An electrician's nightmare.

[tallyho8]

I built my present barn 20 years ago and have never had an electrical problem except when lightning hit the cable for my surveillance camera that runs from my barn over 1000' to my house and burned up the camera.

I went to my barn Sunday and saw a line of ants running up to and into my panel of light switches in the barn. I have 5 light switches on 3 different circuit breakers in the hallway and an additional switch on the other side of the wall in the tack room. I went to turn on the lights to see the ants better and none of the lights on the 5 hall switches worked but the light in the tack room worked. I was thinking that possibly the ants had something to do with it since the lights worked yesterday.

I removed the cover plates of the switches and the cover of the circuit breaker box looking for clues expecting to see some damaged wiring. All wiring looked good so I checked the breakers and they were all good then I checked the switches and all 5 switches in the hall were bad. After replacing the switches all lights worked fine and no light bulbs were damaged. Some lights are LEDs, some fluorescent, and some CDL lights. All 6 switches in the barn only have 2 wires going to them, the hot wire and the wire to the light, no ground wires.

My next door neighbor is a retired electrician who has traveled the world doing electrical work in industrial plants so I asked him what could have caused these switches to burn out. He didn't believe me and got his meter and checked them and saw that they were indeed bad. He said he never heard of such a thing before and acted slightly embarrassed since he could not answer the question with all his years of experience.

Does anyone have a clue as to what could have caused this?

 

[k0ua]

I built my present barn 20 years ago and have never had an electrical problem except when lightning hit the cable for my surveillance camera that runs from my barn over 1000' to my house and burned up the camera.

I went to my barn Sunday and saw a line of ants running up to and into my panel of light switches in the barn. I have 5 light switches on 3 different circuit breakers in the hallway and an additional switch on the other side of the wall in the tack room. I went to turn on the lights to see the ants better and none of the lights on the 5 hall switches worked but the light in the tack room worked. I was thinking that possibly the ants had something to do with it since the lights worked yesterday.

I removed the cover plates of the switches and the cover of the circuit breaker box looking for clues expecting to see some damaged wiring. All wiring looked good so I checked the breakers and they were all good then I checked the switches and all 5 switches in the hall were bad. After replacing the switches all lights worked fine and no light bulbs were damaged. Some lights are LEDs, some fluorescent, and some CDL lights. All 6 switches in the barn only have 2 wires going to them, the hot wire and the wire to the light, no ground wires.

My next door neighbor is a retired electrician who has traveled the world doing electrical work in industrial plants so I asked him what could have caused these switches to burn out. He didn't believe me and got his meter and checked them and saw that they were indeed bad. He said he never heard of such a thing before and acted slightly embarrassed since he could not answer the question with all his years of experience.

Does anyone have a clue as to what could have caused this?

Open the switches. (likely have to drill out small rivets) and take a look at the contacts.

 

[dstig1]

Another lightning strike?

 

[rangerfredbob]

My mom's gate openers stopped working, turns out there were ants in the control box, once cleaned out they worked again...

 

[PILOON]

Switches rely on metal to metal contact.
On knife switches the 'male' blade slips between the 'female' blade and so can self clean.
On typical toggle switches the contacts simply touch each other under spring tension.
Fry a bunch of ants between those contact points and ergo, insulated and no contact.
Then again as heat and age gets involved any lubricant (and there is always some) hardens and so hence bad connection.

Older wall switches made a loud snap or clack when activated.
Newer designs are more silent but then use much weaker springs so it takes very little to inhibit good conductivity.

 

[Diggin It]

My next door neighbor is a retired electrician who has traveled the world doing electrical work in industrial plants so I asked him what could have caused these switches to burn out. He didn't believe me and got his meter and checked them and saw that they were indeed bad. He said he never heard of such a thing before and acted slightly embarrassed since he could not answer the question with all his years of experience.

That's odd. I've never been an electrician or traveled the world. I've worked in a few plants and passed by many others. I've stayed in few Holiday Inns, not sure about an Express. But I've seen lots of switches go bad for all sorts or reasons. Corroded or arced contacts, broken springs, broken housings, debris intrusion .....

 

[B7510HSD]

That's odd. I've never been an electrician or traveled the world. I've worked in a few plants and passed by many others. I've stayed in few Holiday Inns, not sure about an Express. But I've seen lots of switches go bad for all sorts or reasons. Corroded or arced contacts, broken springs, broken housings, debris intrusion .....

Yes but he had 5 switches fail all at once..

 

[PILOON]

Yes but he had 5 switches fail all at once..

Possibly all in common linked box? with common entry point for insects?
or again same humid environment to affect springs?

 

[riptides]

Why do ants always end up in electrical boxes?

 

[Diggin It]

Why do electrical boxes always end up where ants want to be?

 

[3Ts]

The only time I've had problems with electrical switches, was due to ants. Just like was mentioned before, ants provide insulation, open up the switches and I suspect you'll find evidence of ants in every one.

 

[Diggin It]

They also secrete stuff and lay eggs. I'm guessing the switches are full of one or the other.

 

[kthompson]

tallyho8, any idea what kind of ants these are? Here fire ants will invade a building when flooded and yes ants can shut down electrical. If your wiring is in conduit you probably need to treat the inside of the conduit with an ant killer that is safe to.

 

[Jim Nelson]

My well pressure switch used to get loaded with ants and I would turn the power off and spray the inside down with WD 40. This would work for 4-6 months then had to do it again.

 

[tallyho8]

tallyho8, any idea what kind of ants these are? Here fire ants will invade a building when flooded and yes ants can shut down electrical. If your wiring is in conduit you probably need to treat the inside of the conduit with an ant killer that is safe to.

They were what we call common black ants.

 

[kenmbz]

I would second the ants- couple go in and fry, second round of ants attracted to first round of dead ants..........fried Ant paste in switch.

 

[ruffdog]

Wow, I searched "ants in switch" and found tons of articles. This is a bad problem.

Ants in Your Outlet? Here’s How to Get Rid of Them | George Brazil(R) Plumbing & Electrical | Phoenix, AZ

 

[kthompson]

They were what we call common black ants.

Thank you.

You know when the ants get between the contracts they are probably bridging the circuit. That is why all five switches went in same time frame.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I suspect the ants left their poop on the contacts. Don't bother drilling out the rivets, just carefully smash them open for verification.

 

[tallyho8]

Attached is a photo of my 5 switches that went bad the same day. The 6th switch that did not go bad is right behind these on the other side of the wall. The outlet kept working.
I could kick myself for throwing the switches away without doing an "autopsy" on them. Now I will never know for sure if the ants did it, although I now think this is the greatest possibility.