Ants vs. roaches...which of these insects do the most damage to electronic components?

Question

I've never had roaches in my home ever but, I've heard of friends of mines that have lived in apartments infected with roaches and wrecked havoc with their computers and electronics. Just recently I've been noticing ants around in my home, it's possible they've been coming due to bits and pieces of Pizza toppings that have fallen on the floor and I haven't noticed. I do order alot of pizzas from time to time when my friends are here and just yesterday I saw a dried up pepperoni just underneath my computer desk and it was completely surrounded by ants. My concern is....Can ants be as destructive as roaches when it comes to electronics? or are ants much more "cleaner" insects? What's your opinion on this.

Answer 1

roaches. They have stronger mandibles. Jaws and teeth.

Answer 2

I have worked with electronics for the last twenty eight years or so and have never had a problem with ants damaging anything electronic..  The ants come for the food and will most likely go away if the food source is eliminated.  However roaches will get into just about anything.

Answer 3

Neither ants or roaches are going to eat wire insulation, diodes, resistors or any other part of a circuit board.

The damage they can cause will be by their presence.  If you turn off your computer at night, an ant colony or a bunch of roaches might want to make the most of the warmth by moving in.  Not to destroy, but to hang out.

When you turn your computer on, you can fry some of the little devils.  They can even cause a short which can damage components.

In Okinawa on the Marine base, they have a thing there called a "Gecko Short".  The geckos over there sometimes sneak into the telephone control boards, step on the wrong prongs and are zapped.  They hang there and slowly fry, causing that circuit to go down.  That's probably the #1 telephone maintenance call there.

So - the damage they can cause will be due to their presence, not their mandibles.