insects in keyboard

wazza2004

Have a Dell laptop which is over 12 years old. It is rarely used nowadays. While waiting for it to load I noticed a couple of small light cream coloured insects crawling under the keyboard buttons. True there are a build up of dust (human skin) and other stuff over the years. What are those insects? How to get rid of them? The laptop has been left in the carpet sometimes. Only noticed a couple of insects.

HappySeagull

Vacuum cleaner?!

Fightsback

wazza2004 wrote: »

Have a Dell laptop which is over 12 years old. It is rarely used nowadays. While waiting for it to load I noticed a couple of small light cream coloured insects crawling under the keyboard buttons. True there are a build up of dust (human skin) and other stuff over the years. What are those insects? How to get rid of them? The laptop has been left in the carpet sometimes. Only noticed a couple of insects.

Probably just a couple of old windows bugs

They could be predatory mites or some other species of mite.

Do you know a computer keyboard can have more harmful bacteria than a toilet ?

wazza2004

Fightsback wrote: »

Probably just a couple of old windows bugs

In that case am sticking with Vista (that is what is loaded) if it only has a couple of bugs. :T

wazza2004

Fightsback wrote: »

Probably just a couple of old windows bugs

They could be predatory mites or some other species of mite.

Do you know a computer keyboard can have more harmful bacteria than a toilet ?

Did assume they were mites. Any way to kill them? Any spray?

Agree with bacteria in keyboard. See what comes out when you tip it upside down and give it a shake

pendragon_arther

Every so often I turn my laptop off, turn it upside down and gently tap one side and watch all the dust and crumbs collect on the table.

Nick_C

I used my Dyson on my work laptop once. It sucked several keys off!

I would recommend 15 minutes in an oven pre heated to 120C

John_Gray

Undo and store carefully the 15-or-so small screws on the underside of the Dell keyboard.
Separate the top from the bottom, and a soft plastic/rubbery mat should stay with the lower half. This can be carefully washed in luke-warm, soapy water, as can the top half of the keyboard, which holds all the keys. Rinse in cold water, shake and dry carefully for a day or so in an airing cupboard.
Check the electronics (!) of the bottom half for signs of insects and brush away all detritus.
Refit the plastic mat, put the two halves of the keyboard back together, and fit all the screws.
Check that all the keys work after you've reconnected the plug.

unforeseen

John_Gray wrote: »

Undo and store carefully the 15-or-so small screws on the underside of the Dell keyboard.
Separate the top from the bottom, and a soft plastic/rubbery mat should stay with the lower half. This can be carefully washed in luke-warm, soapy water, as can the top half of the keyboard, which holds all the keys. Rinse in cold water, shake and dry carefully for a day or so in an airing cupboard.
Check the electronics (!) of the bottom half for signs of insects and brush away all detritus.
Refit the plastic mat, put the two halves of the keyboard back together, and fit all the screws.
Check that all the keys work after you've reconnected the plug.

If you have any screws or bits left over then these can be binned as they were obviously not required :rotfl:

Jivesinger

Install a spider to eat them.

D_M_E

Undo and store carefully the 15-or-so small screws on the underside of the Dell keyboard.
Separate the top from the bottom, and a soft plastic/rubbery mat should stay with the lower half. This can be carefully washed in luke-warm, soapy water, as can the top half of the keyboard, which holds all the keys. Rinse in cold water, shake and dry carefully for a day or so in an airing cupboard.
Check the electronics (!) of the bottom half for signs of insects and brush away all detritus.
Refit the plastic mat, put the two halves of the keyboard back together, and fit all the screws.
Check that all the keys work after you've reconnected the plug.
Last edited by John Gray; Today at 8:16 AM.

As well as the washing recommended John, another way to clean is by using either a small paintbrush or a large artist's brush.