varroa mites or (less likely, due to the winter conditions in Michigan, but not impossible) tracheal mites.

Then there are the two main bee diseases - American Foulbrood (AFB) and European Foulbrood (EFB)

AFB is so nasty that in many states, the only legally acceptable treatment involves sealing the hive at dusk (When the vast majority of the foragers are inside), gassing the whole thing to death, then putting the entire structure - intact! No salvaging of honey, pollen, frames, boxes, or *ANYTHING*! - in a bonfire. It truly is that virulent.

EFB is bad, but not as bad as AFB - It's possible, and legally permissable, to save a colony and "clean up" after an EFB infection, but most beekeepers won't even consider doing so, since a colony that's been hit by EFB is usually so severely weakened that it's more economical (in terms of both money and effort) to just gas what's left of them, burn the frames, char the boxes, and start over from scratch. By the time you've done that much work, though, it's still cheaper, simpler, and more certain to just burn the whole thing and start completely fresh with new woodenware.

Between these four nasties, "wild" honeybee colonies anywhere in North America are pretty much doomed from the moment they set up housekeeping

- Only "tame" colonies under the supervision (and treatment, as needed) of a beekeeper have a chance under current conditions, although breeding and research on so-called "hygenic" bees is ongoing in an effort to come up with a strain (or strains) that are at least partially resistant to one or more of the main bee killers. So far, no "true success", but things are looking promising. (Side note: "Killer" bees are the result of very early breeding efforts in that direction - Seems that African bees are at least slightly more resistant to the mites than the Italian and Russian strains that are most often kept here in the USA. Of course, we all know (now) that the more aggressive Africans aren't exactly easy to work with...)

AFB is so nasty that in many states, the only legally acceptable treatment involves sealing the hive at dusk (When the vast majority of the foragers are inside), gassing the whole thing to death, then putting the entire structure - intact! No salvaging of honey, pollen, frames, boxes, or *ANYTHING*! - in a bonfire. It truly is that virulent.

THIS is something I have long wondered about....bonfires and deadly virulent diseases... The burning process notwithstanding, but fling a diseased hive, or a mad cow on a bonfire, and the sparks rise, the smoke rises....and... Ya know?

This is perhaps a Q for Jim Rozen, or others. Does the incineration process on a "home/farm scale perhaps spread the pathogen? Sure, it kills it at X degrees , but a fire lofts things into the atmosphere.

Wondering,

~Dave

Darn.. dunno if I want bees now, I'd sure hate to have to kill the poor things. I'll check out the groups you mention though, see what I can learn..

Many thanks,

John

Grandad's yarn about the night the boys, on the way home from town, saw a glow in the sky over "Old Joe's" place. When they arrived, there sat Joe on a stump in the yard watching the flames. When asked why he wasn't fighting to save his home, his reply was "those f*****g bed bug have made it hot for me for twenty years!" Gerry :-)} London, Canada