The little perforations

[Moonyaker]

A couple of days ago I decided to tidy my garage (where I store the Yak which has been cocooned here in blankets since last September). This area is part open fronted with a log store and a timber and blockwork garage behind.

 

Within the log store my children had left over the winter one of these plastic rocking/see saw toys. I felt that they had grown out of this thing and since I was having a tidy-up decided to chuck it. However, before I got it to the car I realised that it was riddled with neat holes around 3.5mm in diameter; you will understand that I was a little confused by this. My next door neighbour John happened to great me at this stage and so I showed him this thing; a bit of a boffin is he and he pulls on his beard for a while and then says ‘ that’ll be the Death Watch Beetle then’. ‘ Surely they don’t eat plastic?’ ‘They do you know’ says he. ‘that Rocking Horse thing has been stored with all those damp logs, the beetles have just gone from log to plastic and all that rattling is the dead beetles inside the toy,. Sure enough I took a saw to the thing and inside there were loads of beetles. My camera is on the blink but I have a link.

 

http://www.iscapreservation.co.uk/insects.htm

 

The penny then dropped and with a cry of ‘shoot!’ I went into the garage to unwrap the Yak. ‘Phew!’, fortunately it appeared untouched by the beetles and my visions of a giant orange colander were not manifest.

 

I remained concerned and went to quiz the boffin some more. ‘The Yaks O.K. but what can I do to make sure that they do not go for that next?’ ‘Well, you need to apply some insecticide to it. ‘ I cannot do that, it could rot the plastic and invalidate the warranty as well as killing any fish it might come into contact with or make them inedible’. He thinks some more and then says that I could use and alternative. All eager ‘What’s that says I?’. ‘Lap Oil’ says he. ‘What?’ Lypoaythenepolydol oil, Lap Oil for short, we used to use it at the local safari park to treat the external timber furniture which used to stay out all winter, it’s completely environmentally friendly and we used to mix it with 10 parts olive oil and one part Lap Oil, keeps the bugs away but does no harm to anything else. ‘ Guess that’s what I need then, where do I get it?’. Gosh, no idea, its been a long time since I worked there but it used to be manufactured by a company called Rolf as I recall.

 

I’ve tried the net but cannot find any reference to Rolf Lap Oil? Anyone have any ideas on where to get hold of it?

 

John has promise to come back to me on this one but its all a bit concerning at this stage.

[Ped]

Pinch Punch !!

 

Ped

[spanner]

give me an M please Bob ....... Rolf Lamp Oil

[Ped]

You know that Beatle mite not have been a 'Death Watch Beetle' it could have been a 'Stultus Aprilis', they can cause the same sort of problems. I beleive that they are quite prevelant at this time of year just as the weather warms up.

 

Ped

[spuds]

:)AAAAh The glorious First