The laptop is one of the essential appliances in our lives today. It has become challenging to imagine life without a laptop. But laptops are prone to many different types of issues.
Ant infestation is one such issue that most laptop users commonly face. It is very annoying to see ants crawling around your laptop. These ants can cause severe damage to your laptop as well. Even a tiny scratch on the LCD screen can make your laptop non-functional.
The good news is that you can use a few simple tricks to keep ants away from your laptop. These easy-to-implement and straightforward tricks can ensure that you never run into this problem while using a laptop.
Why Are Ants Entering Your Laptop
Here are some of the reasons why ants often enter your laptop.
- Your laptop has food stains: It is very possible that your laptop has food stains around it. If you leave food crumbs on the keyboard of the laptop, for example, ants will often come to eat them and later enter into the laptop. Foods that contains sugar or syrup or foods such as chocolates should be kept at a distance from the laptop. You can also use a brush to remove food stains around your laptop regularly.
- Your laptop is in moist areas: Moisture Ants often enter damp and humid places easily. If you live in an area which has frequent rains, it will very likely become the perfect place for ants to breed. If you place your laptop on the floor or on some other moist area, there is a high chance that ants may be entering into the laptop as well.
- Laptop heat attracts the ants: Ants like to make their nest in dry, hot places. When you’re working on your laptop, it steadily gets heated up. When you turn off the computer, the residual heat lingers for a time. Ants are attracted to your laptop as a great location to build their nest. When ants invade your laptop, they may do considerable damage. So it is necessary to keep them away from your laptop.
How To Know Ants Invade Your Laptop
If you see more than four ants crawling around your laptop, then it is time that you take some action to prevent them from entering your laptop. Here are some things that indicate that ants have invaded your laptop.
- Ants around the laptop: If there is a swarm of ants hanging around your laptop then it is time you take some action to prevent them from entering your laptop. Ants are also known to leave a pheromone trail for others in the colony to follow. This means that when you see ants near your laptop, they are bound to enter it sooner or later. Though it might take them some time depending upon their size and speed, but ultimately they will get inside your laptop.
- The smell of ants: You need to be on the lookout for any kind of smell that indicates that ants have come near your laptop. The smell is usually citronella or lemony, which means that it is difficult to miss the presence of ants even if you are not looking carefully. Formic acid might also be smelt, which is given off by certain ant species.
- Ants poop or frass: Ants leave behind a certain type of droppings that is difficult to miss. These little brown and black poop marks are easily visible on the screen or keyboard. You can use bright lights or sunlight to detect these droppings. If you see them, act quickly before they start laying eggs and make your laptop their home.
- Keyboard failure: The keyboard is one of the most susceptible places for ants to reside in. It has all the necessary requirements that are required by ants for their nests, i.e food particles, water, warmth etc. If you observe anything on your laptop keyboard then check if it is an ant. Because if there is any ant on your keyboard, sooner or later it will lay eggs and these eggs will soon hatch into larvae.
How To Prevent Ants From The Laptop
You can follow several steps to keep ants away from your laptop. These simple tricks are easy to implement and follow.
1. Use ants trap or bait
You can get ants traps and ants bait from the market quickly. These baits either trap or kill all the ants immediately, preventing them from entering your laptop.
Just place an ant bait or ant trap near your computer and leave it 24-48 hours.
The only thing you need to take care of is if you have kids or pets at home as they might get attracted by these chemicals as well.
Here are the top bestselling ant baits and traps for your laptop.
2. Lemon juice or Vinegar
Ants are not fond of these solutions. Use them as a spray to keep the ants away from your laptop. If you have any lemongrass plants nearby, place some of its leaves near the computer to repel the ants. You can also mix vinegar with water and use it as a spray.
3. Cinnamon
Cinnamon is another way to repel ants as it leaves a powerful smell that the ants don’t like. If the scent of cinnamon is too much for you, then mix some lemon juice with it and apply this mixture on cotton and place them near your laptop. You can also take ground cinnamon and place it around your laptop.
Clean your laptop regularly with a damp cloth. This will remove any food particles or other substances that attract the ants. You can also use an ant spray or wipes to clean your laptop as it removes the ants and kills them, and provides you with a cleaner environment for working on your laptop.
4. Clean your laptop
Clean your laptop regularly with a damp cloth. This will remove any food pieces or other substances that attract the ants.
You can also use an ant spray or wipes to clean your laptop as it removes the ants and kills them, and provides you with a cleaner environment for working on your laptop.
You can buy our recommended laptop wipes and spray.
5. Using fork method
Using round or rectangular containers, build a stable platform as your base and fill it with water. Place your laptop on the platform but try not to get anything too high, as an accidental knock can drown your laptop.
It makes ants realize that they have no other option to escape. Now place a fork(you can use a spoon, straw, or anything slim) at the end of your laptop. This will be an exit point for ants to leave your laptop.
Leave the setup overnight, as the ants are more active at night. Don’t expect ants to come out of your laptop right away. It will take at least a few hours.
When they find out they have an escape route, they’ll confiscate it straight away, leaving your laptop ant-free.
6. Vacuuming the laptop
Use a vacuum cleaner to suck out or kill any ants that might be inside your laptop. Vacuum the keyboard, ports, and anywhere you find any ants hiding. This is a fast way to clear away ants from your laptop but make sure you do it properly as not to damage anything in your laptop.
To vacuum inside the laptop, you will need to remove the keyboard. Now put the vacuum cleaner nozzle inside your laptop and start vacuuming from outside and inside. This way, it is easy for you to suck out any ants that might be hiding inside your laptop.
Please don’t turn the pressure too high while cleaning your laptop, as you might damage some of its internal components.
You can also remove ants by blowing with compressed air available in the market.
7. Shaking your laptop
By shaking your laptop, you can remove at least some parts of the ants that might be around the laptop. Just open the laptop and start shaking it vigorously.
The ants might fall from their place inside your laptop. This way, you can save yourself from using any chemicals to prevent ants from your laptop. This is the cheapest and easiest way to get rid of ants from your laptop.
8. Service center
If you cannot remove ants from your laptop and keep coming back even after trying all these tricks, it is better to take your laptop to a service center.
You may not have experience repairing laptops; in that case, you might end up breaking your laptop in the process of getting rid of ants.
Also, if you are trying to get rid of ants from your laptop on your own, then make sure you do not break anything inside it, which might cost you more money than taking it to a service center.
If they find out that you have broken your laptop while trying to get rid of ants, then it might cost you extra charges.
Some Precautions And Tips To Take
It would be best to keep in mind certain things to prevent a laptop from ants.
- Be careful while removing the keyboard, if you break any wire during this process it might cost a lot of money to get your laptop repaired.
- Keep any chemicals away from the place where you are going to work on your laptop as they could be harmful or poisonous.
- Avoid vacuuming your laptop while it is turned on as you might damage some parts of the computer or it’s components.
- If you are not sure about how to go about this process, then refrain yourself from doing too much improvisation with your laptop and take it to a service center before damaging anything more than what is already damaged.
- While going away for a short trip, cover your laptop with a plastic bag and make sure you don’t leave any sweet item inside your laptop or anywhere near it.
- Don’t eat or drink near your laptop when you are working on it, eating sweet items might attract ants to your laptop. Use laptop after eating and washing your hands first.
- Use laptop sleeve with a good quality zipper.
- Always keep your laptop clean and tidy. If you clean and maintain your computer in regular intervals then it will be much easier for you to get rid of the ants that might come in contact with your laptop.
Do ants harm your laptop?
Ants can cause harm to your laptop if they are not removed immediately. They might damage the soft wires of your laptop and expose it to various germs. Besides, ants can cause unpleasant odors on your laptop, which no one wants. However, if there are few ants, then they don’t cause serious damage.
Conclusion
Laptops are a necessary part of our lives, and we don’t want to be without them for very long. But when ants invade, it can feel like they’re taking over our whole world.
Thankfully, there are ways to get rid of them without calling in professionals. In this article, we’ve outlined eight different methods that you can try to get rid of the ants invading your laptop.
Some are more effective than others, but hopefully, one (or a combination) of these methods will help you reclaim your laptop from the little critters.
Keep in mind that some of these tricks may require a bit of elbow grease – or vacuum cleaner power – so be prepared to put in a little effort!
Now, I want to hear from you.
Any of these methods will help you get rid of ants from your laptop, then do let me know in the comments section.
If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions for getting rid of these little pests, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. We’d love to hear about them down in the comments section.
