Electric ants

[pineywoods]

I have a crazy problem with ants in my sawshed. Two electrical switches mounted side by side. One is for overhead lights and the other is a sawdust blower. The blower switch has quit 4 times in the last couple of months, no problem with the light switch. I replaced the bad switch all 4 times and the tore the bad ones apart to see what happened. The insde was full of little black ants, thoroughly burned. What's inside a switch that attracts ants, and why always the blower switch??     FWIW roasted ants will thoroughly mess up a switch...

[Don_Papenburg]

How do they get into the switch? mine are enclosed and the switch toggle has a very small space around the opening .   Might want to go to a wet location switch plate cover.

[Autocar]

It may be that your motors pull enough amps that it heats the switches up a little and the ants like a warm home just like we do   

[Al_Smith]

Good question ,I have no idea .They get in the blower and motor for my aeriator sewage system .Not a big deal the 1/2 HP motor just makes puree of ant and that's the end of it .

There must be 50 thousand kinds of ants .Last fall I blowed the top out  of a dead ash tree so I could drop it without clipping off the top of a walnut .There I was 60 feet up in a bucket truck with the ants trying to eat me up .Then would you believe  at the stump level there was another colony but they were different type of ants .Bigger but not as blood thirsty as the little pizz ants in the top . I got my evens though ,got the fogger out and gave them a dose of good old black flag and got the whole lot of them .

[CHARLIE]

If I had that problem, the first thing I'd do is try to figure out a way to seal that switch box so the ants could not get in. Then, before screwing on the switch plate, I'd spray the inside with some Home Defense insecticide.  Its residual action is supposed to last several months. Then I'd spray the stuff around it too. Couldn't hurt and might help.

[Woodchuck53]

Evening all. The out side condensing unit on the home AC stopped one day. Traced it to a contactor inside the wiring box full of ants. Cleaned the contact points and put a couple handfull of ant bait in the cabinet and now do that every spring cleaning and no more problems. Something to do with the energy draw an AC guy told me. The bait works.

[LeeB]

I remember reading an article once about one of those big round atom smashing dohickies that was being built somewhere around Dallas that had the project abandoned because of the problems withfire ants getting into the wiring. 

[thecfarm]

What about Borax? They leave a trail and others follow it.

[ely]

fire ants always stop up the control boxes on well pumps and AC units around here. they also get into the phone boxes out in the roadside ditches and the electric fence controllers.

[Al_Smith]

It's just the nature of certain ants .I'm an electrician by trade and I've ran into ants in places you couldn't imagine them to be in .They're little pizz ants about  1/4 inch long if that .The big carpenter ants would rather eat up  your trees than colonize your electric boxes . On that I'd like to have a pet aardvark and see how they like that medicine .

[Cedarman]

Ants tend to not like ERC sawdust.
For those of you that have ERC sawdust and ants, try putting some sawdust on the ground where you want the ants to leave.  I am very curious to see if you get good or bad results.
The big black carpenter ants will live in cedar logs though. 

[Al_Smith]

They do a pretty good job on a hickory tree too .Nice healthy looking 90-100 footer .Big wind comes along and down it goes with a mighty crash thanks to a colony of carpenter ants .

[Chuck White]

If you could do so safely, leave one side or the back or the bottom of the switch box open.

I would think that not being completely enclosed, that the ants would not stay in the switch box.

It would work like the cabinet in my garage where I keep all of my sawmill stuff, if I leave the door open I don't have mouse problems.

[Al_Smith]

Well now mice are   different little pest  of their own .Great sport for cats but then you have a cat to deal with which can be a problem all of their own in some cases .

If you moth ball those   cabinets you'll not only rid them of moths but mice as well .Actually it keeps cats from using the wifes flower bed for a kitty liter box too except for the most stubborn of cats .Those the lady uses  a well placed broom ,her weapon of choice it seems .Cats are persistant though some sneak in under the radar then you need a Jack Russel terrier .Not bad on mice themselfs although they can't climb like a cat which is good .I've never seen a Jack  Russel up a tree they were too stupid to climb down from .

[Tom_Averwater]

I had ants get into  GFCI plug in my barn and ruin it .

[pineywoods]

I found  where the ants are gettin inside the switches. These are residential wall switches that have 2 small holes where a lazy electrician can just poke a bare wire in the hole instead of using the terminal screws. I use the terminal screws, leaving the #14 wire size holes open. I am quite familiar with fire ants plugging up junction boxes and relay enclosures, but that only happens in close proximity to the ground. The mystery to me is why they always get in the same switch and ignore an identical one in the same box. Maybe the slight heat or a faint ozone smell from the contacts arcing ?   
inquisitive minds ......

[beenthere]

Al
The carpenter ants don't eat solid wood, they only go into wood that is wet and already decayed or rotted. They are a good indicator of rot already in wood.

[Al_Smith]

They should have outlawed push wire switchs and devices years ago .The cause of many a fire by  either lazy or stupid electrians or well meaning home owners .

[Al_Smith]

Al
The carpenter ants don't eat solid wood, they only go into wood that is wet and already decayed or rotted. They are a good indicator of rot already in wood.

Perhaps true with regards to actual carpenter ants .However I've had fresh sawn hickory from a removal that was antless that I split and stacked .The ants invaded it ,ate it ,wallered in it ,ant nibblings every where .Within two weeks too .

I got out the Sevin dust and mixed up a big batch and hosed the stack down with a water applicater .Problem solved ,antless again .These were not the big black carpenter ants though but they weren't the little pismires we are talking about as electric ants .I can't tell an ant from an ant but I can tell an aunt from an uncle --most of the time .

[Slabs]

I've had a problem repeatedly with the ants getting into a light switch in the work shed and commiting mass hari-kari.  The same switch repeatedly, not another one in the same box.  No explanation offered.  Silicone/RTV seemed to be the solution.  Seal up all avenues into the switch housing, especially those "push in" ports that seem to be the scurge of humanity.

[Al_Smith]

I some times think the little rascals can levitate or something .I've taken apart cast iron junction and swicth boxes that had threaded ridgid conduit with no other holes ,in the dead of winter and found ants .

Of course they don't move real fast if at all .Leave the cover open for a little bit they get real slow .Brush the whole lot out on the snow and antless once again if only for a season .