I went in to the office this arvo to discover 100's of ants chomping on my $700 headphones.

I got them off the headphones as quick as I could but they scattered in to my monitor, pc, speakers, desk, keyboard, mouse... the ****ers are everywhere.

They weren't even eating the headphones they were just biting little chunks off them.
I'm REALLY pissed about it.

~3 months ago I bought a Canon 60D and it developed plastic "dust" inside... I'm thinking maybe it was the same damn ants.

What's the deal with these ants... there's like 20kg of good tasty rubbish outside, why they coming in and eating my good electronics?

The camera's flash was literally disintegrating... I thought it was a duff polymer blend or something (couldn't figure it out).

Now my headphones have 100's of pits around 1-3mm in diameter... ARRRGH .

Ants are my #1 enemy now... well just the small black ones, the big ones are still OK.

So far they've been after:
Transparent plastic used in camera flashes
Plastic inside DSLR's
Synthetic comfort leather used on EXPENSIVE headphones... the f***ers really went to town on them.

Maybe they have good eye sight and check what you're using so they can break it. I was using the headphones last night.
And with the camera it used to get more little specks on the focal lens every time I used it.

could it be a electrical thing? i`ve had the same problem but with pink and grey galahs stripping the plastic off the aerials on my boat?

Its GMOs. "Polymer" ants have acquired a taste for hydrocarbon polymers. It is believed they absorbed and developed a symbiotic relationship with genetically modified bacteria, bacteria modified to clean up oil spills. The bacteria attacks hydrocarbons and converts them to low grade heat, a small proportion of sugars, and a protein polymer that ants use to build chitin.

These ants are fkn evolving.

FS are they a deep shiny black? Or just kinda black? Does the occasional ant have a big head? (not joking).

Here on the east coast we have two main species that invade homes - the black ant (small, deep black and all have heads the same size) and the brown or big-headed ant (small, not so black and occasional members have big heads). My house seems to have been built on a huge ants nest and I've had trouble with both of them over the past 20 years so I know a little about them!

Black ants like sweet, sugary stuff and you can control them with Antrid though I've found that home made baits with honey and boracic acid is more attractive for them. Brown ants like fats and proteins and rarely touch the sweet stuff. You can get a bait made for these that works like Antrid (they take it back to the nest) but it's usually only available to pest controllers.

If they're attacking plastics then they sound more like brown ants. They could be going for the oily residue from your skin that's left on the headphones. Try leaving out a little splodge of fatty stuff (fat off the bottom of a frypan is fantastic or cheap, oily peanut butter but ordinary butter will do). If they go for it, you can be pretty sure you've got brown ants.

The good news is that if you've got ants coming into the house, you won't have termites.

Sounds like they're trying to tunnel themselves a new hole to live in.

We had them in Broome and they eat everything thing..

A story from the web

Singapore ants eat electricals
Anyone heard of or had any issues with these ants? My wife's uncle and aunty recently returned from a work stint at Fitzroy Crossing and they have a bus converted into a motorhome. One night at the c/van park he went to turn on the vid and tv but got no picture. He checked all the connections, all ok, so he pulled the video out of the bulkhead and pulled it apart.
These ants had turned half of the transformer inside to powder! Lots of dead ones in there too. He had to go to extraordinary lengths to stop them from getting into the bus as it's full of electrical gizmo's especially switchgear and power sources.
Apparently they are a bit of a problem up that way, they are attracted to electro magnetic fields and like to have a chomp.
They also eat tents and you!? He said one night a couple of mx travellers stopped for the night and by morning their little tents were full of tiny holes and had bites all over them. He said the two guys were banging on the park office door at 4 in the morning demanding their money back.
They're only 2mm long but hell it sounds like they can do some damage!

Collect them & breed them! They could be the future answer to recycling, especially if they eat plastics!?

Monomorium destructor or Singapore ant is the one that chews on electrical cables. Here's a closeup of the critter:



and some info to boot - http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Plant_Pest/ENT2%20Ants%20in%20the%20household%20and%20garden%20Factsheet.pdf

But they don't look all that black. Black and coastal browns are also about 2mm long and black. Either way, if they're coastal browns or Singapore the same bait will fix 'em:

www.truebluepest.com/Products_files/amdro_ant_lab_04.pdf

This stuff is goooood. I used it to control my coastal brown problem after trying for years to get them out of the kitchen.

^^ ahh ok, but it`s not like there`s no trees around..tree would be easier than trying to hold on to swaying aerial upsidedown lol

FlySurfer said...

No, they're small ~2mm and dark black. They have a strongish smell when you smush'em.

Sounds like they might be Argentine ants!.....hope not or else your`ve got a major problem there.