A Guide to Get Rid of Ants in Your Laptop

by craftyclub
A Guide to Get Rid of Ants in Your Laptop
A Guide to Get Rid of Ants in Your Laptop

Believe it or not but ants getting in your laptop is actually a real thing if you’re noticing your laptop acting weird. Unfortunately, marvel’s Ant-man can’t save you from this annoyance, but we definitely can. 

The major reason for this irregular inconvenience is that food particles may fall into the laptop through the keyboard if you eat while using it, which will attract ants. When it’s cold outside, ants may infiltrate your laptop in search of warmth.

Getting rid of ants is super easy, barely an inconvenience. Just follow the steps, and you’ll be ant-free in no time. This guide will explain why ants go in your laptop, how to get rid of them, and further precautions so your laptop is ant-free till infinity. 

How to know if ants have infiltrated your laptop

When a laptop gets hot after a lengthy period of use, ants will emerge from any crack or opening. This is a strong indication that they are building a nest in there. Ants despise extreme heat and will flee if it becomes too hot inside. Further signs to know if you have ants are as follows.

  • Keyboard issues

Ants will prevent the lower side of the laptop’s keyboard buttons from sending commands while you type if you have a big infestation. This means that if there are a lot of ants under the keyboard, pressing a letter or a function may fail.

You’ll find that you’ll have to press harder on the keyboard buttons because you’ll be crashing them as you type. In some circumstances, the keyboard may stop working entirely.

  • Bad smell

If you have a lot of ants in your laptop and it starts to heat up, it will emit a strong stink. The dead ants you squashed on the keyboard may be affected by the heat. Most of the time, the stench is picked up when the laptop heats up because of heavy use.

The heat will kill ants buried deep inside the laptop, which may emit an odd odor when heated. Even if the laptop is not heating, when some ants are killed, they emit a foul odor. You can smell them if they’ve contaminated your laptop while you’re using it.

  • Visible ants crawling

An ant infestation on your laptop, especially if the table is clean and you haven’t observed them crawling on it before. Little ants may enter the laptop through the keyboard or the ventilation holes on the sides and crawl across the keyboard or the screen.

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They’ll appear out of nowhere and slither across your laptop screen. Ants will also hide on the open parts of your laptop and around the base.

Even if you squash them while you work, they keep appearing. If you see more than two ants every 5 minutes, you have an ant problem with your laptop.

Why Do Ants Go in a Laptop?

Before you attempt to remove ants from your laptop, you must first understand why ants go in laptops.

Otherwise, ants will return to your laptop no matter what you do, causing damage again. So, let’s figure out what’s going on. 

Ants enter laptops mainly because of two major reasons.

  • Food stains

Working on a laptop while eating food on the side is pretty common. Oil stains on your palms and fingers stick to the keyboard, as well as other surfaces such as the screen and mouse. While eating and working at the same time, you may also drop small food crumbs on the laptop. Food pieces or crumbs become caught in the spaces between the keys on the keyboard. Ants are drawn to your laptop because of the smears and food crumbs.

  • Warmth

One ant species that prefers to make its home in laptops, electrical outlets, and other electronic home appliances. Crazy ants are one of them. Their name is quite obvious because of their behavior.

Crazy ants travel in a chaotic manner, which is how they received their name.

Ants prefer to build their homes in dry, warm environments. When you’re working on your laptop, it becomes rather hot. When you turn it off, the residual heat lasts for a long time. The heat, combined with the food stains, draws the ants to your laptop. Ants consider your laptop to be a great location for constructing their nests. Ants infiltrate your laptop to create nests and deposit eggs!

That’s certainly not something you’d want to happen. Because when ants get inside your laptop, they deal a lot of damage and cause serious issues.

In addition, ants prefer to enter the laptop via the CPU fan vent. When the laptop is turned on, the active CPU fan may shred the ant, allowing the pheromones to disperse. Other ants are drawn to your laptop by these pheromones. Ants have a habit of chewing on electrical appliance wires. As a result, once they’re inside your laptop, they’ll undoubtedly munch on the inside circuitry. It will cause a major defection to your laptop if you don’t take caution early.

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Can Ants Cause Serious Damage?

Ants can damage your laptop, but only if there is a large infestation. Ants don’t eat the plastic insulation or any of the hardware in your laptop, but that doesn’t mean they can’t ruin it. They’re merely attempting to build a nest in there sometimes. Ants can destroy a laptop by obstructing vital wire and relay paths by accident.

When ants land on the mortar and bearings that spin the fan, they might cause it to fail. However, because they would have to be in large numbers, the possibilities of this happening are slim.

Heat, for example, will keep their infestation in laptops under check because if the fan fails, the laptop will overheat. If this occurs, the atmosphere will grow too hot for them to settle, and they will flee.

They can also damage or obstruct the spot where the laptop is hooked into power, interrupting the laptop’s power supply. In most cases, because it is the main power inlet, that location is always heated. They will cluster in one location, causing long-term damage.

How to get Rid of Ants in Your Laptop

  • A clean table

Because your laptop is always left on a specific desk without being moved, ants on the desk may climb into it because it is warm. Make sure your workstation is clean and free of anything sweet that can attract them. Placing your laptop in random places rather than one would also be helpful.

Stop keeping sweets and sweet snacks in the drawers of your work desk and get rid of them. Clean the table because ants will reside in your laptop and devour food from your filthy desk.

If you have a non-overheating laptop and a consistent food source on your desk, ants will dwell in your laptop while getting food from the desk.

  • Vinegar

Vinegar, especially white vinegar, kills and burns ants to a crisp. It’ll also keep them away from your computer. To keep ants away from your laptop, open it and clean it off with pure white vinegar on a soft cloth. After removing all of the food from the desk, use the same method to clean it.

  • Heat
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Ants cannot survive in hot temperatures in most cases. Thus one of the easiest ways to get rid of them from a laptop is to let it heat up for a while. In most circumstances, overusing a laptop while it is plugged in leads it to heat up quickly.

If you suspect an infestation, limit the air circulation in your laptop for around 20 minutes to allow it to heat up. This will get rid of all the ants.

However, do not leave the laptop to heat up for an extended period of time. Too much heat can harm it, so keep that in mind while trying to get rid of the ants. Once they’re out, wipe them off the table with rubbing alcohol and a piece of cloth to completely remove them.

  • Bait

You can attract and trap ants with ant baits around the laptop after work. Place a half teaspoon of sugar and the same quantity of borax near the laptop. Allow the ants to come out and eat it, taking some back to their nest. They will perish if they consume the concoction. Make sure you open the laptop and remove them once some time has passed.

  • Wipes

Food stains on the laptop and other electronic goods are easily removed using electronic wipes. They break down the stains, allowing them to be easily removed with just a few swipes.

Begin by swiping across the laptop’s screen.

  • Then continue on to your keyboard, mouse touchpad, and the back of your laptop.
  • Make sure you wipe each section of the laptop with a different wipe.
  • The stains can be transferred from one part of the laptop to another by using the same wipe.
  • The laptop’s screen or surface is not scratched by using electronic wipes.
  • They also dry quickly. Food stains are not left behind with the use of electronic wipes.

Conclusion

Now you know why ants get in your laptop, how do they get in, and how do you get rid of them. Ants can be a real nuisance if they’re many, so be sure to always keep your workplace and your laptop tidy.

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