Ants are not good conductors of electricity

[DaveS]

At least, not for very long.

Last week my pond fountain/pump didn't come on one day.

So, I went down there and opened the timer door and it was full of little black ants.

I shut off the outlet, got the raid, sprayed it down good. Then I let it dry out.

After getting all the bodies out of the box, the pump still wouldn't come on.

I checked all the normal things, I even got my multi-meter out and checked all the voltages inside.

Finally, I took the mechanical switch apart and found that ants had gotten in between the conducting plates in the switch and fried into an insulating layer of black char.

Cleaned it out, and now it is as good as new.

Cue the Pink Panther music: "dead-ant, dead-ant...."

[BigguyZ]

Cue the Pink Panther music: "dead-ant, dead-ant...."

OK, now THAT's funny.

[tfischer]

I had something similar happen. I have two X-10 outlets on a post by our pond that control the fountain and lights. Last summer, they both were getting more and more flaky, sometimes not turning on, sometimes not shutting off... Those of you familiar with X-10 know that stuff like that usually means an interference issue, so I kept trying to diagnose it with that angle...

Unsuccessful, I finally decided to replace the devices and see if that helped. Opening up the outlets, I found the entire inside of the box full of ants, some alive, many dead. Later I dissected the outlet itself, and sure enough, the circuit board and switch mechanism was caked in dead ant residue. I cleaned it out but never did get it working reliably again. Fortunately the outlets are only about $8 each...

I've since used Great Stuff to seal the conduit going into the outlets, plus the caps you normally use to keep kids from sticking things in the outlet to cover the unused sockets so they can't crawl in there (the rest of the outlet seems ant-proofed).

-Tim

[BrazosJake]

That may be a novelty to you guys north of the Mason Dixon line, but down here, fire ants are notorious destoryers of electrical wiring, especially air-conditioning. They're attracted to the current for some reason, maybe they think it's something they can eat, or it messes with their antennae, but they will strip the insulation from romex and eventually so many of them get fried on the contacts it'll cause a short.

[Tom Slick]

I used to have the same issue with a well pump. It would stop pumping and, as usual, the pressure switch was full of ants.

[cabinetman]

What a revelation. If the need comes up for an available insulator...
.

[Uncle Cracker]

When I used to work on electro-mechanical sprinkler timers, I found many shorts caused by those big 'ol carpenter ants... They would crawl around among the rotary contacts and such, and if they got shocked, they would grab the contacts hard, and just fry right there. Sometimes it would take needle-nose pliers to get their jaws loose. The bodies conduct until they dry out, then they insulate.

[LCHIEN]

That may be a novelty to you guys north of the Mason Dixon line, but down here, fire ants are notorious destoryers of electrical wiring, especially air-conditioning. They're attracted to the current for some reason, maybe they think it's something they can eat, or it messes with their antennae, but they will strip the insulation from romex and eventually so many of them get fried on the contacts it'll cause a short.

that's true, fire ants like the warmth or the electrical field. Here in TX they will pile up their mounds and take over electrical power transformers, switch boxes, timers, air conditioning compressor units etc close to the ground and either jam the contacts or fry in them causing electrical failure - the power company hates them.

[bruce hylton]

Sounds like you need an





























ANT EATER.

[BobSch]

Sounds like you need an

ANT EATER.

Aardvarks-R-US?