Buggy darkroom

My darkroom is in my unfinished basement, and as such, it is sometimes visited by a variety of creepy crawly things -- spiders, camel-back crickets (aggressive creatures I've dubbed "hoppy bugs")and other insects. When the lights are out, I go to pondering what could be crawling up my leg. My question is: Has anyone tried those electronic devices that emit sound waves that purportedly drive away insects? My other options are to keep a can of bug spray in the darkroom, or just simply learn to co-exist with these guys. Thanks for comments.

The high frequency sound producing devices don't work.

You need more spiders.....they keep to themselves and do their

respective jobs quietly. Here in the Midwest, where I work, one does

as you say and simply takes a live and let-live attitude towards

bugs.

In the U.K. we can buy bicycle clips. I admire youre devotion to your

art.

Pete.

Ben... I cannot resist telling you this.<p>

When I first saw the heading of your post "buggy darkroom", my first

thoughts were of an Amish photographer wanting a portable lab!!! <p>

The brain cells are almost completely gone... -Dave

Thank God - I wasn't the only one..... DJ

That makes three of us! Since some of the local Amish boys have

started riding small motorcycles, why not photography?

I had the same impression -- images of a Mathew Brady wannabe looking

to set up a mercury vapor laden deathtrap. Have to admit a perverse

part of me admired the idea.

Count five, only I pictured one of the guys doing wet plate.

Also guilty but I thought it was a reference to the other discussion,

ie. darkroom = horse and buggy era. Consider moving upstairs to the

computer and let the bugs take over? In my case, anytime I go

upstairs, the lady that lives there generally assumes I'm doing

nothing and assigns a list of honeydo's, so I just hide out with the

bugs. I suppose bugs would thrive on used fixer. J

As I've had to work in several dreadful dank cellars over the course

of my career, I knew right away what Ben meant by "buggy" but the

other interpretation reminded me about a farm wagon converted into a

pinhole camera that someone was pulling behind a tractor across the

German landscape last year.

 

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I'm afraid I can't help with extermination since I've always just

lived with the bugs, except in one old house that was being eaten by

termites. Every morning I'd come down to work and find sawdust all

over my work surfaces and equipment, from the boring and chomping that

had gone on in the night in the joists and rafters over my head. I

made a "ceiling" of thick black plastic stapled to the bottom of the

beams so the sawdust just stayed in the "ceiling" instead of messing

up my workroom.

Ben, I call those little guys "jumpy crickets"...my current home

darkroom is a room I built into a half finished basement....even

though I put in a makeshift ceiling, sheetrock, insulation etc...I

still see those little guys every now & then...along with a few

earwigs and spiders. The spiders I don't really mind that much, as

long as they're friendly....your post reminds me of our old darkroom

at work...it was a big room, and we had a water-bug/roach problem

(old industrial building).....when I did a deep tank run, I'd often

switch on the lights afterwards to see the bugs scurrying away all

over the place...up the walls etc....a new building solved that

problem.

 

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Katherine, hey I did the same thing in another darkroom I had at one

time...used heavy black plastic stapled to the floor joists above the

room. This was in the basement of a pretty crappy house I lived in at

the time, and I can remember watching the impression of mice feet

running around under the plastic above....that would always creep me

out more than the bugs...again, a new house solved that problem....

Ben: I live in the South, and bugs are a way of life. Your post

reminded me again of the time some 30 years ago a mouse ran across my

foot and started up my sock while I was in the dark developing film.

I ruined a batch of negatives and a pair of pants. I still think of

that incident every time I turn out the lights. Just don't spray for

bugs and then get into the darkroom before the air has a chance to

clear.

 

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Regards,

Thought of something other than a darkroom on wheels. One thing that

sometimes works for such situations is borax. Borax is toxic to

insects- the powder gets on their bodies and when they preen, the

borax enters their systems and thus dies the insect. Doesn't always

work- if it's too damp the borax may cake, but I believe that there's

a form of it sold expressly for insecticidal uses that has an anti-

caking ingredient in it. The good thing about borax as compared to

other pesticides is its low mamilian toxicity.

I've harnessed 8 spiders to pull ... never mind. There are these 8"

long triangles that sit against the wall and have pheremone bait in

them. The spiders go in and stick. Non-toxic. 5 to a pack. Great in

the dark room where the cats can't get to them.

Dean

Like Doug, I live in the South, and I had a problem with insects,

too. Palmetto bugs are the real challenge. They're large, bold and

well armored. They're fond of munching some kinds of cardboard and

book bindings (I think it's the glue they're after). I've had good

experinece with the flat black insect traps. They look like hockey

pucks with little windows in them (the traps, not the bugs). Place

them against the wall and in the corners where the varmints like to

travel. The ones that survive are best sent to glory with a sidearm.

 

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Good luck!