Roaches in my Macbook...Help!

Question

Level 1

1 points

Roaches in my Macbook...Help!

I know the first and most ignorant response I'll get to this post is "Ew! Your whole house is infected. You should pay more attention to your housekeeping skills," etc. etc. However, I live in southeast Georgia and this is a fairly common problem here, no matter how spotless your household may be. I've lived in this house for 2 years and never had a pest problem until my landlord sent a new pest control rep to spray--I don't know what kind of spray he was using, but after that visit we were infested with roaches and have been since, despite leaving roach motels everywhere, cleaning frantically, and spraying all nooks and crannies with Raid consistently. The problem has gotten better recently and is contained to the kitchen area, with the exception of my Macbook.

I will soon be moving away from this location, and desperately want to rid my computer of these critters before we are settled in the new place. The best advice I have found so far is to tape roach motels inside a large ziplock bag, seal the laptop inside, and store the whole shebang in an airtight container for a week or two, then clean out what I can and use a dust cleaning aerosol spray to get out the rest of the dead guys.

I just wanted to see if anyone else had another method to try, or has had success using the method I described above.

Responses I have seen elsewhere and am not interested in:

"Freeze your computer and then dethaw it." -- Yeah, no. Condensate everywhere.

"Put it in the microwave." -- Really??

"Spray the computer with Raid, etc." -- Chemicals all over the hardware. Because that sounds logical.

Thanks for any serious advice you may be able to give me!

MacBook

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 7:47 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eustace Mendis

Level 7

25,416 points

Feb 5, 2013 8:30 AM in response to macuser_emma

The plastic bag suggestion is a good one, but you can go one more step. Get a large plastic bag, put the MB inside, then take as much air out of the bag as you can.

Wrap the bag opening around a vacuum cleaner hose and run the vacuum. When the bag collapses, tie it up as tightly as you can and leave. No critter can live in a vacuum.They should be dead within minutes - you don't need roach killer chemicals in the bag.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 17, 2016 6:25 AM in response to macuser_emma

I had this problem as well. The bag trick worked great at killing them but now I have dead roaches inside my laptop. I took off the back and cleaned it with condensed air but the fan still blows out that dead roach smell. I don't know what is worse, the roaches or the smell that hits me in the face every time I use my laptop. I don't know how to get rid of the smell besides taking it apart. I don't want to ruin my laptop. I read somewhere that a lot of dust forms under the fan. Hopefully you don't end up with this problem.

Good luck.

Reply

Answer 3

K Shaffer

Level 8

36,112 points

Feb 18, 2016 3:33 AM in response to liljeanny

At some point, the effort to have the inside of the portable computer professionally

looked into, fans and debris cleaned out, and while it's open, any hardware upgrade

done to the computer that cannot easily be done by owner with a DIY repair guide.

• Mac portable repair guides - iFixit:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Laptop

The original MacBooks (circa 2006 - 2010) are too old for Apple Store repairs.

Others more than four years old may not be fixed; issues may be addressed as

far as they go. Non-current, parts + vintage status may lead you to visit AASPs.

While some are too complex to take down and fully clean; in a dusty environment a

semi-annual pro inspection + cleaning allows the unit to run cooler and last longer.

Then, there's another aspect of insects... a traditional, conservative value, to consider.🙂

Reply