My last ballasting project was well over a month ago. Today I noticed that I had left the top off the jar of Woodland Scenics medium ballast and at first it appeared there were several pieces of clump foliage on top of the ballast. Closer inspection revealed it was actually dead house flies. Seven of them and all pretty good sized. Apparently, something in the ballast attracted them into the jar and then killed them. I have no idea what it could be. Could they have injested the ballast and then been unable to fly? Does anybody have any ideas?
Maybe outgassing of a chemical that’s pretty heavy, thus not dispersing from the open jar.
Also, I think some nut shells feature cyanide as a component. And I think that’s what Woodland Scenics ballast is made from.
Maybe the jar needs a safety label: DO NOT INGEST BALLAST. IT IS POISONOUS. Just in case you were thinking of eating something crunch.
Ed
Simple…flies are scavengers…everything attracts them…they flew in to get a feel and got stuck and died…just like old fashion fly paper. Their struggling to get free imbedded them deeper.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Don’t know about the warning label but that tells me I need to keep the ballast out of reach of my dogs. They will eat anything and they have chewed through plastic jars to get at the dry roasted peanuts.
I’m just sort of speculating. They DID die, after all. Maybe Frank’s right, and they got physically stuck.
I will agree that you shouldn’t let your dogs eat the stuff. But what about that obnoxious neighbor…
Ed
Well an ordinary house flys life expectancy is usually 15 to 30 days, depending on weather and living conditions…like how much useable air was in the container and how hot it was and how many more days it had to live.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Frank,
What’re the odds that those flies, as they all approached the end of their natural life span, happened to ALL land in the jar. And die.
Makes it sort of a hospice jar, I guess.
Ed
Ed,You mean something like this?
The State of California has determined eating this product is hazardous and can cause death. Do not eat.
Maybe fly eggs in the ballast. They hatched, lived and died in the container.
Ed. You’re killing me. What’s even funnier I think you’re right. Thanks for the railroad humor. Ballast is not sticky until you mix it with glue.
I just hope there aren’t any fly lawyers flying around ready to sue me for leaving such a hazardous container around.
To answer a previous question, since the lid on the jar was off, the flies could have gotten out as easily as they got in unless something caused their demise before they could leave. In any case, it worked out well because house flies are a real nuisance to model railroads since they are grossly out of scale and can ruin an otherwise really good picture. I might just keep an open jar of ballast around all the time, making sure to keep it out of reach of my dogs.
I doubt that since these were big flies and were not newly hatched.
Just so You know…flys are ‘‘dumb’’…just because they flew into the container…that does not mean they can fly out…they supposedly see everything in slow motion, but can detect light flickering quicker than We can. Just like a fly that flies into Your house through a hole in a screen…odds are against them, that they can find that hole again…You will usually see them at a window flying around trying to get out because they see the light reflection…same thing that they more than likely did in the container…seeing the light reflecting on the container trying to find a way out. I learned this from an exterminator that I had called few yrs. ago about a fly problem I had in My kitchen windows. Every summer around June, all of a sudden I would have quite a few flies around the kitchen and some trying to get out at the living room picture window. I would swat about 15 and about a new 20 would show up. What I thought was amazing was the fact that they were all the same size and looked exactly the same…tried everything to get rid of them…Black Flag helped, but they were back again next yr. about the same time. So I called an exterminator and he found the source. Which was My kitchen windows…I had the older double hung windows with the lead weight in the sides and the weights had been removed but the opening for the weights was still there, which is a void between the window and the wall. I took off the molding to get at it and He sprayed some kind of solution in there. After it dried I filled the voids with liquid insulation. They were laying Larve/eggs in the void and when the temp. was great, they hatched about the same time every yr., one of the reasons they were all the same size and looked alike. Since I did that…never had a fly in the house again…unless, one hitched a ride on the Dog…or Me…LOL.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Well I think you ought to market this & sell it ,Somebody made a fortune selling pet rocks.[:D]
Yup. Maybe in ALL CAPS.
Could also add: DO NOT LET OTHERS EAT. THIS STUFF. IT’S OK IF THEY EAT FOOD, THOUGH. UNLESS IT’S POISONOUS TOO. THEN DON’T LET THEM EAT THAT, EITHER.
Ed
I mean: ED