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A couple years ago now, I found the breakers serving a living room kept tripping. These are AFCI breakers, btw. Tested a couple resets. Within minutes, they would trip again.

Took off the panel cover, saw ants seeping out around the AFCI breakers. Unplugged the AFCIs and saw ants crispy-fried against the bussing. There's a small conduit from the panel with a trace of ants coming in around a crack on a knock-out going back to a ground wire going up to the AT&T telephone box.

Took off the cover on the telephone box and a swarm of ants spilled out. Found the nest. It was a highly cold winter that year and they were looking for whatever heat they could find I assume.
 
ggunn said:
A local community theater used restaurant sized vegetable cans for PAR lighting fixtures in their early years when they were strapped for cash.
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A couple of times had artists that made their own hanging very questionable luminaries and wanted a price to run wires and hang them. Told them they would have to first hire somebody to inspect and approve them and provide that in writing before I would give them an estimate. They never got back to me and happy they didn't get back to me. Years ago I had to run power to about 15 wall sconces in a restaurant. They purchased very old all brass wall sconces that were sitting in a hardware store basement forever. They had somebody clean up the brass and install new lamp holders. I talked them into allowing me to drill a hole in the center of them to secure them to the wall boxes. Original design was a bracket that would slip down over a receiver metal bracket that if a customer were to hit fixture it could lift up and fall off the wall. Was able to purchase shiny fixture stud nuts to match the beautifully polished brass sconces. Got my inspectors approval for that before starting.
 
garbo said:
Years ago I had to run power to about 15 wall sconces in a restaurant. They purchased very old all brass wall sconces that were sitting in a hardware store basement forever. They had somebody clean up the brass and install new lamp holders. I talked them into allowing me to drill a hole in the center of them to secure them to the wall boxes. Original design was a bracket that would slip down over a receiver metal bracket that if a customer were to hit fixture it could lift up and fall off the wall. Was able to purchase shiny fixture stud nuts to match the beautifully polished brass sconces. Got my inspectors approval for that before starting.
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That design originally had a cord end to plug into a receptacle. A lot of the time were at the bed ends and a "clip over the bulb" lamp shade.
 
Decades ago I was working on a long unoccupied house near Davis California. I was 25 feet up a ladder to remove the old triple rack and install a service drop insulated anchor bolt so that we could repower the house. Strangely every time I moved the wall seemed to vibrate. The top board of the ship lap siding was rotten from the a absence of gutters for years. I hollered down to the GC's guy to ask if he new about it. He says "Tear it off would ya. That way I can't mis it later." I was already an active volunteer firefighter so I knew how to do a ladder slide to get off a ladder when fire broke out of a building too close to where you are. I busted a hole through the rot, found the source of the vibration was bees, and screamed as slid down "run boys run."In spite of others being closer to the irrigation pond then I was I beat them all to the tiny dock and hurled myself into the water. We stayed under water taking only quick gulps of air until the bees stopped looking for us. Were all soaking wet, which didn't feel bad int the 100 degree weather, but the GC is smoking mad about losing the day. He drive off muttering and comes back with an awful lot of wasp and hornet spray. I had to tell him that spraying honey bees would get him a thousand plus dollar fine. Before he could blow a gasket I talked him into calling the University of California at Davis, Bee Biology and Genetics Department. They promised to cover his cost before they even came. 2 professors and a couple of classes of students were on site in less than 3 hours wild with enthusiasm. The profs were dumbfounded to find 2-1/2 balloon frame stud bays of the 2 story house were full of bees. They said they had never seen a single colony get that large. The normal outcome of a colony getting too large is that they break apart and one part swarms to find a new home. They put us all to work as research assistants at a nice wage. The students looked like they had found nirvana as they gathered the honey and the wax combs into brand new hive boxes. A the several days of work as research assistants was worth the few bee stings.
 
tcleghorn said:
Took off the panel cover, saw ants seeping out around the AFCI breakers. Unplugged the AFCIs and saw ants crispy-fried against the bussing. There's a small conduit from the panel with a trace of ants coming in around a crack on a knock-out going back to a ground wire going up to the AT&T telephone box.

Took off the cover on the telephone box and a swarm of ants spilled out. Found the nest. It was a highly cold winter that year and they were looking for whatever heat they could find I assume.
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Had one that when pulled cover off the panel it was full of the speckled salamanders A bunch of dead ones that made contact across the bus. Never tripped the main though.
 
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