My area is plagued by the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. Wikipedia has a number of articles on various ants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_ant I was surprised to find that these ants have formed one huge mega-colony that extends from San Diego to San Francisco. We recently had good success putting out bait stations that function by allowing the ants to carry tiny bits of bait back to the colony, when the ants are killed by ingestion of the bait. This year, this technique has been very successful. I suppose, since the ants carry the poison away from your property to somewhere else, you could be accused of technically poisoning other species, and contaminating land, by inadvertant exposure. Sounds like a great area for legal adventures. Ed Price WB6WSN Chula Vista, CA USA -----Original Message----- From: Nyffenegger, Dave [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 5:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Fire ants Just keep some Terro inside the electrical boxes. Can't imagine the wildlife peoples having an issue with that, not they would ever know. -----Original Message----- From: Brian O'Connell [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 6:47 PM To: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Fire ants Nothing ever reported from employer's customers. Twice during last 13 years have had to replace contactor for well pump due to red ants (dunno if they were solenopsis xyloni, but the horned lizards love them for lunch) that have become somewhat common in Riverside county. The first contactor flamed out, and breaker eventually opened. Afterwards, put large fuses in series and put contactor in separate box, so the second flame-out did much less damage, and only replaced contactor and wires to the TB. Am reticent to use insecticide, as the Kalifornia wildlife peoples consider mine and adjacent properties habitat for endangered/threatened species, and there can be big fines. Not certain for the reason the ants want to go into electrical boxes and conduits. As the owner of a 'wildlife refuge', wonder why ESPN has not offered to do a special series on "Tracking the Range and Behavior of the Untamed Engineer" ? Brian From: Doug Powell [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 3:04 PM To: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Subject: [PSES] Fire ants All, I was wondering if anyone has any real experiences with fire ant infestation in electrical equipment that they would be willing to share. <http://articles.extension.org/pages/30057/ants-and-electrical-equipment> http://articles.extension.org/pages/30057/ants-and-electrical-equipment It seems to me that for high current contractors and electrical disconnects (not using self-wiping contacts) with contaminants between connection points can result in resistive connections, I^2R heating, potential arcing and if enough voltage is present, series arc faults which over time can erode connections and result in a fire. Does anyone have experience with this as a real problem? Thanks Doug -- Douglas E Powell <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougp01> http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougp01 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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