Z-z-z-ttt, z-z-z-ttt = Fried Ants.
By MsTickle
@MsTickle (25180)
Australia
June 4, 2016 10:49am CST
I was doing myLot when my connection dropped out, twice. I unplugged and re-plugged and a bit later, my connection dropped out all together as in no available connection so I went to watch a DVD while lying down and I dropped off. When I awoke, my bedside clock was off. It's been raining a lot so I thought it was just another power failure. I rang my friend to see if his power was off and it is just me.
Checking the power board, one of the switches was off so I switched in back on. I tried a process of elimination to try and find what the source of the overload was and eventually found it after switching off EVERYTHING.
Would you believe it was hundreds of ruddy ants clogging the outside power point and shutting down all the power points in the house. At least it was fixable.
11 people like this
12 responses
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
4 Jun 16
It's funny you mention ants. My little son pulled out his bug vacuum from some science kit this morning. He would have gladly sucked out all those ants for you 
. That's so crazy that ants were shutting down your power - glad it could be fixed!2 people like this
. I will fly him to Australia immediately 
@celticeagle (190074)
• Boise, Idaho
4 Jun 16
That is amazing. Glad it was what it was and was fixable.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (190074)
• Boise, Idaho
4 Jun 16
@MsTickle ....And they aren't inexpensive. You were lucky.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8085)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Wow, are you saying that ants had caused this power outage? What did you do to get rid of them? We had an ant problem and my husband put down some organic stuff and they are not longer inside, but we see many ant hills in our yard and with the dogs, I am not really wanting to use chemicals to get rid of them.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
7 Jun 16
Yeah, we found a big clump of them in an outside power point which, by the way, was in use. They caused a short to all the power points inside; no TV, computer, lamps, anything that plugs in. My lights and stove and oven and hot water were all fine. I was going into shock via a huge anxiety attack when I thought I would have no computer.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
11 Jun 16
@Carmelanirel2 Not sure if my friend got rid of them yet - I've been away.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8085)
• United States
7 Jun 16
@MsTickle Whoa, so you were able to get rid of them, right?
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
4 Jun 16
@MsTickle Not pleasant, as far as I can remember. They were big ants too, and of course they all flew towards the light and soon the insect screen was covered with them. Trying to open the screen to let them out was a challenge. Each insect must have been about almost an inch long!
1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50970)
• Holiday, Florida
23 Jun 16
oh my God hope that never happens here but at least you did not have to worry about breathing in the mean time
glad its back on. we have a lot of tiny outbreaks of ants here
glad its back on. we have a lot of tiny outbreaks of ants here1 person likes this
@thesids (22180)
• Bhubaneswar, India
4 Jun 16
Two years back we spent about 200 USD repairing the circuits and those points (that trip off automatically in case there is some voltage issue or even fuse)... and all that just because of those merciless red ants which had somehow managed to sneak in and make a home for them in that area.
You seem to be lucky enough that they did not damage things beyond normal repairs.
Earlier to that, I remember these ants eating up my computer's keyboard keys. I had even a discussion on that on earlier myLot.
1 person likes this
@carebear29 (32002)
• Wausau, Wisconsin
4 Jun 16
Sorry to hear this. Hopefully you can get things fixed
1 person likes this
