PC owner shocked after finding fire ants “eating” his computer

A PC owner was left shocked and called for help on Reddit after finding a fire ant infestation “eating” his computer.

PC gaming has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years, with more and more people buying a prebuilt computer or even going as far as learning how to build their own.

However, computer cases aren’t air-tight. If you wind up having bugs in your house somehow, they might find a home inside of your PC thanks to the warmth it provides.

One PCMR Subreddit member learned this the hard way after he found fire ants “eating” his computer.

Redditor calls for help after finding fire ants in computer

Redditor thejus_patrol shared photos of his issue on the PCMR subreddit and called for help on what to do.

“So, I was using my PC as usual, but I noticed that my max GPU temps were rising a bit. When I checked if the fans were spinning correctly, I saw ants marching on my GPU and on top of my case. They were even coming out from the heatsink of the GPU,” he said.

He took the computer apart and found that they were eating the thermal paste and pads from his GPU and had to blow them away with a hair dryer before using insect spray on the parts. Afterwards, he noticed his temperatures were 20c higher.

Users quickly took to the comments to share their thoughts on the situation, and one noticed that the ants in OP’s computer look like Black Butt Fire Ants. “This isn’t a small issue,” he said.

“These specific ants will infest ALL your electronics. You must source out their nest or nests and wipe them out. You are at war. If you ignore them they will end up costing you so much money.

Ant bait traps don’t work on them so well. Because they just go for electronics first. Walk along wires and nest INSIDE electronics.”

“I never knew this could happen. New fear unlocked for me,” another user replied.

Many others mentioned that OP should do something to heat up his PC for a while, potentially killing the ants in the process.