My internet is very buggy.... Literally!!

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jamesrt

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#319508 1-May-2025 13:08

Naturally, with today being a WFH day for both my wife and myself; AND she's needing to present a webinar online etc, the internet chooses today to go down.

Seems that my router is commenced it's death-throes, which has included throwing a bunch of noise/bad packets onto the internal LAN, which has caused some fun times troubleshooting!

However, I've also discovered that my ONT has ants.

That last shot was AFTER spraying the area and brushing up - they've all fallen out of the ONT.

Any recommendations (apart from lodging a fault and being very apologetic to the poor tech that comes out...); to be fair, I've not see any other signs of issues in the garage and they could be coming in from the fibre conduit outside the house....

robjg63

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#3369531 1-May-2025 13:20

I'd just get a vacuum and hold it over the vent slots - hopefully it sucks up any dead ants.

Replace the router and see if everything is ok.

Can you see where they are coming from? - Maybe they are following the fibre cable through the wall.

The worry would be, you might find they come back -if so this stuff is very good http://www.antkiller.co.nz/ lots of places sell it - but not supermarkets etc.

EDIT - I see you mentioned they might be coming through the conduit. Can you check outside and see if you can seal any gaps?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

jamesrt

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#3369538 1-May-2025 13:27

robjg63:

I'd just get a vacuum and hold it over the vent slots - hopefully it sucks up any dead ants.

Replace the router and see if everything is ok.

EDIT - I see you mentioned they might be coming through the conduit. Can you check outside and see if you can seal any gaps?

I've literally brushed off my old ORCON router (that's gotta be REAL old - mind you, that ONT is also 11 years old, because that's how long I've been in this house) to get back online - everything seems fine at this point.

Good idea about the vacuum.

I've not seen anything obvious outside; but I've sprayed a barrier spray generously around - but if they're coming up thru the conduit, they could be coming from the street box all the way up the driveway to get into the house too. Who knows?

MikeFly

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#3369542 1-May-2025 13:44

I wipe ants nests out with something sweet like golden syrup mixed with a few drops of Frontline dog flea treatment. Takes a day or so but they don't come back.

xpd

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#3369581 1-May-2025 15:55

I had the ant issue at my last house. Just sprayed around the ONT occasionally to keep them at bay.

Never caused any issues :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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BMarquis

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#3369593 1-May-2025 16:40

I've seen ants in ONTs before, they seem to like the warmth. There's a first time for everything, but never have I seen the ants come through our microduct.
Of the ones I have seen, the ants have either gotten in there internally (is this ONT in the garage?) or through the wall cavity.

Regardless, our tech will check it out and probably replace the ONT.

jamesrt

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#3369606 1-May-2025 17:55

BMarquis:

I've seen ants in ONTs before, they seem to like the warmth. There's a first time for everything, but never have I seen the ants come through our microduct.
Of the ones I have seen, the ants have either gotten in there internally (is this ONT in the garage?) or through the wall cavity.

Yes, in the garage. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days and see what's going on.

BMarquis:

Regardless, our tech will check it out and probably replace the ONT.

Do you want/need a support request for that?

BMarquis

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#3369628 1-May-2025 20:21

Yep, you’ll need to log it via your RSP.

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cddt

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#3369695 2-May-2025 10:03

I'm having a similar problem, but with spiders who keep building thick webs over the ONT. I guess the spiders keep the other insects out?

Unfortunately the ONT is located under the house in the crawl space (house is on piles) and access is quite difficult.

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quickymart

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#3371298 8-May-2025 08:13

I had a similar thing with my ONT a while ago, which is located next to a window. What I did was I placed a V bottle cap full of this stuff (carefully) on top of the ONT:

http://www.antkiller.co.nz/

The ants absolutely took to it like glue and after a few days they were history.