Fire ant control may save your outdoor lighting system
Paul Jr. just sent me a video and a picture from one of our projects that I’m sharing with you. One of the things we always tell our clients is that they MUST treat their property for fire ants, because these little devils will wreak havoc on just about any electronic device outdoors – which happens to include outdoor lighting. So, let’s talk about fire ant control.
Here in the southern United States we have been battling these mini monsters for decades, ever since they moved north from South America. They get into the contacts of air conditioning compressors and disable them. They get into circuit breaker panels, outlets, switches, and yes – light fixtures and transformers! Contrary to popular belief, fire ants are not attracted to the electronics themselves, but instead are actually looking for the heat that those electronics produce; all electronics produce some amount of heat when they are in use.
So, what do they do to destroy outdoor lighting systems?
Understand this first: if they can find a way to get into a light fixture, they certainly will. The whole beastly herd will pack their bodies and all their home building material (dirt) into a fixture near the heat source so tightly that air cannot circulate. Without airflow, almost every kind of electronic device will burn up and die a very tragic death. If they can’t get inside the fixture, they will at least cover it, completely! Ah, they just love having a nice warm place to call home with their family of 100,000+ brothers, sisters and cousins. As for the transformers, the colony will come right up through the bottom of the unit and fill every little nook and cranny of that box, eventually causing short circuits and all kinds of other disruptive complications.
What can be done? We recommend using an ant bait like Advion or Once and Done as recommended here to treat the entire property to get rid of these ferocious fiends! The property needs to be treated twice a year, and we recommend it be done in very early spring and again in early fall. I have about 100 fixtures and four transformers at my house, and I don’t have any fire ants because I do this very thing.
I don’t know of any landscape lighting fixture manufacturers who will warranty their products against fire ant carnage or any “act of God” issue by any beast of the land. Our company also does not warranty against this kind of damage because it’s not our fault that it happens. It only takes minutes to treat an average size property for fire ants. If you can’t do it yourself, get an exterminator to do it – it’s that important. Besides saving your outdoor lighting system, you’ll also save yourself, your pet, or – heaven forbid – a child, from those blistering burning fire ant bites when you accidentally step in one of their dens of doom.
