Ants keeping AC contactor from closing
Ants crawl inside outdoor electrical contactors and block the contacts from closing properly. Cleaning or replacing the part only offers temporary relief unless you treat the entire surrounding soil or area with liquid ant bait spikes to stop them from coming back.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Treat the surrounding area where the ants are coming from with liquid ant bait spikes.
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“only to find that ants were preventing the contactor from closing.”source ↗
“I have had a quite a few calls in my career where they keep coming back you have to treat the whole area where the ants are coming from”source ↗
“Treat the surrounding area around the condenser with liquid ant bait spikes or else he'll be replacing/cleaning the contactor again in a few days.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 8How do I find where pests are getting into my house?
- 7How to identify tiny unknown bugs found inside the house
- 4Why am I finding cockroaches in a clean house?
- 8Unexplained holes or damage inside the house
- 2Exterminators won't treat cluttered or unsanitary homes
- 2How to keep palmetto bugs from coming upstairs from the attic