I always suspected the additional heat attracted them, but WRT to Mr. Eckert’s theories on New Jersey ants, they probably swore they were tough and were out to prove it by bridging across the electrical contacts.
(Ted, I gave you that one!) DON GIES NOKIA Bell Labs SENIOR PRODUCT COMPLIANCE ENGINEER GLOBAL PRODUCT COMPLIANCE LABORATORY 600-700 Mountain Avenue Room 5B-104 Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636 USA Phone: +1 908 582 5978 Mobile: +1 732 207 7828 don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com<mailto:don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com> From: Ted Eckert [mailto:000007cf6ebeab9d-dmarc-requ...@ieee.org] Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 9:31 AM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] Fire ants I would like to note that Mr. Gies is from New Jersey. The adoption of an updated electrical code with expanded use of AFCI breakers was blocked in New Jersey partly through resistance from home construction contractors who didn’t like the higher cost of the new breakers. My theory is that those contractors worked with a mad scientist to develop a strain of ants that attacks AFCI breakers. This was an attempt to “prove” that the AFCI breakers were unreliable. Unfortunately, Mr. Woodgate’s experiments with plutonium resulted in mutations that led the ants to attack the GFCI breakers instead. Ted Eckert The opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer, entomologist, biologist or the construction industry of New Jersey. From: Adam Dixon [mailto:lanterna.viri...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 6:05 AM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG<mailto:EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG> Subject: Re: [PSES] Fire ants Follow the links available in Doug's original post to get to the Texas A&M article which references both electric and magnetic field influences. In my locale (Atlanta, GA), University of Georgia folks speculate the attraction is due to thermals (2013 AJC article: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/crazy-ants-the-ants-that-eat-electronics-march-int/nZ3zy/). Looks like there are folks who have been researching this over the past 20 years or so. The GFCI attraction may have been from alien ants like on CBS' Braindead which are intelligent enough to realize that the GFCI is more safe. ;-) Regards, Adam adam.di...@ieee.org<mailto:adam.di...@ieee.org> On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 8:25 AM, IEEE <d...@ieee.org<mailto:d...@ieee.org>> wrote: I wonder if there are any entomologists that are studying this effect? Has anyone looked up any of the ant specialists to see if they’ve been exploring this phenomena? WRT to Don’s experience, I wonder if it’s the magnetic field that is attracting them more than the electric field? The GFCI has some toroidal current transformers that might be part of the attraction… I was also wondering if the abdominal signalling/pheromone release behaviour following the electric shock was a call to battle with a perceived enemy, against which they could not win. I guess if you pile on enough dead ants you can eventually trip the breaker feeding the circuit, and the ants “win”, at least in the moment. Anyway, sounds like we need some bug guys involved in this discussion… Doug Nix d...@ieee.org<mailto:d...@ieee.org> +1 (519) 729-5704<tel:%2B1%20%28519%29%20729-5704> On Sep 15, 2016, at 06:14, Gies, Don (Nokia - US) <don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com<mailto:don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com>> wrote: Yes. I had a GFCI 20A circuit breaker in my panel feeding my pool pump motor. I went to open my pool last spring and the breaker kept tripping. So, I concluded that the breaker went bad. I opened up the breaker panel to change the breaker and found that the GFCI breaker was infested with ants (regular ones, not fire ants), but interestingly, the GFCI breaker was the ONLY breaker in the entire panel that had ants. DON GIES NOKIA Bell Labs SENIOR PRODUCT COMPLIANCE ENGINEER GLOBAL PRODUCT COMPLIANCE LABORATORY 600-700 Mountain Avenue Room 5B-104 Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636 USA Phone: +1 908 582 5978<tel:%2B1%20908%20582%205978> Mobile: +1 732 207 7828<tel:%2B1%20732%20207%207828> don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com<mailto:don.g...@nokia-bell-labs.com> From: Doug Powell [mailto:doug...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 6:04 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG<mailto:EMC-PSTC@listserv.ieee.org> 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 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 doug...@gmail.com<mailto:doug...@gmail.com> http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougp01 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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