White stuff of ants colony inside electronics

[Cobul]

What is this white stuff in the ants colony inside electronics?

Is it sugar? nest?

I presume the ants were attracted to the warmth of the pcb?

It's a Morley addressable smoke detector

Separate question. I saw illustrations of a smoke detector with light catcher.

But the Morley doesn't have a light catcher. How does the light path work in this case? The right side is the led emitter, the left side is the detector. When smoke fills the chamber. It reflects light and turn on the detector.

 

[Cobul]

Oh, by the way, the reason I wrote the above thread was due to the fact the ants triggered the fire alarm. After resetting the alarm panel. It went off immediately and again and again. I replaced the fire detector unit thinking it was defective (the second one is ok). Then found out there was full of ants in all parts of it (the first original one). I think the ants acted as smokes that reflected the LED lights triggering the detector and fire alarm? How? The ants blocked the LEDs directly or paraded at the matte wall of the smoke chamber? Have you experienced it too?

 

[jedishrfu]

The white stuff is likely eggs. Since you disturbed the nest, the ants will try to move them to a safe dark place.

With respect to the smoke detector, the Morley is a photoelectric type detector. Beyond that I can’t find any further info online.

It would seem a light catcher is only useful for determining if the LED emitter is working and to sound an alarm if not. So maybe the Morley has some other means of testing the sensor.

With respect to the ants, are they “fire ants”? We have those in droves in Texas. You quickly learn not to mess with them as they have a nasty bite And they swarm at the smallest disturbance.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...hing-in/1825f821-2e4a-4c02-b953-817c817e3657/

I’ve heard of cases where a baby deer was killed by them because it’s natural reaction is to freeze when scared. People who are allergic to stings may go into anaphylactic shock.

Someone made a song called The Devil Made Texas which sums up all the nasty critters we have to contend with:

 

[Cobul]

The white stuff is likely eggs. Since you disturbed the nest, the ants will try to move them to a safe dark place.

With respect to the smoke detector, the Morley is a photoelectric type detector. Beyond that I can’t find any further info online.

It would seem a light catcher is only useful for determining if the LED emitter is working and to sound an alarm if not. So maybe the Morley has some other means of testing the sensor.

With respect to the ants, are they “fire ants”? We have those in droves in Texas. You quickly learn not to mess with them as they have a nasty bite And they swarm at the smallest disturbance.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...hing-in/1825f821-2e4a-4c02-b953-817c817e3657/

I’ve heard of cases where a baby deer was killed by them because it’s natural reaction is to freeze when scared. People who are allergic to stings may go into anaphylactic shock.

Someone made a song called The Devil Made Texas which sums up all the nasty critters we have to contend with:

After reading about the different kinds of ants a couple of hours. And using a magnifying glass and ruler. I measured them as at most 2mm so they could just be Pharaoh's ants. Anyway. What kind of microscope or magnifier to see the details of their antennas in more detail. Any who have ants as pets here?

 

[Keith_McClary]

There are also ants that cultivate fungus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant–fungus_mutualism

 

[jedishrfu]

I was joking about ants in a smoke detector being fire ants hence the quotes around "fire ants"

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm pretty certain those are not eggs. Ant eggs are like tiny grains of rice. Those look like jagged bits of plastic.

I don't think it's likely ants did that (nor can I imagine what those ants are carrying them away), but it's conceivable that mice did by chewing.

 

[jedishrfu]

I was thinking the clumps may be two or more eggs stuck together. It's hard to tell with the photo.

The white plastic shell in the photo could possibly be styrofoam too which crumbles with age.

 

[anorlunda]

What is this white stuff in the ants colony inside electronics?

Which white stuff. The little bits that resemble grains of rice, or the big white thing that looks like it was machined?

 

[Cobul]

I was joking about ants in a smoke detector being fire ants hence the quotes around "fire ants"

I believed it the first one and half hours while panicly reading the internet and telling how to get rid of fire ants. Until I realized they matched the pictures of Pharaoh ants better and I used magnifier to check. What made me realized was when I measured their length.

This was so because when I tried to wash the parts in the faucet, I had some ants crawled in my hands, and my palm got reds from small bites. And I thought I read only fire ants bites. Upon further reading, I read the difference between bites and stings. Fire ants sting too but not Pharaoh's ants, which can only bite. So I conclude it is the latter.

I ordered Borax liquid in pre-mixed vial to get rid of them. What is more effective than Borax?

 

[Cobul]

Which white stuff. The little bits that resemble grains of rice, or the big white thing that looks like it was machined?

Of course the little bits that resembled grains of rice. There were more of it before I washed the whole thing. The big white ones are addressable dials where you can set it from 1 to 99 (so you know what room or floor's smoke detector triggered).
I don't think it's chewed plastic. Nor styrofoam. Because there was no styrofoam in it. And the plastic was not damaged.
It happened to me once in a desktop computer keyboard. When I opened it, there was a colony of ants with the same white stuff. And the keyboard was black.

Is it food? sugar? egg? larvae? pupae? But these last 3 were supposed to be smooth, isn't it. Or maybe dried semen? or the ants feces?