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tywebb13

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 21, 2012
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I have 2 homepods as a stereo pair. One of them made a loud bang, unpaired and wouldn't work anymore.

But I reset to factory settings, set it up again and made the stereo pair again. Things seemed to be OK.

But the next day it happened again but this time I saw ants crawling all over it.

It seems that ants caused this. They were probably inside the homepod the day before so I couldn't see them and never suspected ants to be the cause. I sprayed the homepod to kill the ants, found the queen ant (which strangely seemed to survive the spray) and removed it.

I didn't take a photo but someone on reddit had a similar problem and made this photo:

2f92eov2fuy41.jpg



Anyway after getting rid of the ants I reset to factory settings, set it up and made the stereo pair again.

No more loud bangs or unpairings.

The ants definitely caused this. I have no idea what damage they may have caused inside it but the loud bangs makes me think they got to the electricals - but it was probably just shortings because I managed to get the homepod working again.

The strangest thing is that the ants only went for the left homepod - there were no ants on the right one.

I thought there might have been some sticky substance on it attracting the ants - but there wasn't.

There is something much stranger going on.
 
Last edited:
  • Wow
Reactions: Itinj24
There was no food or water. Maybe they were eating something inside the homepod, but what? And why only the left homepod?
 
Apple HomePod, the anteaters' Star Trek-like food replicator:

Anteater: "Hey Siri, prepare the meal!"
Siri: "Coming right up!"

Meanwhile, at tywebb13's home:

tywebb13: "Hey Siri, get rid of ants!"
Siri: "Sorry, the ants are not responding."

Seriously, it's an interesting and worrying phenomenon at the same time. It could really be that a specific substance or smell is attracting them. Or simply, they like boomy bass music...

Maybe this is the reason why the HomePod has been prematurely discontinued (I'm joking :), of course).
 
Some types of ants are attracted to electronic/electrical wiring. In particular crazy ants, which IIRC are an invasive species in south east US as well as other places. You probably want to get an exterminator out there quickly, and have him check your electric meter and circuit breaker box.
 
I have 2 homepods as a stereo pair. One of them made a loud bang, unpaired and wouldn't work anymore.

But I reset to factory settings, set it up again and made the stereo pair again. Things seemed to be OK.

But the next day it happened again but this time I saw ants crawling all over it.

It seems that ants caused this. They were probably inside the homepod the day before so I couldn't see them and never suspected ants to be the cause. I sprayed the homepod to kill the ants, found the queen ant (which strangely seemed to survive the spray) and removed it.

I didn't take a photo but someone on reddit had a similar problem and made this photo:

View attachment 1924386


Anyway after getting rid of the ants I reset to factory settings, set it up and made the stereo pair again.

No more loud bangs or unpairings.

The ants definitely caused this. I have no idea what damage they may have caused inside it but the loud bangs makes me think they got to the electricals - but it was probably just shortings because I managed to get the homepod working again.

The strangest thing is that the ants only went for the left homepod - there were no ants on the right one.

I thought there might have been some sticky substance on it attracting the ants - but there wasn't.

There is something much stranger going on.
What type of music do you generally play? Rain forrest sounds perhaps????? Glad you got it back working!
 
I made the mistake of reading this thread. I know it's not your photo, but it's still gross. ?
 
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