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Apparently, they are. A pressure switch on one of my water pumps was acting erratically, so I opened it up and found the fire ants. Looks like they were shorting the contacts, so I cleaned everything up and it runs fine.
So my conclusion is these switches spark when contacting causing ozone which attracts the ants.
Better watch anything electrical that causes sparking when operation.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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It's common here that the little buggers get into the cutout switches and muck them up. I spray a stream of Home Defense around our pump 3-4 times a year. Our neighbors had their pump quite and called a plummer. He found fire ants in the cutout switch.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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I don't know if it's ozone per se but they are attracted to all things electrical. I've found them inside of electrical outlets and I blame them for me having to replace 4 light switches lately.
It's not unusual for insects, and especially ants, to be attracted to electrical fields. There are a lot of different theories and there are probably multiple reasons why.
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Electricky makes heat. All isectizoids are attracted to warmth when it comes time to get down to business.
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Watch out for your breaker boxes. Had some funky stuff going on when a breaker kept tripping (for no reason). Noticed trail of fire ants going up, sprayed around the box, and no more problems. Oh and once had a small army of ants try to move into the base of a cordless telephone charger base. Loaded, eggs and all.
If anything learned, just gotta keep spraying every 3-4 months around the perimeter to keep em at bay otherwise they will take over!
I've heard the name for LFA as also being called 'electrical ants'...
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The Aussies call them electric ants because for some reason when you drink Foster's the stings feel like an electric shock.
There is a newer invasive species in Florida / Texas called the "Crazy Ant". Good thing is, they displace fire ants. Bad news is, electrical circuits are like crack to them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/magazi...-ants.html
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They always congregate on the batteries of my solar lights. Do they emit ozone?
