Simon Burge wrote:

> We once had an ant nest in a power-supply (although I didn't see it in
> the ... umm ... flesh).  I'm sure David Burren will post all the gory
> details :-)

Actually, I don't think it was in the power supply.  This was in
Brisbane (Queensland - northish Australia) with some 5000/133s in a
telco field drafting office.  Some of the machines were on desks against
a brick wall, and ants came through cracks in the mortar and started
building in the back of the machine.  Lots of mortar sand, ant poo, and
small black ants (about 2mm long each).  The sand construction reached
from the wall, through the side grill towards the rear of the
DECstation, and across the motherboard.  At this point the machines
(there were two affected) still ran quite happily, although the
draftsmen using the machines got a bit concerned about the wildlife :)

I think the official response in our internal problem-reporting database
was something along the lines of "don't worry, their feet aren't large
enough to short out tracks".  I did clean out the machines when I was on
site, but who knows how long it took the ants to rebuild? :)

Simon - is that enough gory detail?
__
David Burren