"Elect e fried" lady bugs

[newbury]

I've a switch for overhead lights in one of my workshops that started acting erratically.  I hate working on electricity ever since I shorted wires on a wall plug when I was about 4 years old.
The switch wouldn't turn off and was slowly smoking. Opened up and found about 10 dead lady bugs.
/edit - don't know why the pic shows up landscape until I click on it.

 

[bullbreaker]

Yeah we get that down here alot on water well pressure switches with ants and lizards in them .

 

[oosik]

YUM!!! Crispy morning snacks. Around here it's - sage bugs. Quite small - ovoid shaped - smell like fresh sage when crushed. It's an April thing here. Get them in the house by the hundreds. They don't bite - don't get into anything - they are just there. My solution - rechargeable hand vac.

 

[k0ua]

These things happen. More likely ants around here. Replace switch and go on with life.

 

[Diggin It]

I'll take fake lady bugs ... (some sort of Asian beetle, or so they say) any day over the wasps I found in a box this morning. I put a 6 x 8 x 4 BUD box on the side of the house about 2' above ground a few months back as an entry and wire pull point for a couple of outdoor cameras. I need to check on something this morning and as I reached for one of the locking latches I noticed a wasp fly away from the bottom of it. I stood back and carefully popped the latches and raised the hinged lid. Once it was open, there were about a dozen mean sets of eyes looking at me. A broom handle knocked the 3" diameter nest out onto the ground.

Now, I have to seal the hole they found to get in.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

My BIL (RIP) was a telephone installer and repairman. He worked a case of trouble where the phone had quit working. He said it was a wall phone, and when he took it down, the wall was instantly black with cockroaches...they had eaten all of the insulation of the wiring, and left enough poop to fertilize your garden.

 

[dgeos]

So, I'm getting the Kubota ready for winter (if it ever comes), and I see that the battery needs charged. I plug in the battery charger...no power. I try a work light and...still no power. I check the breaker box. The breaker for the circuit hasn't tripped but there is about a half inch of dead lady bugs and stink bugs in the bottom of the cabinet.
The first outlet on the circuit is a GFI outlet. It appears to be ok but neither the test nor the reset button will work. I deduce that I must have a bad GFI outlet. Off I go to Home Despot for a new one.
I go to replace the GFI outlet, but before I throw the breaker, I check to see if there is power going into the GFI. Circuit tester shows NO POWER.
I go back to the breaker box, and my voltmeter shows no power coming out of the breaker even though it is "on"!?!
I remove the breaker and check it for continuity. My ohmmeter shows no continuity through the breaker even in the "on" position. Huh? A bad breaker?
I happen to shake the breaker and out drop a couple of lady bug carcasses. I continue shaking the breaker and about a teaspoon's worth of lady bugs and parts thereof fall out. I work the switch on the breaker while shaking and even more fall out.
Turns out that a circuit breaker is not a completely sealed unit. There is a vent slot - on mine, it's on the same side as the screw terminal. Enough lady bugs had crawled up into the vent slot to open the breaker's contacts and keep them from closing. After shaking and working the switch until there are no more droppings, I check the breaker again and now I have continuity. I replace the breaker, turn it on, and now all is well at the original GFI outlet.
This is all new to me. I've never heard of insects causing an electrical problem like this.
Hope this helps if you have a similar situation. Please share your experiences with this sort of thing.
Thanks.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, we’re already EATIN’ bugs now so there’s that…..

 

[oosik]

I've never had bugs cause an electrical problem. Not because I don't have lots of seasonal bugs. All my electrical boxes are tightly sealed. Just a thought - bugs are looking for a safe place and a dry place.

 

[grsthegreat]

Anything that has a contact point can have problems with ants, bugs, etc.

with me, every time I service generators I have to open transfer switches and check the contact points behind the bakelight flash plate on the transfer mechanism. Reason is, stink bugs love to get in there and nest. Then power fails, switch tries to flip, but bugs get in way and power doesn’t transfer.