OMG There is an ant farm in my scanner!

[Elleth]

I haven't used the scanner in a couple of weeks. I just now opened it to make a scan and there are 1000's of ants inside of it...OH MY GOD!!!! I am totally freaked out...I have a really clean house and I never eat near my computer equipment, why would they make a nest in the scanner? I'm afraid the scanner is ruined, and it's not a cheap scanner, I paid well over $400 for it. Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them? If so what did you do?
Thanks for letting me vent...now I'm going to run outside and scream!

[goose443]

It might be worth trying to scan them. You may have accidentally discovered a new art form.

[Elleth]

lol...I already did that...all I got was rainbow colored lines. They are not on the bed of the scanner, they are IN the scanner...oh the horror!

[Mike]

Never heard of ants in a scanner, but I have ants in my Photoshop!




Sorry I could not resist........

[Doug Nelson]

Careful, they may be fireants, which are known to be attracted to electromagnetic fields.

[Peter S]

I was going to say something about marching ants and selections, but can't bring myself to do it.
P

[goose443]

Alright, it has to be said. Try command "D"

[mistermonday]

Actually in PS it is Ctrl H or View>Extras (Uncheck to make the ants go away). Or perhaps your computer has a "RAID" controller. Sorry.
You could get them out and then determine if the scanner is salvageable.
Option 1: 50/50 mixture of icing sugar and baking soda. The ones that don't die will leave pretty quickly providing you open and escape hatch.
Option 2: Cold temperature for several hours + Shop Vac.
Regards, Murray

[Cameraken]

Hi Elleth

You could try

Filter > Stylize > Diffuse and Uncheck the Antisotrpic

If that doesn’t work try turning off Anti-aliasing


(Sorry I couldn’t Resist)
Ken

[Kraellin]

ken,

i think i just heard a collective *groan* emanating from retouchpro. go to your room!

elleth,

if you ran the scanner it's most likely still functional. you do need to get rid of the ants, however. and i sort of get from your squeals that that's what you had in mind. you've several options. go out to the drugstore and get a bottle of "Terro". this is an ant killer and it works very well. however, that will require that you then open up the case and clean out the dead ants. another option is to simply open up the case and unceremoniously dump the ants outside. again, from your squeals, i'd say get a friend to do this for you another option would be to try to lure the ants out to another location, preferably not into your furniture, rugs or other unwanted nesting site. since the ants were attracted to the scanner for some reason, perhaps as stated by doug, an electromagnetic field, simply set something up with a similar or stronger field that you can easily flush out when done.

i get a yearly migration into my kitchen that shows up each spring of tiny black ants. the Terro is my solution for this. it's something they cant resist but which kills them quite effectively.

you might also want to consult a pest control person. the ants are getting in somewhere. finding where and handling that can be the most effective means of prevention. you might also want to set out 'traps' in your yard near your house. this will keep the problem outside in the future.

craig

[raniday]

A few summers ago, we had a heatwave and drought, and ants invaded our kitchen. Naturally, we called the exterminator guy. I don't like having insecticides sprayed inside the house, but this was out of control. He came like a dozen times, each time spraying stronger chemicals inside and out, and he didn't even slow them down. From my research online, I found oil of cloves suggested, so I tried it, putting a few drops in a spray bottle of water and sprayed it in all their entry paths. It stopped them immediately! You can watch them, and where they walk across a sprayed area, it seems to burn their feet, and then they crumple up and die. I'm not saddistic, but I enjoyed watching the li'l invaders die because I had battled them for so many weeks! So now, a part of my cleaning routine is to finish up with a light mist of oil of cloves spray over everything in my kitchen, window sills, counter tops, floors, wall, everything, and a bonus is that the room smells wonderful.

Anyway, I said all that to say this. They must have a path to the scanner. I would spray all the surrounding area. The idea about putting them in the cold sounded good, but they'll come back unless you've treated the area. You can buy a bottle of clove oil at your health food store. Hope that helps.

[Cassidy]

Careful, this might be another ebay exclusive collectable in the making!

[Kraellin]

lol cass i want the potato chip shaped like jay leno's head

craig

[PatrickB]

You could put the scanner into the freezer and then suck them out with a vacuumcleaner.

Or go get an ant-eater, biological warfare

[grafx]

I don't know about the freezer, but I'd definately go for the vaccuum. Get one of those small computer cleaning ones and suck away!

What about ant baits outside the scanner?