Bugs and the location of a layout?

Spiders and centipedes, with spiders in the lead this year.  They seem to be in abundance, more than in previous years.  They love the cool basements.  

Mines in my living room and spyders are a never ending problem.

First off is get a good de-humidifier at Lowes or Home Depot.  

Run it until reads less than 50% humidity.

Next call the exterminator, inside and outside spray is 160 dollars. Includes ants, wasps and spiders. 

The place near me has a guarantee, if you see another within a year, they come out for free.

I live in Florida spiders and other insects are a fact of life. I have found dead spiders,  wasps,flies, and others. I just have fun with it. Every once in a while I will see a spark or a spark and the engine stops. Generally it means another bug has failed to look both ways before crossing the tracks.

I mentioned this on another thread but in Hawaii most people use Ortho "Home Defense". It lasts up to a year. You just spay around the perimeter, doors, windows and any opening to your house. The stuff dries and won't hurt your dog or cat. The insects make it a couple feet after stepping on it and then die. We spray about every six to nine months and it really works. Don

I got this Ortho bug spray from Home Depot last year. 2-3 times a year (spring, summer, fall) I spray it around the basement perimeter where floor meets walls. Then around the outside of the house where the foundation meets the house structure, and around all the exterior doors and patio. It has worked pretty well, only see an occasional small spider or other small insect.  

I was going to call an exterminator when we first moved in this house a couple years ago (we have green space on two sides and lots of creatures around here), but this spray has been doing a pretty good job so far and we haven't yet had to call one.

Looks like scale rail uses it too, he posted while I was looking for the link. If it works in Hawaii, it must be good. I think they have loads more bugs than we do here in Kansas.

I really don't think that moving anything away from the wall will keep bugs off the layout. They have six or eight (or more, if we're talking centipedes and the like) legs and no respect for gravity at all. Then there are the wings. Some of our modeling materials are

tasty to them, too, though less than in the past - they can love old paper and cardboard, but the pink and blue foam is not food.

Now, I'm going to give you the solution that absolutely works, and my layout proves it.

It is even in an outbuilding which, while very livable (in the hobby sense), is not even really airtight - or bugtight.

If you would like, cover your equipment with newspaper. I do this only casually and have seen no residue on anything. Set off a bug bomb in the layout area.

Do this twice a year - spring and late summer. Easy. Quick. Safe - just leave for 2 hours.

I live on the Gulf Coast with Major League bugs. No sissy Northern insects here. We have

cockroaches that turn and say to you "what you lookin' at?"

This works, in the house and the "train building". It's also cheap.

SGP,

Your problem is not a unique one. Anyone in the hobby can, does, and will encounter this problem at one time or another. There have been many good and note-worthy suggestions offered. The two that I have used Stateside and overseas are: 1) Plan as stated by, J Daddy works great in CONUS. 2) Plan suggested by, scale rail Don works great if you want to do all the work yourself.

The most important thing you can do is to be extremely vigilant with your layout building supplies. Lastly but the most important step to rid your home of these pests. Practice an extreme level of cleanliness on and around your layout, daily if necessary.  

Firewood:  Thanks, haven't read the "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" in years. Reminds me of very strange days a long time ago.

I do the exterminator 3x a year, keeps the ants and spiders down. Watch out for carpenter ants, they're as bad as termites.

This is the best. Relatively safe to people and animals and stops ants and the only real thing for stink bugs!

 Glue boards work for me.  Glue boards will suprise you with the bugs they collect even after Home Defense treatments.

My buddy has an exterminating business and he says that the glue boards are the ultimate catch all.

I get a package of 100 every now and then on line for a great price.

"Relatively safe to humans "-----That's comforting.

I see occasional invaders in the attic, primarily stink and lady bugs. Predator/prey. Neither put up much of a defense against my shop vac.

Our big Hawiian pool guy stepped on a large centipede once to kill it and it still reached around a bit his foot. One of the crew that redid our kitchen woke up one night with a terrible pain in his ear. Yes a centipede was in his ear. The guy across the street has been bit twice in his bed. That's why we spay. The bit is not like mainland centipede, the pain lasts for three days. I asked our doctor what to do if we ever got bit. He said get drunk for three days. We leave our shoes outside but I alway hit the back of them to make sure there are no centipedes in them. This is not the largest we've seen. Don

A few days before this thread started I sprayed around the foundation with Ortho Home Defense, as recommended by Don. I happened to see it on sale at Ace and decided to give it a try to keep the black widow spiders from building webs. So far I haven't seen any new webs where I sprayed. They like to build webs near the ground. I've also found them in the garage, but not in the workshop/train building. I once put my hand under my outdoor gas grill to turn on the gas and there was a black widow right there. Fortunately I didn't get bitten and I disposed of the spider immediately. I don't have any particular problem with the workshop/train building. I do occasionally find scorpions in the workshop. In Southern Arizona we have bark scorpions, which are a camouflage beige color and very small. Their sting is much worse than the bigger scorpions - the pain can last for months, and one can kill a small child. I've been stung once by a big black scorpion, but that wasn't all that bad. It's the little ones that are the worst.

In Belize we had cockroaches so big that we used to shoot them in the living room with a pellet gun. 

Another vote for this.

Used it for years and it's fantastic.

The worst I have ever had here was a two and a half foot chicken snake.

 When I lived in New Orleans bugs were just part of life,especially roaches and termites.

  Here in central Texas we deal with scorpions and an annual plague of crickets and grasshoppers.

Douglas 

Thank you everyone. The Ortho "Home Defense" looks like an interesting idea, although I am a dog person that will need to do more research before trying that.

I still wonder if I moved the layout away from the wall if this would allow that side of the layout to be patrolled for pests and things easily and would help. . . or perhaps I am trying to justify a difficult move to myself.

We have two dogs and a cat. No problem. I've even seen our geckos and the Mynah birds that like to walk into our bedroom without a problem. Don

I have 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 turtle, 4 hamsters, 3 children, and 1 wife. As long as you don't put it in the food your good. 

As for moving the layout from the wall. It just will give those who rock and wall climb, easier access to your layout without any special equipment and it still will not stop those who like to repel.

The shop vac method works, especially on the bench work under the layout.

I've used Home Defense around the house for years.  Works good, and the dog and cat haven't complained yet. 

I get centipedes in the basement after rain, but usually not on the layout.

Jeff Davis

My layout is in an unfinished basement.  I put 6 - 8 glue boards around the basement (and layout) when a mouse got into basement last Fall.  Yes, the glue traps caught the mouse, but I was pleasently suprised at the number of bugs they also trapped.  Now, I keep them around, more so for the bugs than anything else.

Jim

Layout is in the garage, in TX

nuf said

Brent

Holy Asian carp!