I just replaced my well pressure switch. Again. Ants had causes arcing and burned up the contacts.
I DAGS for "ant proof pressure switch" but no useful results. Anyone know of one?
I did find suggestions to put moth balls inside the switch...does anyone have first hand knowledge of how effective that is at keeping ants out?
The best solution is to get your pump (switch) up off the ground or move the switch inside. I built an elevated pump house for my pump and made all of those problems go away,
I don't know about moth balls(they're too small to see) but you can use DE. Cover the switch and dust inside with it
Thinking about the problem, I'm having difficulty finding a clearly downside to wrapping the switch with Glad Wrap or Saran Wrap.
Maybe even smearing some Wasp Spray on the outside of the box? Have you ever noticed that if you hit an area with wasp/hornet spray (like a roof vent on the garage) the little buggers NEVER come back? Had a huge colony of them under one of the vents. Hit it with just a little bit of the spray from inside the garage about ten years back. They have never returned.
On 09/22/2014 9:51 AM, Unquestionably Confused wrote: ...
Yours must be the "give it up easily" variety... :)
The yellow jacket wasps here are back rebuilding often within a few days at the outside in their mostest-favoritest places (under the north of the two garages door in the south end corner is a particularly favorite spot it seems). I've taken care of it at least four times this year alone.
I don't know about an "ant proof" pressure switch, but what about simply wrapping your entire pressure switch with fiberglass window screen material so the ants can't get into it?
Another option might be to treat your pressure switch the same way they treat Elm trees to protect them against Dutch Elm Disease in Winnipeg. Dutch Elm disease is a disease that infects Elm trees and it's spread by a small beetle that lives in the ground, but climbs up the bark of an Elm tree to lay it's eggs in the soft tissue (leaves and small stems) of Elm trees. The trick to eradicating the disease is to stop those beatles from climbing up the trunk of the tree.
To do that, they wrap the tree trunk with fiberglass insulation with the aluminum radiant reflective material on the back of the insulation so that the fiberglass is against the rough bark and the aluminum radiant reflective backing is facing outward. Then they smear a product called "Tanglefoot" all over that aluminum radiant reflective material. Tanglefoot is a really sticky goo that never dries up. The beetles that spread Dutch Elm disease can't crawl through the fiberglass so they try to crawl over the barrier and end up with their legs helplessly stuck in the Tanglefoot. The crows then land on the bark of the trees and eat the still alive beetles out of the Tanglefoot. Not only does that prevent the beetle from laying it's eggs, it greatly reduces the number of beetles that are infecting Elm trees here in Winnipeg.
I'm thinking you could do a similar thing to make your pressure switch inaccessible to ants.
On 09/22/2014 2:43 PM, nestork wrote: ...
A big fly strip, iow. Hadn't heard of that ploy; sounds at least promising.
You have data on how wide the insulation strip has to be to be effective and anything on the "goo"? I'd be willing to try and see what happens. I'm afraid that out here the problem will be that the goo gets so much sand/dirt from the interminable KS wind it'll just pave the goo and they'll have a road anyway, but wouldn't know how bad that would be until tried...
I remember that stuff on elm trees in KCK in the early 40s. It was a band maybe 2 1/2 + 3" wide, dark brown, applied directly to the trunk about
5'-6' up. It was always sticky but less so with time, never saw it applied.
I read that moth balls inside the holes dug by carpenter bees is good, but then the holes are sealed with something.
With access to air, moth balls will disappear in ?? six months?
Other than that, I can't help.
But I do want to point out that you're worried about your pump, but no concern for the ants that are dying. As local president of the ASPCA, American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Ants, I must object.
You should give them 30 days notice by certified mail, and then have the sheriff remove them .
Just lucky, I guess. Never really gave it a thought until I zapped them in these particular locations. Never had a problem with the original vents and then when I had the garage reroofed they put in new vents. They make for easy observation and the only reason I noticed the permanence of the "cure" was that I kept watching for them to return and start dropping their crap on the Corvette parked below!
If you don't want to deal with government, there is always the Society for Preservation of Anthills Greater Homes Everywhere Termites Too International. And their sister organization Mothers Everywhere All Together Behind Ants Living Limited Systems.
LOL!
Hoping someone would run out the acronym.
"Stormin Mormon"
SPAGHETTI and MEATBALLS , eih?
I know it's a year later if I saw the date right. Are the ants in question rasberry crazy ants, or fire ants.
rasberry crazy ants are a pain. They invaded Houstons NASA grounds over the last few years.
They take out my well 3 times a year. Well I tries silicon last year. It wo rked for a long time but the problem is then moisture builds up over time a nd takes out the points. lol I did keep my well going for a year this time. So I will deal with once a year changing of points the 3 times a year.
Seal the bottom holes of the switch box. Seal the hole between the switch box and the pump but not to much or you will mess with the stuff in the pu mp. You just want to block the hole. Seal around the bottom edge with silic on on the switch box. Put the cap on and tighten down. Put silicon where yo ur wires come into the box on the side. Do not get any silicon on the point s during the sealing. Good luck!!!!!
If it's the same ants, this problem has been seen as far north of Dallas.
Good luck. I'm still looking for a better fix to the problem.
Get it up away from the ground. I built a little enclosure for my well equipment that is 4' off the ground. Those problems went away. If you do get bugs in that enclosure, squirt some Spectracide Ant Shield around the inside. It does a great job.
I'll look at that option. Also need to look at getting power above ground. They fallow my pipe that holds the wire to the switch.
Sounds like a plan.
Thanks
Put a weatherproof box en where it comes out of the ground and pipe it up to a higher location with Gray PVC conduit It is also a good idea to put some duct seal (electrical grade putty) in the pipes so the ants can't use that as a tunnel to get up there. Down here we end up with 2 pumps, the one down in the well and another one that feeds the house so my enclosure contains the second pump and all of my electrical stuff, bladder tanks etc. They will last about 10 times as long if you can get them out of the weather.
We've not yet seen the crazy ants but I'd try just sprinkling some Amdro ant bait in the box and see if that doesn't send 'em on their way.
I don't know about other places but Amdro stopped working here 20 years ago. They just will not eat it. It was really aimed at fire ants anyway. Some other types of ants would eat it but not for long. Their successors figured out it wasn't "food".
We have been pretty successful knocking down fire ants but the ones that took their place are harder to kill and far more invasive. I miss the fire ants.
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