there are plenty of things to watch out for as a PC Enthusiast dust buildup
leaky water Loops CPUs failing on you
but one thing that might not immediately come to mind is ants yes ants there have
been a number of posts making the rounds on social media lately about those
little critters invading people's PCS and even appearing to eat thermal paste
and thermal pads why the heck are they doing this is thermal compound made of
some tasty goop that ants just can't resist no there's likely nothing magical
about thermal paste or even PCS in general that attracts ants although some
ants might be attracted to Electric fields to some degree it turns out that
what's more likely is that a forager ant from a nearby Colony whose job it is is
to find new sources of food water and shelter made its way into your home and
found a crumb near your PC then that forager ant might go back to the nest
leaving a recruitment pheromone trail behind that other ants can follow it's
kind of a signal it say hey guys look at what I found once the forger ant's
buddies follow the trail they might happen upon your computer which happens
to be a warm enclosed environment the exact kind that ants tend to love but
contrary to the reports of ants eating thermal materials in a few Tech
Publications it is very unlikely that the ants are actually consuming thermal
paste in fact the chemicals and thermal paste are toxic to them and it's far
more likely that they are chewing on the thermal pad instead not only do ants
like to chew things in general but it's likely that they're chewing on the
thermal paste in particular because they might see it as a good nesting material
wait nesting like eggs we'll tell you more right after we thank private
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back to the subject of eggs some users have reported seeing ant eggs in their
thermal paste but ant eggs are actually
really small and hard to see it's more likely that these users are seeing an
larvae gross probably not going to help your FPS although ants obviously prefer
to have their colonies underground they do also like to build secondary nests
away from the hill and the tight space underneath the heat sink where they can
stay hidden would be an attractive place to raise their young and if conditions
outside are too hot or too cold it might increase their motivation even more to
carry their larvae away from the main nest and find an alternative location to
put them like inside your computer Compu but even though ants like warm spaces
they've also been seen running out from heat sinks once a PC is turned on or
when a load is put on the CPU or GPU this is because insects start getting
very uncomfortable when the temperature gets up to around 50° C and thermal
paste can obviously get quite a bit hotter than that especially while gaming
so they might be attracted to your warm PC initially but once things get too hot
under the heat sink they're going to start to scatter or worse something like
excessive heat or an electrical jolt from a PC component could result in the
ant emitting alarm pheromones these send a warning signal to other ants in the
vicinity that something is wrong and once this happens it attracts more ants
to rush in and help which can make the infestation even worse I guess that's
what you get for having high CPU temps so what do you do if you find your PC
getting attacked by ants obviously you can't seal up the vents as it needs air
flow so the best advice we can give you is to clean your room if there are any
pieces of food or moisture anywhere near your PC get rid of it and while you're
at it get rid of any other obvious clutter around your PC that might
shelter ants like with any other insect infestation by the way sealing up any
holes in your home is also a good idea but an even better one might be to buy
some ant poison specifically ant bait as
products marked bait will consist of chemicals that the ants will carry back
to the Colony and hopefully wipe it out
I'm I know that sounds cruel but having those little Invaders mess up your
components is no picnic either in this economy who put that line in there
anyway have you had problems with ants or other pests getting into your PC let
us know in the comments and if you'd like to know more about cleaning your PC
in general go watch this video next