Can spiders/bugs harm a computer?

[Red Squirrel]

My servers are in the basement and I don't yet have the money to build a proper server room yet, so they're in the open and spiders seem to like hanging out around that area probably due to warmth. I noticed spider webs around and inside the servers. Nothing major, just the small line type webs. Can these harm a computer in any way? From my understanding, it's mostly silk, and does not conduct electricity. What about the spiders themselves if they walk on circuit boards?

The built on nic in my backup server just totally randomly died, so I'm wondering how that could of happened and wondering if it could be caused by bugs (lol).

 

[mfenn]

My servers are in the basement and I don't yet have the money to build a proper server room yet, so they're in the open and spiders seem to like hanging out around that area probably due to warmth. I noticed spider webs around and inside the servers. Nothing major, just the small line type webs. Can these harm a computer in any way? From my understanding, it's mostly silk, and does not conduct electricity. What about the spiders themselves if they walk on circuit boards?

The built on nic in my backup server just totally randomly died, so I'm wondering how that could of happened and wondering if it could be caused by bugs (lol).

The bugs themselves? Doubtful. Web/remains/etc. can clock intakes and fans though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The bugs themselves? Doubtful. Web/remains/etc. can clock intakes and fans though.

Fans are clear, so from the point of view of electronics I should be ok?

 

[james1701]

Grace Murray Hopper was working on the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator. On the 9th of September, 1945, when the machine was experiencing problems, an investigation showed that there was a moth trapped between the points of Relay #70, in Panel F. The operators removed the moth and affixed it to the log. The entry reads: "First actual case of bug being found."

Grace Murray Hopper, who lived from 1906-1992, found the first computer bug while working in a temporary World War I building at Harvard University on the Mark II computer where a moth had been beaten to death in the jaws of a relay. She glued it into the logbook of the computer and thereafter when the machine stops (frequently) they say that they are "debugging" the computer. The very first bug still exists in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. The word bug and the concept of debugging had been used previously, perhaps by Edison, but this was probably the first verification that the concept applied to computers.

 

[mfenn]

Fans are clear, so from the point of view of electronics I should be ok?

Yeah, I would say so. Just try to clean them out once and a while.

 

[lxskllr]

I have spiders in my case. I clean it out quarterly or so, and everything works fine :^)

 

[MisterDonut]

The feces might melt the tubes of your h20, and it might eat your hard drives ...jk

As long as you clean it out, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[pcgeek11]

Dude you guys need a good exterminator. I have never had a bug ( Insect type ) in any of my computers. Do a little cleaning damn.

 

[MisterDonut]

My Panaflo U1BX is my exterminator. If there were spiders, they cannot escape the black hole that fan will conjure. Too bad it was too loud for my tastes , a Scythe GT is just too gentle nowadays...

 

[lxskllr]

Dude you guys need a good exterminator. I have never had a bug ( Insect type ) in any of my computers. Do a little cleaning damn.

I like my spiders. I purposely clean around them :^)

 

[mfenn]

My Panaflo U1BX is my exterminator. If there were spiders, they cannot escape the black hole that fan will conjure. Too bad it was too loud for my tastes , a Scythe GT is just too gentle nowadays...

So that's why they called it the Gentle Typhoon!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Dude you guys need a good exterminator. I have never had a bug ( Insect type ) in any of my computers. Do a little cleaning damn.

Oh I did a pretty big killing spree. It was worse before I moved in. :awe:

 

[Interitus]

Oh I did a pretty big killing spree. It was worse before I moved in. :awe:

If I saw that, no way in hell am I moving in there, lol

Is that the house they filmed Arachnophobia in?

 

[Red Squirrel]

If I saw that, no way in hell am I moving in there, lol

Is that the house they filmed Arachnophobia in?

Haha could be. It took me a whole day to clean the webs in there. I have a phobia of spider webs, (but not spiders, go figure) so I was vacuuming a section out like crazy as far as I could reach, before I did a single step further lol. The servers are far from that area thankfully. I need to screen that off some day. I could also put a tesla coil in there and kill whatever may be alive in there LOL.

 

[Daemas]

I could also put a tesla coil in there and kill whatever may be alive in there.

that one

 

[ecom]

Oh I did a pretty big killing spree. It was worse before I moved in. :awe:

For a sec, I thought you had a mouse hanging from the ceiling.

Spiders may set up webbing in drafty places because it may mean that their webbing will catch more food.

 

[Modelworks]

Spiders are ok. Dirt is the real threat.

or mice

 

[d1m1]

Spiders are ok. Dirt is the real threat.

or mice

WTH???? Ok, I've seen a lot of things inside PCs (although I only got a cockroach inside a PSU of a PC I was repairing for a friend once, and that was it) but mice??

*wonders how they got there in the first place*

Also, to OP: that picture looks as if it came straight out of Resident Evil or something like that.

 

[yottabit]

Oh I did a pretty big killing spree. It was worse before I moved in. :awe:

I swear I see a barnacle on the ceiling

 

[MrK6]

Spiders are ok. Dirt is the real threat.
http://com2uthailand.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ventblockers_fans1.jpg[/img[/QUOTE]
Holy s***! Did someone go off-roading with his/her computer?

 

[jtisgeek]

cockroaches are really bad they can eat your caps and damage board or psu.

I use to work at a hp repair site and we would have computers some in just full of them makes you wonder about peoples house and yes bugs void the warranty we would bag it up and send it back.

 

[Modelworks]

cockroaches are really bad they can eat your caps and damage board or psu.

I use to work at a hp repair site and we would have computers some in just full of them makes you wonder about peoples house and yes bugs void the warranty we would bag it up and send it back.

When I managed a warranty repair center for GE/RCA we had to have pest control in weekly to keep things under control. Nothing like removing the top off a stereo and having roaches run out of it

 

[Bazooka Boy]

Spiders on the outside are fine, I think. Unless they go inside your computer and mess up with the electronics. Be sure to clean them once is a while to prevent the dirt from being accumulated.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Home Depot sells these yellow pest strips that would probably help. I'd put them in the case itself, I believe they last 6 months.

 

[Dmudgkvddjnv]

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