The Framers Forum

Depends if you live near a cornfield John.

Some people think they get in the back of a picture and slap more and more tape on to stop them. They get in though the front. Wiggle under the rebate, round the glass and into the picture where they creep across to and expire. Usually leaving a nasty stain.

I can't figure out just what exactly is in it for them.

They can however cause big damage to a painting. So IMHO, masking tape is the lesser of two weevils.

Unless that's what they like to eat - I would if I was a termite, thrip thing - reckon it's a delicacy, especially served on MDF.

Most of the pictures I get in to de-fly were done long before MDF and masking tape were invented.

Roboframer wrote:These 'thrips' are looking for food

It's part of their reproductive behaviour. It the natural world they squeeze into tight spaces to lay their eggs, where the eggs can't be eaten by other creatures too big to squeeze into the same tight spaces.

They do this at the end of the summer, because after this the weather gets colder and as insects get slower in colder weather, they become an easy food source for other creatures needing to put of some extra fat to survive the winter.

Eventually, if the don't get eaten by something else, then the progressively cold weather and the lack of summer crops to feed upon means that they will die anyway.

They also like squeezing inside flat screen TV's, monitors and lap top screens, where to have no chance of getting them out at all.

When I see them, they ain't moving any more!

When I were a lad.....

Well just starting off in the art biz, I framed up a lot of postcards of local scenes for sale. It was a really hot dry summer and I hung the pics at the bottom of the stairway in my old shoppe. I noticed a critter in one. About 5mins after I had actually finished the frame. Muttered a bit and then whipped it off the wall and back to the workshop. On taking the back off I found about 10 squillion others milling about under the backboard.
There was another plague a few years later. People were walking about with a chronic twitch. I remember hoovering the little flies off the wall.
As fast I sucked 'em up another lot landed.