Bug inside LCD Screen
July 14th, 2007
Argh, help! I’ve got a living bug crawling around inside my LCD computer monitor! It’s actually walking around which is quite annoying. I’ve no idea how it got in there but it’s small enough to have fit through the small holes at the back of the monitor.
On the bright side, there only seems to be one so they won’t be making babies in there any time soon. Has anyone ever had bugs inside their monitors and how did they get rid of them? The advice I’ve had so far is to wait for them to die and hope that they die off screen or somewhere where it won’t affect the picture too much.
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Yeah, I’ve had a few whilst I had my PC set up near to our back door in the summer. I made the terrible mistake of squishing them on a few occasions which made them stick to the monitor. I tried to take apart the monitor to get it out, but no luck. So since I’ve relocated my PC and got a different monitor… next time I have a bug, I’ll just remember to leave it and hope it goes away!
They’re obviously attracted to the light / warmth or something.
Thanks Ollie - I haven’t squished it. I’m hoping it’ll fall off. I turned it on the next morning and it’s still there, alive and kicking. I’ve looked around some of the photo frames in this room and it seems like they all have a couple of thunderfly insects inside them.
I had one in a laptop at work, I thought it was on the top of the screen so i squashed it, then i realised it was inside the screen. So I know have a permanent black mark in the screen!
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Hi, im watching a thunderfly in my monitor this very second hahaha. I also went to rub the mark off, though DOH my lil cousins knocked my monitor and made a mark, then i opened up the screen on msn to tell my gf, to find it crawling over the grass on my background(well not like it knew it was grass, then it was all over her chat box.
Right now im trying to tap above it to make it walk off itself, but not having much luck, it is running in circles around the status bar.
HAHAHA insane little thing, how did it get its way all the way in there.
I’ve had a lot of hits on this page recently so I wanted to update everyone for the benefit of people who are finding this entry in Google. Don’t squish the bug or do anything or you’ll get it stuck. Put up with it. It should just magically disappear within two or three days. I continued using my monitor when there was a bug inside it and there were no problems.
yeah…I tried to squish mine and figured i’d suffer the mark….apparently mine refuses to be squished and its driving me insane. I’m tempted to keep trying but i’m hoping it’ll go away. For now I named it buggy b/c it’s driving me buggy and my best friend suggested the name after I said I was thinking of naming it…
I realize this is an old blog, but since it is the first result that comes up when you google “bug inside screen” I thought I’d post my experience and the solution I thought of.
Obviously I was having the same problem, at first I just waited and waited for the bug to go out of the screen, like cross the border where he would leave the actual screen and then I would try to press the side of the screen to squash it while it’s not anywhere important, but the damn bug kept turning round when he came close to the edge.
So I after reading about a poster on this blog saying “the bug is prolly attracted to the light/heat” I thought of the following;
Turn off your screen, take a lamp that you can hang over your screen (preferrably one that’s quite bright), turn it on and hang it like 2 cm’s above your screen.. my theory was that the bug would see bright light coming from the top of the screen and/or feel that the top was warmer..
And it worked! After about an hour I turned on my laptop.. and voila.. no more bug..
I just squished the bug in mine! … is there anyway at all that i can get it out..?
If not. Do you think it will rot away?
If it will rot how long?
?!
Nggghhhhhhhhhhhh this is so annoying
a pet storm fly is not what I wanted
i never seen this untill i squished mine and then i realised it would stay there so i searched bug inside screen XD
i have like 6 dead bugs inside my screen.
i hate insects.
I have about 20 crawling around on my screen……any way to get rid of these things??
[...] of writing this blog is seeing how old posts are viewed. For example, last year I wrote about bugs inside my LCD screen. Since then, the post has been getting a couple of hits every day as people find it through Google [...]
Hi all.
So, I have this problem too, you see.
I haven’t tried to do anything to get rid of it, other than squish it. But I can’t :p
I’ll try the “Turn off screen, put lamp near screen, turn on lamp and wait an hour or two”.
Seems very logic to me.
Maybe I’ll post here if it works or not
- Regards, Rasmus
I got a little fruit fly in my laptop screen. He managed to crawl to the middle of the screen and die. Brand new computer, too. Wonder if BestBuy can “repair” this…
I Recently got 2 bugs in my screen it was really annoying. At first i thought they were just crawing around across the screen so squished them ! Big mistake. But luckly I had the a brilliant idea… I scratch the screen gently with my nail and the bug started to fad i scrathed some more and hay presto they somehow fadded into the screen. So Far i havent noticed any damage by me scratching the screen… Sorry if you try this and do make damage to your screen. Remember scratch gently. Emiily x
can bestbuy fix this?
I had the very same a while ago with a thunder fly. Damn thing crawled around for a while (which was quite cute) but then it DIED on my screen. So i keep thinking it’s an ” ‘ ” or a ” , ” depending on the text i’m reading! axtually the comma looks very much like it, right angle as well!
Did consider ringing IT helpdesk to say there was a “bug” in my pc. See what they say
hehe
I am considering the gentle scratching thing now though.
ta x
i hv the same problem!! i was so freaked out when i saw it moving! its about the size of a ‘ and its so damn annoying:(
i have one right now……… it is SOOOOOO tiny!
I have a small spider (now a bloody dot) inside my screen and there was another spider (live) in there earlier. Is there anyway to get rid of either of them or both, cause that would be awesome!
Thought I’d leave my comment here.
I had an insect inside my new LCD screen yesterday. I decided against squishing it, and turned the monitor off. Came back on this morning, and so far there is no sign of the bug. Hopefully it left when there was no longer any light source.
However, it did leave waste in a couple parts of the screen. I expect that to melt/disintegrate over time.
Good luck to everyone having the problem.
same problem here, and the “Turn off screen, put lamp near screen, turn on lamp and wait an hour or two” advice did the trick here (plus huge amounts of insecticide in the whole room as soon as the bug got out of the screen)
I think that turning off the screen ASAP is the key here, otherwise the bug is happy in an environment full of light and heat. Thanks Nathan for sharing your experience!
hi guys,
just thought i’d let you know that if you have squashed one of these bugs onto your screen, it doesn’t go away. on my old monitor, i made the same mistake and it was there for years. DO NO take the risk, it’s sooo annoying.
secondly, the bug is not inside your monitor, it is simply behind the glass. you can remove this with some suction pads that stick to your screen and remove the safety glass. you can then easily take away the bug. this can be done simply, but would definately be considered the last option.
another way to do this is just to be patient and wait it out. these ‘thunderbugs’ as they are known, do not live forever. try to not use your computer for a few days, and the lack of heat and light radiated from the screen will kill/make the bug go away. cold and dark are definately 2 things it doesn’t like. you just have to hope it doesn’t die slap bang in the middle, else the suction pads are definately the option for you.
i recommend the suction pads also to people who have squashed them and want to remove debris. if you don’t want to do this yourself, send your monitor away to be cleaned and explain your problem to the IT staff. it sounds ridiculous, but they’ve seen it so many times before it’s almost routine.
before you do anything, just wait a few days. then if it doesn’t work, i’ve given a few other methods.
hope this helps.
regards.
ps: i’m watching a thunderbug right now under the glass on my screen, and am playing the waiting game. it truly is so frustrating when they get in the way of your typing and you make mistakes! ARGH!
If I weren’t a buddhist this would really irritate me, I have a thunderfly in my screen now too! This is the downside to british weather being good for a change. I kinda accidently squished it so do you think this sort of thing would be covered under my computer’s warrenty?
Cheers.
P.s. Please nobody else squish them, I’d hate for anyone else to have to deal with this.
Thought i would squish one, thinking it wasn’t real and now it is dead, just lyeing there!!!
i’ve accidently squashes one on my mums laptop, shes only had it two weeks too
its a lcd screen, if she took it back to the shop could they remove it? please help.. shes gonna be really mad at me 
I got one today, but i didnt squash it…instead it crawled to the center and died.
My laptops only a month old, its really annoying.
My mum told me to send the laptop back haha, do you think itll work?
Eurghhh! stupid stupid thing. i saw it flutter its wings so it must have a decent amount of living space.
its walking against the ‘wood’ pannelling on the background on here.
do you think it is this fabulous british weather we’re having that has caused this.
God it is so annoying.
i’m gonna try the light trick, but my screen isn’t likely to get much colder due to the weather.
i’ll be soo annoyed if it stays in the middle of my screen
leave a comment if you get much luck.
i’ll let you know if my method works.
x
hay zoe,
i called the company where i baught mine,
they say that you have to buy a new monitor -.- i can’t believe this !!!:O
AAAARGH
if i had spend a little bit more on the warenty, there would be no problem
but no i will be stucked with a dead little flie pet thingy in the middle of my screen
poor bug its just lyieng there … waiting to rot away
( that sounds nasty xD )
GOODLUCK EVERYBODY WITH THOSE STUPID LITTLE BUGS -.-
btw,those bugs eats plastic, thats what they told me :S
I started out with one thunderbug about 3 days ago crawling around I have now got 5 crawling under the screen. They have appeared without the monitor being on so I cant see where light heat etc will attract them out. Guys at computer store said put a vacuum over any vents but I have no vents on the screen. HELP!!!!