I went out to run my trains last night after a two week break from them to discover that something has been nibbling on the edges of my roads here and there which are made of painted poster board. At first I thought it might be mice, but after closer inspection I now suspect silver fish. Of course this caused quit a stir with me, so I inspected the entire layout for other signs of such damage but found none - so far. I’m hoping to prevent this problem from getting any worse by buying silver fish poison and placing it around the layout when I don’t plan on being in the train room for a while and see if that solves the problem.
Anyone else out there ever had this happen to them ?.
I had mice on the layout I tore down this spring. They ate all the foam they could get their dirty paws at and they left crap everywhere. I put up 5 mice traps and poison but it wasn’t fun, that much I can tell you. Now in my brand new train room I have no such problems. Just a few spiders in a corner sometime. Hardly a problem.
We have a two foot long Chuckwalla, a variety of lizard, living in our clubhouse. Several trees have been eaten and we suspect it may be the lizard after the salt content in the glue.
A few years ago a bunch of HO scale cattle disappeared. During a track realignment, we found them stashed in a cavity under some elevated track, and suspect that a packrat got into the clubhouse and moved them.
A harmless snake has been seen a couple of times, and it shed its skin on the layout. At one time we had a black widow spider that was so large one of the members said she was his pet. We’ve also had a harmless tarantula and a sun spider in the building which we’ve just shooed out.
We’re not sure what else may be getting into the building that we don’t see.
I noticed the other day a mouse chewed up a blue box I had stored away. (box, not the car)
I found a black widow and her nest in the train building about 2 weeks ago![:O]Didn’t know we had black widows in Tn.! I’m afraid to clean the track in my tunnel now.
I use that Ortho Home Defence spray along the base boards inside and out. I set off a bug bomb about every month or so too.
tracklayer: If you live in Southeast Texas, it could be cockroaches too…the big nasty black monsters. Our club layout has had them, and they’ll eat just about anything.
We’ve also had such lovely critters as mice, spiders of all descriptions, geckos…and a few weeks ago, we discovered the beginnings of a yellowjacket nest under one part of the layout (abandoned, fortunately).
Scorpions? Yup, we’ve got scorpions. Each year we wind up killing about 10-20 (mostly during the really hot months) . Fortunately they’re not the lethal variety, but they do hurt if they sting you. Here’s one next to an N scale boxcar. In operation that tail is usually curled up over the back and not stretched out like this.
Well if they are silverfish it’s not like they hurt anything, heck they can’t even carry human cross over bugs (read disease). They are more an annoyance than anything else.
The best way for you to wage war on Black Widows - or any other spider for that matter - is through the use of a spider swatter; this looks suspiciously like a fly swatter but the more appropriate name is “spider swatter”. You are going to have a hard time swatting Widows unless you venture outdoors at three or four in the morning. You will get rid of any Widow problem you have by locating their webs at the baseboard and breaking them down with a broom when you do find them; spiders don’t catch anything except in a web and if they have to continue to build those they can’t catch any food and when they begin to get hungry they will go somewhere else to cast their web. You have to even check under the layout but do this in the daytime when you are least likely to find them away from their daytime hiding place. It is highly unlikely you will ever encounter a Black Widow inside a tunnel although I do understand that G-Scalers can have this problem.
I suspect that my first wife got bitten when we were living in government quarters when I was still in the Air Force.
What you need to watch out for are Brown Recluse spiders which live off the ground and will interpret your underside-of-layout as a rafter area which is where they like to hang about. Although we do have these critters out here in the Southwest they originally hail from the Southeast and that is where they are most prolific. Again, breaking down their webs will cause them to seek out safer climes . . . . . . . . . . usually higher than where they have been. These critters are probably even more dangerous than Black Widows; there was a guy that encountered one webbed up inside a low-relief structure on his layout. When he removed the structure from its base he layed his hand on it and it got him. Their poison does a lot of flesh damage and frequently requires flesh to be cut away. Consider running a brush over the track inside your tunnels before you attempt to
No. No cockroaches so far. However, I did have a fire ant invasion about two years ago as well as a few small spiders here and there. I’ve also had mud dobbers come in through the A/C vent and end up dying in the window because they can’t get out.
In Sweden we are blessed. No earthquakes, no dangerous snakes, bugs, spiders or anything.
We have no poisonous spiders at all, atleast not to humans. Cockroaches are rare(I’ve seen one in a restaurant once in my life 20 years ago). Our snakes are few and the one that is poisonous isn’t really dangerous to human beings, except old, small kids and sick. I’ve never heard of anyone dying from them. The most dangerous animal would be the bee for allergic people and maybe the tick. A few people each year run into a moose with their car and die, but I think it would be wrong to say that the moose is at fault there.
You forgot reindeer Lillian. Those things are as bad as the moose, no respect for the road rules. They just wander from lane to lane thinking they own the place…Sheesh.
Might be roaches. The MR club I go has has had parts of the back-drop buildings (cardboard or carstock) eaten by them.
I have some kid of weird device that plugs into an outlet, keeps bugs away, but seems to attract big spiders (lots of brown recluses, green lynx, daddy long legs)and lizards (which I had a problem with; they kept the moths and other bugs away, but they pooped all over the place
You have to watch out for those recluses. I got bitten a few years ago near the ankle when I had shorts on. I was outside in a wood pile. After 3 days my legs were getting cramps and there was a nasty red line going up my leg. You could see two puncture marks near the ankle. I ended up in emergency on an IV for 3 days!! I was at the time a very healthy 50 something.
I too have spiders and mice in my train room - lust live with them and put traps out for the mice. The biggest problem is getting rid of the poops - you can’t vaccuum since you suck up all your trees and shrubs and passengers. There was one time I came into the train room and a mouse was quietly preening or eating on one of my siding tracks. I went and got a jar and a piece of cardboard and he just sat there while a put the jar over him. Slide the cardboard underneath and took him outside. Had to just let him go. He probably told all his friends that my train room was a cool place to go!!
That would bee (yes, pun intended) me. But, i don’t have it that bad, just have to take benydryll and everythings fine. That story is hilarious, R. T. Poteet.
