An electrician's nightmare.

[Industrial Toys]

Actually, the Poor critters probably got between the contacts, got fried and left residue on the contacts. What else could it be?

But, those must have had to be pretty small ants.

 

[riptides]

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

Yeah...I was sarcastic in my earlier comment. "What's with ants...". I have been in battles with them on my property for over a decade. The original owner once commented he thought it was built on top of an anthill.

They are in LOVE with my pool pump. Chem warfare yielded poor results. They adapted and overcame. LOL.

 

[MarkF48]

Were these switches of the old 'silent' type that use a bulb of mercury or did they actually click on to off?

 

[CADplans]

Our house was built 1978-79,, the guy used first class EVERYTHING,, except the electrical switches, and outlets,,

They were all the same brand (started with "S",,,) and,, the metal was weak.
The lamp plug would simply fall out of the outlet,, the same thing with the switches,, the weak metal would not make contact,,

We bought the house in 1982, three years old,, within 4 months, I had to replace every switch and outlet that we used.
there might be one or two not replaced, but, they were never used ( the basement outside light comes to mind, never had a reason to turn it on)

So, yes, I can see a slight over voltage surge destroying 5 switches at once,, if they were like the ones I owned.

If you want to talk about a failure waiting to happen, in a 30+ year old house,,,
go around and remove the light fixtures like closet lights, bathroom lights,, ceiling lights,,

Look at the wiring,, over 30+ years of being heated by the incandescent bulbs, the insulation degrades,, and falls off.

I replaced EVERY such light fixture in 2010,, but, now, they have low heat LED bulbs,,

 

[Diggin It]

I'd be spraying the stuffing out of that wall with ant wipeout stuff.

They'll be back, if they aren't still there.

 

[k0ua]

Well, shoot.. now we will never know for sure what killed those switches all at once. But the ants are surely suspect.

It reminds me of a service call in a prison kitchen. Dead wall phone. I opened the phone and it was full of cockroaches. Some dead and wedged into the hookswitch contacts and many alive. I drug it by its handset cord to the nearest dumpster. didn't really want to touch it but it was too late. I am not sure I have ever seen so many roaches in such a small space.

 

[riptides]

... I am not sure I have ever seen so many roaches in such a small space.

Some government buildings where I work...due to age and building restrictions have huge roaches and really big rats in certain places. They adapt and thrive very well.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I too have had the pleasure of doing electrical maintenance work in apartment buildings and certain units were just infested with roaches.

 

[tallyho8]

Were these switches of the old 'silent' type that use a bulb of mercury or did they actually click on to off?

This is the type switches they were: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton...le-Light-Switch-White-R52-01451-02W/100026991

 

[k0ua]

Another service man tale. When I was a kid I worked at a Television sales and repair shop. I ran a call in Monett Mo. and the house was so nasty and smelled so bad, I wanted to get out of there and decided to take the set in to the shop, hoping for a better work environment. Bad idea. When we opened it up hundreds of roaches ran out and everywhere all over the shop. The owner called the exterminator, (many times) and even weeks later we were using freeze spray to kill roaches on the bench. Finally after many weeks of exterminator spraying we seemed to have won the roach war.

Freeze spray for those that don't know is a fluorocarbon in a pressurized can with an plastic applicator straw like WD40 has. If you crack the valve slowly a drop of the liquid would form on the end of the straw and fall off. If you aim was good this would drop onto the back of a stationary roach killing it instantly as the liquid evaporated and lowered its temprature to -40 degrees F or so. Of course it's legitimate usage was to stress test electronic components.