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Ants Invade iBook

xkranda writes "Seriously ... this is off the Apple Discussions site. Apparently some poor sap's iBook became infested with ants. All I have to say is ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!!!"

33 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. What would Ellen Feiss say? by digital_milo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I looked down and saw the ants on my computer.

    I was like... hnuh...

    The ants de-voured my computer.

    It was a really good computer.

    ---

    Ellen, once you feel the ants crawling on your skin, darling, it's time to seek help.

    1. Re:What would Ellen Feiss say? by Myco · · Score: 5, Funny
      It was kind of a...

      ...

      (wait for it...)

      ...bummer...

  2. Ants like Apples . . . by CyberSlugGump · · Score: 5, Funny

    big deal. What's next in the news: Birds fly into Windows server?

  3. Someone needs to calm down by cicatrix1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    All I have to say is ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!!!

    It's ok, you can get down off of the chair now, Daisy.

    --

    I know more than you drink.
  4. Something like this... by Brigadoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I heard once about a problem like this before. A few cities in the southern US were having. Apparently, red ants would get into traffic lights' circuitry and completely destroy the stuff, costing a great deal of money.

    It turns out that a few ants had got in there and fried. Upon their deaths, their bodies released pheremones, attracted more ants, who promptly got fried, releasing even more pheremones, attracting more ants... You get the idea.

    1. Re:Something like this... by isorox · · Score: 5, Funny

      So traffic lights support genocide? I'll use that next time I go through one on red

  5. Killed my pentium. by uberstool · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I use to keep a P133 out in the garage workbench. I One day, I went out and the screen was black. I powered down for a hard reboot and got a few odd beeps and nothing else. I live in the middle of the Arizona desert and expected dust would eventually kill the machine. Turns out a fat ass black widow spider decided to melt her fat self on my processor.

  6. The original post by DarkSkiesAhead · · Score: 5, Informative
    from the apple discussion board:
    Has anyone had this problem? I hope not . . . After the first rain of the year, the ants outside were restless (and homeless). My wife had left her ibook on the mantle charging overnight. The next morning we noticed a large number of ants milling around it. Upon inspection we discovered ants crawling in and out of every hole in the computer. I grabbed my can of compressed air and started blowing! To my horror hundreds of ants started pouring out carrying eggs! I knew this was bad. I took the computer out to the garage and completely disassembled the thing layer by layer . My stomach turned when I exposed the main circuit board and saw thousand of ant and eggs (and a queen or two), writhing across every inch! Argh! After several hours with a vacuum and a can of air I finally got the thing clean. I put it back together (only a few extra screws) and luckily it works fine. Any theories on why ants would decide to move an entire colony into an ibook? Warmth? Sweet circuit boards? I think they were attempting to colonize the ultimate frontier: cyberspace.
  7. Apple Discussion Boards slashdotted by darco · · Score: 5, Funny

    Heh, I was browsing the apple discussion boards when things slowed down to a halt... So I thought, hell, I'll just read slashdot while I'm waiting for this to clear up... Lo and behold, I found the reason. ;)

    --
    — darco
    1. Re:Apple Discussion Boards slashdotted by The+Ancients · · Score: 5, Funny

      You and me both - looks like /. are running their own 'Switch' campaign.

  8. Re:Ants and electronics by NeuroManson · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not to mention that to some insects, the materials used to laminate circuit boards and some plastics that compose the electronics, are amazingly tasty... There was/is a lot of problems, for example, with cockroaches eating the plastic in wiring and circuitry...

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  9. better than roaches. by macsox · · Score: 5, Funny

    i used to have a 7200/120 that housed a roach family. that was pretty fucking gross.

    i eventually had to take everything in my house and shake it out over a plastic tarp that i ringed with roach killer. some stuff had to be submerged.

    moral of the story: never pay $180 a month in rent, anywhere.

    1. Re:better than roaches. by ZaphodCrowley · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, when I was younger, I left a coke can on my dresser. The next day, I had another coke, put it down somewhere, got the two confused. Next thing I knew I had a mouthful of ants. Ew.

  10. Seen it before... by breser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had something like this happen once before to me to a cordless phone charging stand that was in my kitchen. Something with sugar in it got underneath the charger and the ants made the charger their home. I'd guess someone left something sweet was around the computer. I haven't seen the comment since Apple's site isn't responding.

    I just take the charger apart. Sprayed it with Lysol (yes this will kill ants). Put it in a plastic bag and left it. Next morning lots of dead ants. Then came cleanup followed by lots of drying. I also had to keep spraying for ants
    until eventually they quit coming back.

    However the charger is still working nicely for me. :)

  11. Instant Karma! by NeuroManson · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just remembered, the second (or was it third?) big game released by Maxis on the Mac, long before the PC, was "Sim Ant"...

    Revenge is a dish best served with mandibles and insect appendages...

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  12. Dude! by NeuroManson · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're getting an infestation!

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  13. They're not bugs... by mtec · · Score: 5, Funny

    they're features.

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  14. What are the odds? by vandelais · · Score: 5, Funny

    Another Steve Jobs company attacked by Antz.

    Is Dreamworks responsible?

    What are the odds?

    --
    Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
  15. Re:Beats roaches by hype7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I once had a Beige G3 300, and a spider of some description decided that the ethernet port seemed like a pretty attractive living space.

    One day, I could not for the life of me figure out why the ethernet port wasn't working. I got round the back of the computer, and noticed a little bit of what appeared to be plastic thread hanging out. I pulled, and pulled and pulled, and I swear I pulled out the longest fucking piece of spider web you'll ever see.

    -- james

  16. I can beat all the insect/reptile takeover stories by Derg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had a buddy of mine ask me to take a look at his computer. It had begun to make thumping/ticking noises when he would turn it on, and would not stop till he turned it off. I cracked the case, to find a quite dead and petrified rat inside his case, that thumped against his cpu fan. fuckin sick.. how it got in, and died in such a way to not stink to high heaven, I will never know, though I suspect someone put it there..

    --
    I'm a little tea pot.
  17. Ive had worse... by rosewood · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, I was doing my time, paying my dues and doing what I could to bring quality to the lifeless void that is a Best Buy black shirt technician (well, we became black shirts while I worked there). Anyhoo, this "woman" brought in a very old packard bell that was covered in yellow dust. A smoker. Some of the worse shit comes from smokers. As soon as she walked in the door, the AV tech told me to tell her to go away. My manager heard this and got pissy. She later recanted.

    She brought her computer up and slapped down her PSP that had 20 or so days left and demanded a new computer because this one would no longer turn on. So I said okay, checked it in and put it in the back. When we opened it, a whole cock-a-roach family came running out. I almost vommited right then and there. It took WEEKs to get rid of those fuckers, adn even then we knew they were not gone.

    Aparently about two months earlier this same nasty lady came in to the av area with a vcr for a "cleaning." When the AV tech opened it he found a dead mouse and silverfish. To this day you can find silver fish in that best buy :

  18. Re:Beats roaches by Myco · · Score: 5, Funny

    You think you were surprised -- I'm envisioning the world's most alarmed spider as you pull thread out of its ass as fast as it can produce it. Now there's an image for ya.

  19. Re:Ants and electronics by inyercells · · Score: 5, Funny

    Never open a burglar alarm panel box in any food establishment if you're the slightest bit squeamish.

  20. Re:you obviously don't live in southern CA by DAldredge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Napalm, daisy cutters, nukes, bio and chem weapons have no effect on Fire Ants. You can't kill them, you can just make them move. It's almost like they are natures version of lawyers.

  21. Re:Plastics? by TrinSF · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oooo! I know the answer to this one, because it happens to some kinds of dolls, too.

    The answer many common plastics make use of "food" components, including corn solids and syrup. Here's a listof things made with corn, including plastics.

    Plastics "separate" over time, with components migrating to the surface. It's the organic parts of plastic that cause problems like mold/fungus on plastics, as well as make them tasty for bugs.

  22. Simple Extermination Procedure by Alu3205 · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) Power on laptop
    2) Wait for smoke and insect screams to die down
    3) Ventilate Area

    --
    Slashdot comments can be accurate, highly modded, or posted quickly. Pick two.
  23. Re:not all that funny by Lars+T. · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they were stealing his time?

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  24. Re:for anybody wondering who ellen feiss is by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't get it. What's so funny about a button that says "Get Quicktime" on it?

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  25. Re:Ants and electronics by goon+america · · Score: 5, Funny
    I have a hub that apparently runs at the ideal temperature for incubating ant eggs. At least 3 times ants have come in and tried to build an ant-nursery underneath this hub, which is just sitting on the floor.

    Maybe they were feeding the babies my lost packets?

  26. Re:That's funny. by spike+hay · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been telling those mac weirdos the whole time that apple was buggy. Never believed me.

    --
    If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
  27. Re:Ants and electronics by cervo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Report Has a report from the department of Engineering Technology at Texas Tech about ways to stop fire ant damage. The first few pages discuss the problem: Basically it says that the alternating magnetic fields generated by and within the electronic equipment attract the ants from short distances. When the ant dies the electricity causes strange reactions, including the release of pheromones which attract other ants. And it seems that in some places this is a serious problem as was said with some figures quoted. However this report is about fire ants and I am too lazy to research more to see if it generalizes to all aunt species so good luck :)

  28. Re:Ants and electronics by baryon351 · · Score: 5, Funny

    From time to time I've found myself chewing on anything I can find. Pen lids and pencils are one thing, and I caught myself nibbling the corner of a NIC a few months ago. I can't exactly describe the flavour. It wasn't offensive, more "interesting". "Interesting" might just be enough to sucker ants in. -b.

  29. isn't it obvious? by UnixRevolution · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it's pretty obvious why the ants went for the iBook. Whenever i go on a picnic, the ants always go after the fruit first, especially APPLES. I'm going to get modded off the board for this.

    --
    You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.