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What is this brown material in my 1950s-era ceiling light's electrical box?

Home Improvement Asked on December 18, 2021

I’m planning to re-wire a ceiling light fixture in order to bring a neutral line down to the switch box. I’ve identified where all of the lines go in the attic, it’s easily accessible and there’s no insulation in the wall (it’s an interior wall) so this should be an easy project.

However, I opened up the light fixture to check it out and see if anything funny is going on… and I found this:

enter image description here

So far, it looks fairly normal, the neutral and hot wires come together in wire nuts to connect to the fixture. However when I pulled it down a bit further, I found some really weird crap up there surrounding the wires:

enter image description here

What is that stuff? It’s taking up space in the box and it’s not electrical wires, that doesn’t seem like it’s safe… Can I pull it out? It’s almost like it’s a kind of insulation, except it’s solid.

For reference, here’s what things look like in the attic:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/xMK3X.jpg

2 Answers

Standard "mud dauber" wasp nests ( in TX). Theold mineral wool thermal insulation has collapsed , pretty typical. It would be well worth getting a price of blowing in fiberglas or putting batts of fiberglas yourself.

Answered by blacksmith37 on December 18, 2021

It looks like a bee cocoon. Shut off the power, spray with some bug spray just in case any are alive and scrap it out with a screwdriver.

Answered by JACK on December 18, 2021

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