GreenGeek: Bugs in my computer (ants in my pants!)
Q:
Dear Green Geek,
I’d like to tell you a funny story. A few weeks ago my external hard drive suddenly stopped working. I was a bit panicked because I keep all of my important files on that drive! I gave the drive to a technically-minded friend. Upon inspection, he discovered that a small colony of ants had made a home inside the drive casing and were jamming up the works. The good news is, once he cleaned out the ants, the drive began to work again and so my precious files where safe. The moral to the story? Beware of computer bugs!
Yours pestfully,
Aunty Anti-Anty.
A:
Dear Anti-Anty,
Thank you for the funny story and photos! You may be surprised, but this sort of thing is a lot more common that you’d expect. I visit a lot of nurseries all over the country as part of my work, and am constantly amazed at the things I find inside computers and printers. We had one client who had a mouse living inside her computer (the animal kind, not the pointing device). The little rodent had eaten through a fan power cable, which would if left undiscovered, have resulted in her computer over-heating. At a large wholesaler, we found a colony of ants infesting a laser printer. I’ve seen insects walking around on the inside of computer monitors, and you’d be amazed at the number of cockroaches living inside modern electronics!
While not unique to the horticultural industry, pests inside computers are a particularly troublesome problem for us. Many pests are attracted to the safe, warm, dark and dry cavities found inside most electronic devices. Since most of our computers are placed in areas where insects and pests flee when the climate gets too hot or too wet, our computers and printers become prime targets for infestation.
Unfortunately, keeping such pests away from your valuable hardware is not as simple as applying an insect spray or, if you are an organic gardener like me, using beer-filled snail traps and companion planting! I strongly recommend against spraying insecticides or placing baits on or inside any electronic product. For a start, you run the risk of shorting out electronics! Secondly, many of the chemicals used in pest control products will vaporize and gradually damage the fine connections on circuit boards. (Likewise, cigarette smoke can gradually damage circuit boards.)
The only real solution to reducing pest problems is to stop the pests before they get near your computer. The simplest way to do this is to ensure that the room where you place your computer is kept clean, free of dust and dirt, and not wide open to the wild outdoors. For example, one of our clients placed their new computer and printer in a dirt-floor tin shed near their nursery production area. No surprise then that their printer quickly became the home of a colony of ants. At another site I visited, the client placed their printer next to a wall that was infected with termites. Guess where those little fellas’ ended up?
If you want to keep your hardware safe, for goodness sake place it inside a closed room. If that is not possible, then consider covering the equipment in plastic or cloth sheets when not in use.
While we are on the subject of keeping computers and printers safe, where you place your equipment can also have a big impact on how long it will last. Some tips to giving your computers and printers a long life are:
Keep computers and printer away from direct sunlight and heat. Don’t place computers or (especially) printers directly under a window if the sun streams through and heats up the area.
Protect all electronic devices from liquids. Ensure that the devices are not located under air conditioners or windows in case of leakage. Also look for the potential for water to leak through the roof or walls and pool on the desks where the computers sit. Finally, and I can’t say this enough, keep cups of coffee away from the computer! Spilling coffee on a keyboard is not a huge problem, but spilling it onto the computer’s case or onto a printer can result in all sorts of flying sparks.
Minimize the potential for damage from electrical power “spikes”. Power spikes can be frequent in rural areas. Depending upon how irregular your electrical supply is, you will need to invest in a ‘surge protector’ power-board (at the cost of about $30-50), or in a worst case, you may wish to consider an ‘uninterruptable power supply’ (at a cost of $300-$500.) Electrical spikes are particularly harsh on smaller electrical devices, like modems and routers (the things you use to connect to the Internet), but a power spike can also cripple your computer.
Keep your computer, monitor and printer dust and dirt free. Because they are electrostatic, most electronic devices attract fine dust particles, including dirt, pollen, smoke and even water from the air. All of these can cause corrosion on fine electronic components. It is a very good idea to periodically clean your computer with a dry, detergent-free chamois.
If you have a technically skilled friend, once a year you can also open your computer and gently blow out the dust (using a camera puffer or can of compressed air… Do NOT blow with your mouth, as that will leave water vapour all over the place!)
Cleaning touch screens or flat panel (LCD) screens needs to be handled with great care. First, turn off the screen (it’s easier to see the smudges that way), and then gently wipe with a chamois. If there are stubborn marks on the screen, dampen the chamois with a little water mixed with white vinegar. Avoid using commercial glass-cleaning products because they can sometimes turn your screens yellow or slightly opaque. The most important thing to remember is, do not press down hard on the screen! Many LCD screens are delicate and pushing down on the surface ‘crushes’ components underneath, resulting in odd colour patched on the screen.
In summary, you should think of all your valuable electronics as being a haven for the worst little pests in your nursery and protect the equipment accordingly. Ideally, keep your equipment in a climate controlled, low dust environment and take time to clean it periodically. If you do that, you can expect to get between 5 and 8 years reliable work from your computer.
However, if you really need your computer in that ol’ tin shed where the plant pots and labels are stored, just make sure you inspect and clean it every week, and expect to replace it in around 3-4 years.