WTF?! PCs and bugs. They're two words we never like seeing together, especially when the latter refers to the insect variety. One Reddit user discovered this when he returned home to find his CPU and GPU infested with "crazy ants."
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.
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 from r/pcmasterrace
Like other ants, these crazy insects are attracted to electronic devices such as car stereos, circuit boxes, and, it seems, our expensive PCs.
For the non-squeamish who take a live-and-let-live attitude toward a colony of six-legged creatures inhabiting their cases, remember that they do cause problems beyond biting. The ants often stream inside a device so that they form a single, squirming mass that completes a circuit and shorts it, writes The New York Times. They also eat away at wires and cables while searching for food.
Lazylollipop has tried dissembling his PC and blasting the ants with compressed air to clear them out. He also oiled parts to try and stop them from crawling back, and ran some benchmarks, hoping that the heat would drive them away. Sadly, it seems none of it was enough to stop the crazy buggers.
One user writes that these are Tawny Crazy Ants, which are attracted to electronics, have no central hive, and multiple queens. They're also very hard to kill. Adjace-esque recommends taking the PC apart and placing the parts in airtight bags to kill the ants, though a professional exterminator will be required as they do come back.
Image credit: Hurst Photo