Help! I was staying in a place infested with bedbugs and now they are in my precious Macbook Air! What can I do?

Help! I was staying in a place infested with bedbugs and now they are in my precious Macbook Air! What can I do?

MacBook Air

Posted on Aug 27, 2013 2:36 AM

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10 replies

Aug 30, 2013 12:57 PM in response to atacamadesert

Back up your files off the machine to a new or non-contaminated external drive.


Shutdown the computer and connect the charger cord.


Find a warm, dry area that will be safe for a long period of time with power.


Seal the machine in a air tight plastic bag, fill the bag with carbon dioxide (it's heavier than air) and tape it tightly around the power cord.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_qdkKnftt8


Leave for one year and they will die of starvation and/or asphyxiation. Check on the machine periodically for heat or other issues and disconnect/reconnect the power cord from the wall as needed. But don't remove the bag or open it.


Consult with a bed bug professional about eradicating the rest of your home/office/vehicles as they can transfer back to the machine again which will require another year of electronics being in a plastic bag.



New bedbugs require 5 feedings and mate before they can breed more. They can lay eggs anywhere and Mac's cannot be opened or completely sealed and all the spaces cleaned of eggs and nymphs so it's not even worth trying. Heating a Mac to the proper temperature to kill them also damages the Mac and other electronics.


They are drawn to expelled carbon dioxide and body heat, usually come out at night but if hungry will feed in the daytime as well. They seek a safe close place to hide to come back and feed on you again and again.


Consult with your bedbug professional as since there is no way to kill them with poison (the one working formula was banned), your bed (s) and even favorite chair is used as bait (with you in it) to draw them out in a war of attraction/attrition using traps etc., after the initial sealing of cracks and heat treatments.


The key is to offer no physical path to you to feed less it's through a trap, usually placed under the bed/chair/couch posts, this may mean having a elevated bed pulled away from the wall so the sheets and blankets don't touch the floor where they can crawl up.


Don't use insecticide etc., it only scatters them all over the house and elsewhere, up the walls where they can crawl across the ceiling and drop down on your head or bed.


It's also important to strip your bed, check every crack for eggs and wash your sheets, etc., at least every few days. When you do so, fill the washing machine or tub with water and submerge for a couple of days to drown them before washing, also repeat for all clothes and other fabrics if possible.


You may never fully get rid of them, it will require maintaining a diligent behavioral lifestyle to keep from feeding them until a more permanent solution is found, so far none exist.


If your careless, they will breed more again and your back to square one and calling the expensive exterminator and bagging your electronics again.

Aug 31, 2013 2:38 AM in response to atacamadesert

Thank you everyone for the advice and sympathy. Especially DS Store for the careful and excellent advice on general decontamination of electronics and living quarters. I will go back to that if I ever have the issue again. I haven't seen any bugs for a while and, as I cannot live without my MacAir while travelling, for now I'll use the trick I used with the contaminated bedside table lamp...the bugs were livng in the felt material stuck to the bottom of the lamp (warm and close to the bed, they are truly remarkable insects) - I needed the lamp, so placed a ring of talcum powder around it and the little critters floundered around in talcum powder whenever they tried to exit or re-enter their hiding place, kind of gruesome but it suffocated them...I know this sounds odd but it solves the issue of them finding a new place to hide if I bag the laptop, and the issue of being able to use the laptop... so for now my Mac will sit in a plastic tray surrounded by talcum powder. I just have to be careful not to sneeze. Thanks again!

Aug 31, 2013 6:09 AM in response to atacamadesert

"I will go back to that if I ever have that issue again."


With all due respect, perhaps this is the "issue" in the first place. There are too many people with that very same issue, going on business, country to country, hotel to hotel who wait for the next time to try the method thats tried and true, Its all fine as long as they arent biting you? What about spreading them to hotels and other people? I do hope you are planning on making your talcum powder equally as important to you as your computer and are planning on sprinkiling a perimeter around your computer every time and everywhere you use it, otherwise, you are one of the contributing factors to this stuff spreading like wildfire. Just sayin 😕

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Help! I was staying in a place infested with bedbugs and now they are in my precious Macbook Air! What can I do?

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