my macbook is currently full of ants! immediate help

Samarium said:

my macbook is full of ants what do i do without damaging any of the components.

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Are you joking? How did this happen?

I would try and put it in the freezer to kill them, to start with.

How in the world did you pull that off? I have no idea how to get rid of them without opening up your MacBook.

place a pile of sugar on the end of a table, put the MB on the other end. That will draw them all out.

I would keep your computer off, and just leave it alone for awhile ... there can't be anything in there that they want... so once they get board and move on you should be fine ...

(at least, thats what my logic is telling me right now)

davidwarren said:

place a pile of sugar on the end of a table, put the MB on the other end. That will draw them all out.

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damp sugar would be even better...

May I suggest you place your Macbook (turned off) on a table and place some honey nearby. The ants will lose interest in the Macbook and gather around the honey.

davidwarren said:

place a pile of sugar on the end of a table, put the MB on the other end. That will draw them all out.

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This is a good idea.

The only reason ants would ever go in there is if you spilled something on, in, or around it at some time and aren't telling us.

I remember someone posting something like this years ago.

EDIT: Ah, here we are:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/138394/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/211423/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/153080/

My question is... what delicious thing inside your MacBook might the ants be interested in?

You don't want to put it in the freezer; besides the possibility of damaging something, you'd be hard pressed to get dead ants out of the device without opening it. I'd stick with one of the sugar/honey ideas.

i doubt that they will do much, let they stay

haha, this is pretty funny

just dont let the ants go back in the macbook with the honey or sugar...that would be messy

i dont know about fridge/freezer...youll have to watch for condensation. obviously turn it off and take out the battery...after you take it back out, wait a day or so to let it dry before putting the battery back in

edit: just thought of this - get one of those canned air deals and blow them out of there

iMpathetic said:

I would try and put it in the freezer to kill them, to start with.

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Don't put it in the freezer! LCD panels can freeze and crack.

Do ants deal well with heat? Maybe set a Handbrake encode going, get it hot in there...

Run "yes" (i think it was this) in terminal and let the bastards burn.

diddy said:

Don't put it in the freezer! LCD panels can freeze and crack...

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At what temperature does this happen? Surely I've left my PowerBook in these freezing cold Chicago temperatures before and nothing happened.

Exactly, go buy FCP or something intensive (or just rip a DVD, I kid) and try to run it on your MB, that should make it uncomfortably warm. I dunno why they'd be in it though, maybe it's because it looks like a big shiny white tic-tac.

My girlfriend's MacBook made me LOL every time I used it. For weeks ants would appear from the crevices. Of course she lives at Starbucks and I am sure there were plenty of crumbs to sustain life. I would leave it adjacent one of those traps (just occurred that if you placed it too close they would crawl back in and then die).

MacBook -------2 ft---------- Ant Poison -----------3 ft---------- Pile o' Moist Sugar

Samarium said:

Typing this i killed 3 more.

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haha ... classic!!!

iMpathetic said:

Are you joking? How did this happen?

I would try and put it in the freezer to kill them, to start with.

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wouldn't that harm the lithium in the battery? or did they stop using lithium?

Can't you vacuum them out?