WTF?! Not for the first time, bugs of the six-legged variety are causing problems for PC owners. Yes, someone really has reported that Fire Ants have invaded their computer and seem to be eating the graphics card's thermal pads and paste.
The problem of PC-invading ants was highlighted by Redditor Thejus_Parol (via PCGamesN). The user reports that the max GPU temps on their PC started rising slightly, prompting an inspection of the graphics card to ensure the fans were spinning correctly.
Opening the PC revealed the unwelcome sight of ants marching across his Zotac Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 and on top of the case. They were also exiting the GPU heatsink.
Things got worse when Thejus_Parol opened up the card: the ants were eating the thermal pads and thermal paste, with most of the damage done to the memory thermal pads.
The irritated owner used a hairdryer to blast the ants out of his card. As he had no spare thermal paste, Thejus_Parol had to spread out what paste was remaining across the GPU. He also cleaned all of the PC with 99% alcohol and used a bug-killer spray on the table.
The result is that the PC temperatures are now up by 20 degrees and a new army of ants has appeared inside the graphics card with the same insatiable appetite for thermal paste.
The ants in this case are Red Imported Fire Ants. Like many ant species, they're often found in electrical boxes, beside power lines, and within electrical equipment due to their attraction to electricity. Wikipedia notes that electrically stimulated workers release pheromones that attract more workers to a site, which could explain the ants returning to the graphics card.
My CPU/GPU got infested by ants when I was gone for a month. I played games and ran benchmarks so they would come out cos of heat. Also left my pc running overnight but they still inside. Help
byu/lazylollipop inpcmasterrace
This isn't the first instance of bugs destroying PCs that has been shared on Reddit. Back in 2021, user Lazylollipop posted a video of the Crazy Ants, which get their name from their frantic and erratic movement, having a party inside his rig, scurrying around his NZXT cooler and Sapphire Nitro+ graphics card.