«

Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
thing that attracts ants ????
Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:21:46 +1300, XPD wrote:

> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
> Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
> another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
> of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
> find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
> thing that attracts ants ????
> Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
> them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
> hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....

Seems like you have a buggy PSU.

They probably like the warmth. Move to Dunedin, we have no ants here.

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:54:56 +1300, wogers nemesis <>
wrote:

>On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:21:46 +1300, XPD wrote:
>
>> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
>> Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
>> another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
>> of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
>> find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
>> thing that attracts ants ????
>> Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
>> them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
>> hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....
>
>Seems like you have a buggy PSU.
>
>They probably like the warmth. Move to Dunedin, we have no ants here.

Err, I have seen the odd one here, Dunedin, about one a week. Though
they have only started showing up recently.

XPD wrote:
> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
> Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
> another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
> of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
> find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
> thing that attracts ants ????
> Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
> them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
> hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....
>
>

I have seen ants attacking light switches; they seem to be attracted to
some of the plastic components in certain switches produced a few years
ago. Something the ants do seems to cause the plastic to break down and
become sticky and crumbly - it might be formic acid, I guess.

The terminals then fall out (still attached to the wiring) and
constitute a real risk (both to people who unscrew the plate, and to the
building in terms of fire risk).

S Roby wrote:
> In article <>, "XPD" <....nz> wrote:
>> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
>
> Ive had ants building a nest in my PC (lots of ant eggs )
> I got ****ed off & sprayed it with fly spray.
> motherboard wouldnt boot after the flyspray
>
> I also have problems with ants building nests in my cars

You should see the fun I have when they decide to invade and setup in
the walls of the motor home.

In article <>, "XPD" <....nz> wrote:
>Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???

Ive had ants building a nest in my PC (lots of ant eggs )
I got ****ed off & sprayed it with fly spray.
motherboard wouldnt boot after the flyspray

I also have problems with ants building nests in my cars

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 22:04:59 +1300, GraB <> wrote:

>On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:54:56 +1300, wogers nemesis <>
>wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:21:46 +1300, XPD wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
>>> Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
>>> another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
>>> of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
>>> find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
>>> thing that attracts ants ????
>>> Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
>>> them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
>>> hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....
>>
>>Seems like you have a buggy PSU.
>>
>>They probably like the warmth. Move to Dunedin, we have no ants here.
>
>Err, I have seen the odd one here, Dunedin, about one a week. Though
>they have only started showing up recently.

Yes, with global warming, the ant problem is moving south. Here in
Palmerston North, we have just had to have our house professionally
spray to stop them completely overrunning us. We have had ants for as
long as we have lived here (since 1969), and PN as a city has a
reputation for ants, but they have been much worse over the last few
years.

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 22:28:22 +1300, -=rjh=- <> wrote:

>XPD wrote:
>> Anyone heard of ants being attracted to new power supplies ???
>> Built my partner a new machine a week ago and we have decided to move it to
>> another room.... so there I am plugging it all in and thinking "theres a lot
>> of ants around....all over the computer in fact." So I take the case off and
>> find these ants are coming from inside the PSU..... what the hell is in this
>> thing that attracts ants ????
>> Ive never come across it before..... Mortein seems to have removed most of
>> them (not sprayed directly :-p) and am about to plug it all in again and
>> hopefully no ants will come tumbling outta the PSU....
>>
>>
>
>I have seen ants attacking light switches; they seem to be attracted to
>some of the plastic components in certain switches produced a few years
>ago. Something the ants do seems to cause the plastic to break down and
>become sticky and crumbly - it might be formic acid, I guess.
>
>The terminals then fall out (still attached to the wiring) and
>constitute a real risk (both to people who unscrew the plate, and to the
>building in terms of fire risk).

Yes, one of the reasons we had to call in the professionals was that
one plug in a bedroom collapsed with a big flash of sparks. When the
electrician replaced it, there was nothing left of the black Bakelite
bits except rubble, and the metal was just hanging in mid air
unsupported. It seems to be only the Bakelite that is affected by
ants - the white plastic front of the plug was fine.

In article <>,
ve_numbers says...
>
> Yes, one of the reasons we had to call in the professionals was that
> one plug in a bedroom collapsed with a big flash of sparks. When the
> electrician replaced it, there was nothing left of the black Bakelite
> bits except rubble, and the metal was just hanging in mid air
> unsupported. It seems to be only the Bakelite that is affected by
> ants - the white plastic front of the plug was fine.
>

Amazing. I.i.r.c. the original bakelite is actually made from milk
but I wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that ants might find it
palatable.

-P.

--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

In article <> ,
Peter Huebner <> wrote:
>
>Amazing. I.i.r.c. the original bakelite is actually made from milk
>but I wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that ants might find it
>palatable.

I'm not a chemist, but as I understand it some plastics are made from
phenolic resins using a process involving formaldehyde. Ants use formic acid
as a weapon, so I imagine something about the resin attracts them and makes
them spray it with acid, causing it to break down.

--
Don Hills (dmhills at attglobaldotnet) Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
-- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286