Mad Ants Attacked My Home!

       Yeah, I thought that headline would catch your attention. And like most things you read on the internet, it is at least partially true.
       This veers from the subject matter of this blog, but it carries the overall theme of the wild kingdom that is my back yard.
         So I wake up day before yesterday because of an electrical smell. You know it - like something is burning. I immediately notice there is no readout on the air conditioner thermostat, so I go to the breaker box and power down on the AC unit, wondering whether to call the fire department or the AC service first.
          The smell went away soon enough, so I figured I was safe.
           Today the AC man shows up.
           "Come here and see what caused that smell," he said after opening up the unit.
           There they were; thousands of them, crawling madly about a mass of charred wire and a burned-out servo.
       The guy said it wasn't that unusual - for ants to short circuit an appliance. Really?
        So where do I turn? To the internet, of course. I mean why trust what a real life human person says when you can go into cyberspace and find the real facts?
         I  Google "ants electronics" and lo and behold, this turns up:
       
http://www.livescience.com/37720-crazy-ants-invade-electronics.html

 

My questions:
- Is this the end of civilization?
- What do they want?
- Who is their leader?
- Can President Obama figure a way to screw this one up?
- And when will I get my damned air conditioning back??!!

Oh yes; this is a bird blog. Here's what was flying around the yard today:

(PM, mostly cloudy, 74 degrees, 20 minutes) 
 
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Blue Jay
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Chickadee
Brown-headed Nuthatch