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.

Update (July 2010): Incredibly, this article has had 10,000 hits since it’s been published (most of them being in July each year which seems to be peak season). Please read the comments below for tips and discussion. In my case, I found that the bug disappeared after a few days providing that you don’t squish it or anything. You don’t need to do anything elaborate like taking your screen apart (and would not be advised to). Please do drop a comment below and let us know what’s working for you.  – Ken

Your Comments 282 so far

We'd love to hear your thoughts and any questions you may have. So far, we've received 282 comments from readers. You can add your own comment here.

  • pawncob@yahoo.co.uk said:

    I had a bug appear on my Chuwi tablet. I was convinced it was a software bug in Windows 10, but when I booted to Android it was still there. I put the tablet in direct sunlight for twenty minutes and cooked it to death.(fortunately off screen)

  • Alexander said:

    One of these damn thunder bugs is inside my Asus monitor, but it is inbetween the backlight and the screen from what I can see and has died nearly in the centre of the screen, extremely annoying, have tried all the tapping and suction tricks to no avail. A lemon grass diffuser does seem to keep them away from what I’ve seen from using it and not seeing anymore of these damn things. One also got in an iMac in the same room between the screen and the glass but it left overnight when I turned it off fortunately.

    Next monitor I get I will be putting fly filter cloth over the vents but I worry that this may cause overheating, I’ve also bought some of the tape mentioned in this thread to put over the outside of the bezel where there are gaps.

  • TB said:

    Mine is still there.
    I thought he was on the outside of the screen till I tried to get him off.
    He, I only assume it was he because he seemed so stupid, Just wandered around the screen for days till he finally perished in the upper left section of the golden rectangle off by just enough to again confirm it must have been a He.
    Oh the sights he must have seen on his long journey.
    I am going to name him Sir Anthony Frederick as it seems a fitting name for such an intrepid explorer.
    Godspeed Sir Anthony.
    May your travels always seem like an acid trip in space.

  • Sandy said:

    I had a teeny bug in my monitor too. Weeks later, my monitor no longer works. I cannot turn it on. I wonder if the bug ruined the monitor?

  • David C said:

    It’s sad to see that manufacturers still refuse to acknowledge that this is an issue that needs to be resolved via a better design.

    This is my 100% fix for the issue:

    Try the tapping and suction cup method first, could try using something that vibrates like an electric toothbrush too – this step rearely works from experience.

    If no luck and the product is out of warranty, it is easy as long as you have some patience to disassemble the screen to expose the glass panel from the back light. Using a bright torch, you will be able to see the blighter and I use a long cocktail stick along with some sticky tape. Once you have removed the offender, you can reassemble. You need one of those smartphone toolkit’s and a precision screwdriver to do this.

    I use an old monitor during thrip season, and then unbox my 4K TV once they disappear for the rest of the year.

  • Hayden B. said:

    RCA LED TV. it just walked off screen a moment ago. I hope the next versions of these screens somehow fix this.

  • Sim Stuvilla said:

    It’s July and I have a tiny insect crawling around in my screen too…this is so weird that it seems to happen in July the most often. The bug is the size and shape of this hyphen –

    • Mike replied:

      I am having that problem too. Looks like it might be some kind of virus. Does anyone have any ideas how to get rid of it?

    • Matt replied:

      Just got two thunderbugs I’m both my monitors,they won’t budge so annoying,have ordered a suction cup off Amazon to see if I can create a gap for them to fall down.

  • Bill1949 said:

    The problem with just leaving it (ie – not crushing it but leaving it to exit by itself) is that if it meanders about & then ‘expires’ within the display area of the screen it’ll be there forever. I’ve had this a few times. I try to get it to the very edge of the screen & then attempt to er….. ‘pressurise’ it into staying there….

  • Jake said:

    I just had one that was gradually making its way from the right side of my laptop screen inwards.
    I crushed it initially thinking i’d killed it, but i hadn’t and i managed over about 20 minutes of tireless squishing to get it out of to the right side of the screen.

    The final pushing of it to the right along with covering my finger overlapped on the edge of the raised plastic edge of the panel i think made it want to go under for shelter. It seemed interested in going underneath my finger when it was just on the surface of the panel but without pressing.

    but hopefully now i have crushed it hard enough that it won’t come back fingers crossed. I can only crush it so hard as i don’t want to damage the thin laptop panel.

    Mine is a glossy display but i doubt that makes any difference

    • Jake replied:

      he came back alive for me and i’ve now squished him harder. over to the rright side ofthe screen he’s a gonner. but it is annoying that his corpse remains

  • Ramin said:

    Hi all,
    Are you sure that it’s an actual bug and not a computer bug?
    How long can a bug live inside a screen with nothing to eat? 🙂 Also, suddenly disappearing may suggest that it’s a virus infection!
    Anyone?

  • valennes said:

    Laptop fix:

    1.) If the insect is behind the screen of a laptop it entered from the bottom part of the screen.

    2.) Press your finger into the screen several inches above the bug. Don’t press hard enough to do damage and DO NOT CRUSH the insect or you will forever have their remains smeared on your screen.

    3.) Play with how close your finger has to get to the intruder / how much pressure you have to apply in order to halt the bug from moving away from the bottom of the screen.

    4.) Apply and release pressure on the bug until it is corralled toward the bottom of the screen, which is probably the bottom part of the screen. The top and sides are tucked into plastic.

    4.) Once it has exited the screen part and is behind the plastic part, CRUSH IT before it has a chance to crawl back.

  • mebee said:

    55″ lg led…recently removed and baked the board to reflow bad solder, so the back has been off the tv. 3 days or so ago i noticed ant in lower half mid screen. no movement, assumed to be dead.

    tried suction cup…nope
    tried vibration using hand held massager plus suction…nope

    read comment about using cameras video flash or flashlight app to move live bug using light/heat…used phone light directly on ant for 2-3 minutes to dry out body, then suction plus vibration, and ant fell to the bottom, off screen.

    yay!

  • Danielle said:

    I have had this tablet for only TWO days and theres was a little black dot moving around on or well in my screen I tried the tabling thing but it didn’t work I tryed the suction cup it didn’t work I even tried tosmush the tiny thing just to get it to stop moving but that won’t even work. And that was almost TWO MONTHS ago and the damed thing is still crawling on my dang scree. Like right now its crawling over the words towards the top. Plllllllzzzzzzz someone help me its driving me nuts👿🙎🙅

    If ya got something to say bout it thanks.

  • James said:

    Invaded by cluster flies they loved the 55in samsung , glue fine window mesh over vents no more bugs also a piece of black tape across bottom of screen will eliminate the distraction of the crawling mass of slowly cooking bugs piled in the bottom.

      • James replied:

        I literally used a hot glue gun and glued window bug screen over the vent ports on the back of my tv , the piece of tape on the bottom of the screen was just to give a straight line that over time I dont see anymore , I had literally 30 bugs crawling around at times and this worked

  • Brendan said:

    I have series UA55ES8000 with the same problem. They say that they won’t cover an insect infestation, but by legal definition an insect infestation involves multiple insects, not a single bug.
    I’m going to test this in court if they get to that. Been going at them for 8 months now and getting nearer to moving in into the courts.
    I’ll keep you posted how we go.

    • Simon replied:

      How did you get on in court? Seems to me to be an obvious defect because bugs are a fact of life and I’ve been watching TVs for 50 years and have never seen this. It’s ridiculous of Samsung to claim there isn’t a defect when obviously there is. Bugs inside a tv are to be expected but bugs being able to crawl in front of the screen behind glass? What nincompoop designed that? This thread has been going since 2007 and they still make TVs with this defect? And them claim “infestation”? Surely this borders on criminal?

      • Raymond Dominguez replied:

        Brendan,
        please contact me asap!! I’m having the same exact problem with my Samsung that I spent $1,500 on. They pretty much are telling me that it’s an infestation (one bug). The same exact thing that you just wrote is what they told me. Pretty much, they said they will charge me if they want me to have them come down and fix it. It’s like they are all programmed to say that this already, i just don’t understand what the problem is. If this was some 10 year old TV in my possession, then sure, but for f*** sake, I just bought this TV in July of 2016 and I spent $1,500 on it!!!!
        The funny thing is, I had one of their techs come by and fix the back of the TV because it pretty much was falling off the back panel on it’s own. They didn’t charge me for that because it was a flaw on the unit itself. I’m thinking, however way that tech tried putting that back together (with clips) by the way for some f***ing reason, THAT is how this bug got in there. It’s some serious design flaw and it is THEIR fault.

  • Timmsy said:

    Hey All,

    I have a brand new SUHD 4K Samsung 48″ TV and within 3 months it had a Thunderbug in the centre of the screen, i actually thought it was a dead pixel as its jsut a dot at 2mm.

    Samsung wont repair as its not their fault a bug got in, it has to have ventilation.

    I have a company coming out to fix, its easier for them to just replace the whole screen instead of taking the glass a LED panel apart. £120 GDP, mental, £1200 TV, screen only costs me £120 pound fitted….

    I don’t know if its subsided by Samsung in any way but that’s crazy cheap.

    UK people email – hello@smartservice.solutions they are a samsung warranty and repair agent.

  • Diego said:

    Was watching Netflix, and i noticed a little tiny dot, i can’t help but pause my movie and examine, and to my surprise it’s a damn ant, but it appear it’s behind the LCD, tried the suction cup method, no luck, HELP!

  • Annie said:

    So glad you have kept this thread running, and thank you all for posting. We have a small dead spider behind the screen of our Samsung 55″ HU8200 Series 8 Curved Smart 3D UHD 4K LED TV. Very distracting especially when watching sport. Tapping etc has done nothing, alas. The TV cost over £2,000 and Samsung are offering no help at all. Will have a go at claiming for accidental damage on insurance but meanwhile we are thinking we shall never buy or recommend a Samsung TV again.

    • Timmsy replied:

      Annie see my reply above, why is it Samsung’s fault you have bugs in your house?

      Samsung Warranty covers faults, a spider from your house crawling in through the ventilation gap on the sides/back of your TV is not a fault.

      • Annie replied:

        Thanks for replying Timmsy. Sorry to be stupid, but does that mean that ALL TV’s have ventilation gaps big enough for insects to get in? And/or is it only LCD ones that have this problem?

  • robert said:

    I bought a new high dollar ASUS 4K monitor. Same issue. A small insect on the lower half of the screen alive. The back the monitor is vented on both top and bottom. I assume that is how it got in. I took a leaf blower and forced air through the top vent slits downward. When I plugged the monitor back in bug was gone. Hope this will help others.

    • Andy replied:

      I’ve had exactly the same problem with both supposedly ‘high end’ ASUS 4K monitors (32″). I’ll try the leaf blower trick. Will never buy ASUS monitors again. Too much trouble.

    • henry replied:

      wow, just solved it!!!!!! what ever you do, don’t squash it! I did that on my old laptop (believe it or not this has happened to me twice now… and yes the other one was around this time last year^^).
      The thunderfly inside my screen looked dead, but all i did was tap the screen gently and repeatedly with my finger nails, no so it squashed it but just so it created vibrations to move him. And sure enough, it just dropped down and hopefully now has disappeared for good.
      good luck to you guys with the same issues

  • Corbett said:

    Just had this happen to me. I was sitting there playing a game on my laptop when all of the sudden a 1-2 mm long, black spider comes walking across the top of my screen. My first thought was that it was a virus. Didn’t find anything in a scan, so I try pushing on my screen to see if it’s real and nothing happened. I went on YouTube and found a video of someone having the same thing happen to them and they said it was a real spider, so my first immediate reaction was to kill it. Instead of pushing from the front of my laptop, I pushed from the back and had instant luck. Squashed it. Now my only problem is that it’s kinda sorta stuck in the center of my screen now. I have no idea what to do other than taking apart my laptop and cleaning it off.

  • Ruby Slipperz said:

    Last night I was watching Netflix on my Galaxy tablet and a roach bug crawled straight across ,the inside of my screen! Talk about shocked! Here in SC, we do have palmetto bugs but they are still roaches. They very seldom get in the house but the icky thing is that I was watching in my bed! I was wondering if it may be a sign that I have contracted a virus in my tablet? Or, is it a REAL bug inside my machine? Eeeewwww! I want it out!

  • mateous8 said:

    I had the problem 3 weeks ago. I went on holidays to the countryside and I got a thunderbug inside my laptop screen. It was crawling for 2 days and then died right in the middle of the screen. I tried to move it on the edge of the screen during those 2 days in the dark with the flashlight of my phone, without success… 🙁 Once it dies I search during hours for solutions on internet, and I tried to lighlty drump the bug with my fingers and I also tried the suction cup method, without success… The bug is still stuck in the middle of the screen. I still have hope that one day it will fall by himself considering that I did not try to smash it… I also checked some video on youtube to disassemble the screen but it seems very complicated, even more because this is a Lenovo gaming laptop… Anyway, even with the screen in my hand, I could not take off the bug because it is inside the screen slab itself, so I ll probably break it. You can imagine how I am pissed off, my laptop worth 2,000 bucks ;'(

    • henry replied:

      try my method, you never know, it might work 😉
      “wow, just solved it!!!!!! what ever you do, don’t squash it! I did that on my old laptop (believe it or not this has happened to me twice now… and yes the other one was around this time last year^^).
      The thunderfly inside my screen looked dead, but all i did was tap the screen gently and repeatedly with my finger nails, no so it squashed it but just so it created vibrations to move him. And sure enough, it just dropped down and hopefully now has disappeared for good.
      good luck to you guys with the same issues”

  • Giftmacher said:

    It was an invasion a month ago. I got four bugs inside monitor now and only one is alive. I’m going to open the case.

  • Phoenix said:

    I had a similar thing like this a year or so ago. I squished the bug and it left a very small but annoying black dot. At that time I had a Windows 8.1 Laptop. Every video I’ve seen about them the bugs all look the same, and there’s always only one bug. I don’t know why I looked it up NOW I haven’t had any bug problems with my new desktop or laptop. I was just curious. And it is funny how this is still a thing in July 2016. I wonder how many years these comments will keep going for?

  • Heisenburg said:

    Figured it out. Set your phones LED-flash on constant (flashlight mode), and shine it very close to one side of the bug. They are dark colored and start to heat up, within a few seconds, they start to run from the “hot” area. Move the phone to keep the heat on that side, chase them to the edge, and hopefully they either die in there, out of sight, or exit of their own accord. Yeah science!

  • Dan said:

    Got one of those little red spiders behind my LCD monitor. I’m not squishing it because I’ll have a red blotch behind my screen. Usually it’s little black midge’s that get behind your screens the ones that come out in June July when the fields are growing wheat. My advice would be to leave it for a day or two without trying to squish it if it doesn’t go leave your monitor in a cool room for a couple of hours and give it a blast with a air cleaner.

  • Anonymous Person said:

    I found the answer! I had a small bug in my screen and it was right in the center. I will tell you exactly what I did, in hopes that I can help someone with this first world problem. I let the screen off overnight ( I figured that it would let the screen cool and expand ), then i cleaned my TV with a cloth THAT WAS MADE FOR CLEANING TVS, in a motion in which i went around the edges of the screen and kept making that motion closer to the middle each time until I got to the center. The bug fell to the bottom of the screen and is now barley visible. I don’t know if this will help anyone, but its worth a shot.

  • Keith Pack said:

    Sadly, I wasn’t aware it was on the inside, so after attempting to grab it with a tissue, I’m now left with an immediate draw of the eye to a dead representative of something I’ve grown to deeply despise, and now resides in my 55″ LCD 3D TV, that was one of the few amenities I had left that used to provide a much-needed escape in its role as part of my Home Theater. Die, pantry moths, Die!!!

  • Amin said:

    Hi I got mine stuck in my new BenQ gaming monitor. So frustrating. Happened to me before with my Acer monitor but that one was my uncle’s so I just gave that one back to him.

    So for this one, I got this ant that suddenly died behind the screen. I DID NOT touch the ant because I knew it would be hard to remove it but this ant just suddenly died there. I didn’t even touch him.

    I tried the tapping method and it worked to an extent. The ant broke into pieces for some reasons so now I only have like a small part of that ant that is visible on the screen. I’ve tapped so many times now gently and vigorously and that small part is still there. It worked before with some of parts falling straight to the bottom but I don’t know how to get rid of this small part. I’ve even tried using a suction cup and it’s still not working. My suction cup is not like the ones in the bathroom and all so yeah.

    Errrrrghhhhhhhhh!!!!! this is so frustrating I just bought this monitor 🙁

    Please someone who’ve succeeded in removing by using the tapping and suction cup method, please help me guide me like the exact position of your fingers when you’re tapping and all and as for the suction cup what is the position of the suction cup and do you like pull the screen with it and all please help me and thank you guys.

  • Chloe said:

    I’ve got a little bug stuck in my phone screen it must have crawled in through the top corner as its cracked and the glass has fell out does anyone know how I can get it out? And could it damage my screen being in there? Or could I take it to someone to open it up and find the bug and flick it out of there?

  • Chris said:

    I’ve just found a tiny crawling insect near the bottom of my late 2012 iMac screen and it died soon after I discovered it. Neither tapping the screen nor applying the suction cup worked so it’s just stuck there near the bottom of my screen.

  • Joe said:

    Well if it is any consolation, i recently spent just over £2k on a Samsung curved screen tv. within a couple of months I noticed what i thought was two dead pixels one on top of the other, however after numerous phone calls to samsung support (laughing) and the local recognized samsung repair facility apparantly its a thunder bug! Also cannot get it repaired under warranty as policy does not cover “an act of God” I will try the tapping technique although feel incredibly uncomfortable tapping an expensive screen. Hopefully that has made someone feel a bit better..

    • Damien replied:

      I have an ant dead about half way down my Hisense UHD TV. Tapping does nothing, ive only had it under a year, I’m devastated.

    • Aaron replied:

      My sony 4k has just had a thunder bug inside it and my insurance doest cover it either its a joke. As if i put my foot throughtnit by “accident” i would be covered, its bulls**t.

  • Mark said:

    I got mine just 3 days ago and this is the 2nd time.. i succesufly remove the first one which is bigger than what ihave now using the tapping trick it just went at the bottom of the frame that it is not visble anymore but this time the bug is smaller the tapping trick wouldnt work i guess the thing is still alive ill just wait for it to dry out and start tappi again : 50″ led tv

  • Robin said:

    Ok so i had a gnat in the screen of my flat screen. Drove me crazy for weeks! Thanks for the suction cup trick. So my gnat was dead. I thought where do i get a suction cup? Then i remember we have bath body puffs in the shower with a small suction cup to stick to the shower wall. So i tried it. To my delight after first try the gnat drpped about 6 inches. 2nd try its gone! Took less than 15 seconds! AWESOME!!!

    • Chris Buff replied:

      You just saved me from the annoyance of this bug was under my screen. I used the suction cup from my bathroom that holds the shower head rack. Thank you I would have never thought about that!!

  • Martin said:

    Thank you to whoever thought of that tapping trick. Got this bug or a piece of dust inside my new 4k monitor, really made me angry. I was almost ready to remove that spot with my fist but I thought might as well try some tapping before. Takes some patience but it already has moved significantly.

  • Matt said:

    We’ve had a bad infestation of pantry/Indian meal moths and last week two of them decided to find their way into my six month old 30″ Samsung SmartTV. They look exactly like the one in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pErASow3iQk

    One day I just happened to turn on the TV and noticed the spot, almost in the exact same position as the one in the video. At first I was worried that maybe I’d killed some pixels by putting too much pressure on the screen from cleaning it the night before. I turned off my TV to see if when I turned it back on it would be gone. I turned it back on to find it moving around.

    For the next day or so it continued to flutter around but eventually made its way to the corner where I realized there was another one I hadn’t noticed. For a couple days they’d move around a little but I think they’ve finally died. Seeing as how they’ve in the very bottom left corner of the screen at least they’re not in the way but my eye still goes straight to them.

    I’ll give them a couple weeks to hopefully dry out a bit and then I’ll try the suction cup method or tapping vigorously all over the set in hopes they’ll drop into the frame.

  • Paul said:

    Well, it seems that tonight’s bug isn’t going for the moving zebra stripes trick that I used successfully before:
    https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/2875-bug-inside-lcd-screen#comment-248601

    At least this time it’s in my ageing Samsung 21″ monitor, not my lovely 27″ Dell.

    But it’s really weird – I have spent a large proportion of my life (work and play) sitting in front of computer screens, and this August is the first time I’ve ever come across bugs in the monitor.

  • Bill said:

    Have had many monitors over the years, this is the first time I have had one of these little jerks in a monitor. At first I thought it was some sort of spam ad or something (like the fake roaches from Orkin).. but quickly realized it was alive INSIDE. 🙂 2 days now, hes still there. Just waiting it out I guess and hoping more don’t show up.

  • Richard said:

    I have a new Imac 5K 27″ computer and thought it was impervious to bugs. However for the past two days, I have found small heaps of both live and dead tiny black ants (here in Thailand, they have a noticeable bite) beneath the computer. I cleaned the desk several times only to have them reappear. I then discovered there are small air vents at the bottom of the monitor and they apparently were inside the computer and have come out/died from the heat of the computer.

    One managed to get between the screen and the front cover glass (flexible plastic). I unfortunately squashed it, not thinking except to get rid of the bugger. I now have what is likely a permanent small black spot where the body of the ant remains.

    After two days, they stopped emerging, so i hope that is the end of them.

  • VF_Hex said:

    Noticed what I presumed were dead pixels on my 46-inch Sony w905 TV a week ago… Turns out two of these little idiots have got into my screen and died. So far the suction cup, tapping and drumming of fingernails techniques have proved fruitless…
    Sony’s authorised repair centre has said that they can remove them, but there’s a risk of display damage and then I’d be liable for a new panel…
    Think I’ll leave it for a week or so and keep trying the three techniques mentioned earlier. So annoying though- never even heard of this problem until this happened!

  • Rémi said:

    Hi!

    I had the same problem today with my brand new Asus ROG G750JS.
    But I managed to make the thunderbug go away. 🙂

    I took a soft cloth, and gently pressed my screen right behind the bug. When it tried to turn back, it couldn’t pass as I was pressing the screen : the gap between the LCD and the protection plastic was too tight. I made it so the bug went in the left bezel of my laptop (off-screen), and I squashed it.

    I hope this will help someone. 🙂

  • Paul said:

    Oh my god! I just got the little bugger to just walk right out! I had an idea…a very long shot, but I thought it would be worth a try:

    In After Effects, I made an animation of some vertical black and white bars (like zebra stripes) moving in a continuous motion to the right (the bug was walking around about 2 inches from the right edge of the screen). I placed the looping animation on the screen where the bug was walking, in the hope that the constant rightwards motion would somehow encourage him to walk that way. I really didn’t think it would work, but, instead of walking in a seemingly random motion, he headed in a south-south-east direction, until he just walked out and crawled onto the bezel/frame of the monitor!

    Much happiness and whooping later, I now have a bug-free monitor!!

  • Paul said:

    I currently have a thunderfly crawling around inside the screen of my £400 27″ Dell LCD monitor. I thought it had found its way out the edge a while ago, but no – he’s back having a good wander around. I tried loading up Photoshop and creating an image (full screen) that was entirely black apart from a thick white bar along the bottom to attract the bug down there. But I guess the ambient light coming in from the room is far, far greater than anything the monitor can produce, so it won’t have any effect. Let’s hope he manages to find a way out!

  • N V said:

    I don’t know why but it makes me a little less angry that there is so much talk about it here.. a glimor of hope maybe!

    Mine is now dead.. was thinking to let him dry out a little before trying the taping thing.. thats got to make him smaller..

    what is frustrating, is i bought a dell with a rubber filler over the gap at the edge of the screen, to stop this happening. although, tok him 3 years,.. he got in there.. has happened to me twice before on other laptops, and I am the sort of person that just sees that one fly..

    1st of aug, just to break the July thing!! although, the chances are high, he broke in last night!!

      • Amin replied:

        Hi Adge, for the drum-roll method, how did you actually do it? And by back of your fingernails, did you mean the full surface side? And what is your finger position from the bug/ant when you were drum-rolling?

        • Adge replied:

          Hi Amin,

          Rub your two fore fingers together fast and then apply method to your screen and use the whole of your fingernails on the screen.

          I think my thrip had dried out a bit so eventually it dropped after the drum-roll. It may also depend on your screen. Mine is a touch screen so I was able to apply quite a bit of pressure/tapping to eventually dislodge the little critter.

          • Amin replied:

            Hi, thank you so much for replying. I just want to know, did you drum-roll like above the bug or right over the bug? Or did you drum-roll on the middle of the screen?

          • Amin replied:

            Ok thanks Adge. Will try the method later today and will update here if it’s a success. Thanks again 🙂 Oh and thanks to Ken too for this helpful forum 🙂

  • Adge said:

    Okay.

    Just managed to get rid of mine. It wasn’t squashed luckily but you really have to persevere. I tried the suction cup method, but didn’t work. I tried tapping and tapping and didn’t work.

    I then used the back of my fingernails and drummed them against the screen in a last vain attempt as I was so angry (although not too hard) and it dislodged the offending thrip.

    The dead insect fell to the bottom of the screen. Don’t care where, as long as I can’t see it!

    Try all the methods on here. As long as the little sod isn’t squashed, there may be hope!!

    • Adge replied:

      Oh – by the way Ken, you’re a legend for starting this thread, and keeping it alive (sorry should have mentioned that in last post!).

      If it wasn’t for you, I’d be pulling my hair out 🙂

  • Adge said:

    Got one stuck in my all in one HP touchscreen 23″ screen.

    It’s dead and won’t budge. Tries the suction cup and tapping to no avail. The thing is still under warranty but it’s unlikely it’ll be covered for something like this.

    Very annoyed.

  • nascosto said:

    noticed a bug on my screen today and when I tried to flick it off I realized it was inside the monitor!! Strangely it went away when I closed my internet. So like your follow up post indicates, July seems to be the move for for these little guys to visit.

  • Ray said:

    MY LAPTOP HAS BUGS IN IT THERE WAS 8 TINY OF THE I HAD TO KILL THEM MY SQUASHING THE SCREEN!!!IT could be since there attracted too food , so if it is near food and a crumble might get between the keyboard and the bugs will get attracted and end up inside.BY THE WAY I HAVE A HP TOUCHSMART 15 NOTEBOOK

  • Wendy said:

    So there was this GNAT inside our 2 month old flat-screen TV. MOST annoying – about 1/3 up on the screen – right in the MIDDLE. Called the manufacturer – no advice; not covered under warranty. BUT!!!! I learned how to fix it myself here in the comments above (gotta love Google)!

    I took a small suction cup and gently pulled the outer screen away from the light screen and tapped (gently/semi-aggressively) on the screen around/above/below the gnat until it eventually dropped down out of sight.

    It took some patience and about 20 minutes of moving the suction cup and tapping, tapping, tapping (and doubts if it would really work, as the gnat seemed at times to be hopelessly stuck), but it DID WORK!

    My fingers got pretty tired, so I switched to a wooden spoon covered with a very thick sock to continue the tapping. So glad this worked, and from what I read, it’s not an uncommon problem. After reading through some of the bigger-bug comments here, I’m thinking about how to screen the vents on the back of the TV.

    A relatively small annoyance in life, but so glad it could be easily fixed. Thank you all for taking the time to comment here – much appreciated =o)!

  • Gavin said:

    Damn bug got in my new 55″ samsung Flatscreen tv, just bought the tv a month ago for 1,000$ and I’m sitting hear trying to figure out how to get the lil f***** out. I just don’t understand why they don’t put a filter behind the vent or something. He’s in front of the pixels so it’s gets really annoying, anyone got ideas on getting it out. I do not want to take it apart or take it to a repair shop.

  • TechNick said:

    I’d like to upload photos of a good number of LED Screen bugs & bug offerings… Including my Ultra High Res Screen…. the blighters tracks usually grow from an impression of a dead pixel into a miandering black path or black-track of what looks to be insect feces. Yes excrement. So the aforementioned expletives “Oh s***!” is also probably the reality as well, … unless the thunderbug had dirty unwiped boots on before entering that warm visual gap between reality and the virtual world. Interestingly I think they must enter from the back as very few leave trails from the side . They usually stop or die & ruin a perfectly good led monitor many of which cannot be opened up to clean between Protective layer & the Light Emmiting Diodes layer. If you have never experienced this pain & frustration you’ll likely never know such a problem exists..
    THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM you guys!!! Get Real!! Try telling the manufacturers… Haaa “bugs are good for business!… Didn’t you know???” Heard of ‘Built in Obsolescence??’… Well this is wot I call “Unprevented Decay”. Of course the manufacturers won’t put a filter on them or bug repellant.. As for you lame-thinkers assuming it’s a Mac Vs PC problem…get real…
    My friend repairs & services led monitors, Laptops, Tablets…etc here in Somerset, UK and this problem is common!!
    kiss kiss

  • Mike said:

    I have a 40″ Sony LCD TV and discovered an almost dead Tricerotops bang in the middle of the screen which was very distracting, then I realised I was watching Jurassic Park.

  • RM said:

    An ant got into my ipad and i squished it thinking it was on top! Worst, it was in the centre of the screen:-( i searched the net for tips but this critter looked stuck for good. Luckily i had the bezel tools from a previous screen replacement job so i prised open the top part and was able to slide a piece of paper in to get ant out. Since it was from the clean side with no cables or connection it was pretty easy. Not advisable from any other side!

  • Steve Booker said:

    Hi. Been reading the threads to which there are many lol seems to be more of a common problem than I thought.

    Could somebody please tell me or give me instructions on this suction cup technique that many have had success with please ? Also some people mentioning using the suction from a hoover somehow ? Is that all part of the same method ?

    I have an LG 42″ Smart Tv and one of the darn Thunderbugs has died in the centre of the screen. Have to admit its maybe not as noticeable on a big screen as it would be on a laptop or Computer monitor where you are sat close to it but its still there and still annoying the hell out of me especially when I only shelled out £500 for it a few months ago.

    Many Thanks Folks.

  • max said:

    I had the dreaded thunderfly in my monitor , which was only 3 months old …tried the suction cup trick no good … tried to live with it was even worse it ended up playing with my emotions that much I ended up with the ,im going to fix it or wreck it mentality , so I stripped the monitor which took some effort with a screwdriver (and I don’t mean for getting out the screws) to jimmy the shell apart ,once apart I stripped the screen itself down removing the tape and metal banding holding the 2 parts of the screen together ..and bingo separated the plastic cover from the back screen and cleaned the little shit out . reversed the whole operation and job done , bug gone ,smug satisfaction for me ,and knowledge now that if it happens again I can whip this puppy to pieces in 5 minutes flat and clean them all out . ahhhhhhhhhh very happy .

    • Jim blakley replied:

      Hi Max,

      I have a nice 27″ 3d Samsung monitor that developed the nasty habit of shutting off after 10 mins and requiring a power cycle to get it back up only to have it again happen on the same time cycle. Called Samsung and it was still under warranty and they said “send it in”. Well they called me and told me that it was inhabited by roaches which I was unaware of. Any tips or instructions on how to disassemble and remove said vermin so I can send it back for repair would be gratefully received.

      Thanks
      Jim

  • Eddie said:

    Hi My mate covers his tv with a blanket for a whole month
    he’s so paranoid about the bugs behind screen problem
    Me I can’t stop scratching, I’m like flea ridden mutt
    after reading these eehhhhhh

  • Ben said:

    I’ve had a dead thunderfly/thunderbug inside my screen for a 3 days.

    Tapping the screen with one finger near the bug didn’t do anything at all. BUT quick alternate tapping (like a drum roll) did the trick. One finger and inch up and left of the bug, and one finger an inch up and right. Then it simply tinkled down to the bottom.

    WIN!

    Anyone reading this – Good luck with your bug extraction!

  • rusty said:

    I am really miffed. My toshiba just got a thunderfly in France. It is dead, it is nearly in the middle, suction cup from an alfa wireless mount did not work and i have tried dismantling the screen to get at the fittle Eucker, but cannot see how to split the screen from its backlight, but i may try again. A new screen is an option, but there would have to be more to warrant that. With the heat issues i guess there has to be certain gaps with these screens, but i would recommend to manufacturers that a small mesh screen at the entry/exit point for ventilation to stop this kind of really annoying thing happening. I used to hate mosquito’s flies and ticks before this, but now have a deep and very vicious hatred of those little horrid black long thunderflies that is consuming me right now

  • Mike said:

    I just tried the Hoover method on an almost brand-new AOC computer monitor (LCD). I sucked all around the vents on the back, then around the edge bezels. The thunderfly – dead, by the way – didn’t move a nanometer. It was right in the middle of the screen.

    I noticed how the suction from the Hoover “sucked out” the plastic membrane covering the screen, so, remembering the suction cup hint, I gingerly moved the nozzle towards the bug. Suddenly it wasn’t there any more! It wasn’t inside the screen at all, but dead on the OUTside! I was so gobsmacked I had to sit down. Now I know what it must feel like to get a big lottery win. You feel all kind of jittery, weird. I didn’t expect that anything I tried would dislodge the bug, because I never have any luck with things like this.

    But this morning I was lucky at last! So I don’t have to buy another new monitor. Okay, so the 21″ AOC was “only” £85 from Amazon, but nevertheless.. I’ve only had it six months.

    But I’ll repeat that warning that many have already made here in this thread:

    DO NOT TRY SQUASHING THE BUG !!!

    I’ll add as advisory:

    Try *lightly* brushing the OUTside of the screen with a fine brush FIRST, e.g. wife’s make-up brush (after shaking off residual make-up). Your fly may just be on the outside like mine was. And now all I have to do is decide whether to stop doing any computing for three days until the hot, humid weather and thunderstorms have passed, or carry on regardless.

  • Wiccabone said:

    Yes, I’m here for the same reason. I’m in the middle of a game & notice a tiny bug running around on my screen. I get a piece of paper to take him off (thinking if I touch him he’ll get squished) & yes, you guessed it.. he’s inside the screen. It’s July.. it’s like some dodgy horror movie.. Oooh It’s July.. watch out for the BUGZZ!! I’m now not sure whether to just wait & hope he escapes/dies offscreen or should I do the nasty? Should I wait til he’s somewhere near a corner & finish him off? and why did he have to choose my main screen? *sigh*

    • Kathy Brown replied:

      I too have a bug…insect…on my monitor screen on my iPad 2. I squished it trying to remove it, and it is now embedded on my screen……nothing removes it and I cannot feel it….it is a stain I presume. Very annoying!!!!!!
      Any suggestions!!???
      Thanks.

  • Andi said:

    Sharp Aquos 70″ flatscreen (LED LCD) small moth c. 1/2 cm long on the inside of my panel. Tried to tap the screen to dislodge it, ended up squishing it inside the screen.

    That was about a week ago. Driving me crazy. Then I read this forum.

    The suction cup method worked a treat! I used one from my the sponge holder on my kitchen sink – clear rubber about 4cm across. Cleaned it with soap, rinsed, wiped, put over the bug and pulled back gently. Moth dropped out of sight. Gently peeled suction cup off with my fingernail.

    Problem solved, YAYYY!!

    Thank you random Internet person Pat! You have saved me major heartache and repair bills!

  • EvilFrog said:

    Funny to find this 7 years after original post… It’s summer here in France and guess what ? I can see my first living bug on my flat display today. A really small thing who looks like being behind the display itself: I can see it moving under these letters 🙂
    Well, I hope it will disappear by itself. And I hope everything is fine for you on the other side of the Channel 🙂

  • Doecky said:

    I have the same thing with my alienware laptop. the weird thing is, it isn’t between the lcd and the plastic cover, it is inside the lcd.
    Fun fact: The lcd is completely sealed so the bug probably used his teleportation powers.

    • smoke n toke replied:

      Lcd’s ARE NOT “completely sealed” they simply only have vents, but no filter or protection to keep bug out. No lcd is sealed!! Tv manufacturers don’t install anything to keep bugs out.

  • BossN said:

    This happened to me yesterday while I was doing some stuff. I was reading some articles when I noticed something moving. I tried to shoo it away with my finger but it was inside the screen and when I touched it using my finger, it got squished. Now it’s stuck there like a dead pixel / a period. It’s kinda distracting when doing something because my eyes always shift to it. How reliable is the suction cup solution? I don’t want to risk damaging this monitor. For reference, my monitor is a LG IPS237L. I’m not sure if I can take this apart.

  • Tofu said:

    I too got in the club.

    Yesterday I got a small fly crawling all over my monitor, an All-in-One PC.

    I turned it off and went to sleep. The following day the bug was still there, but it was moving slowly and more erratically. In the end, I saw him falling behind the lower bezel, trying to crawl back in the middle-left portion of the display from whence he came and then, one last time, falling behind the bezel, where I can’t see him again.

    I cleaned the bezel with a shaving brush and I peeked inside to find traces of the small dead thingie. There weren’t.

    Thus, I agree with the original hint: a small bug is bound to die. And if he can move freely around the display, dying will lose the ability to cling, and then join the fluffle and dust in the bottom of every old electronic device. And if you didn’t squash him, eventually nature will turn him into more dust littering your fans.

  • elbion said:

    Tried, and worked.

    Had two of them (prolly fruitflies or something similar small) behind my Zen-Books screen.
    When seeing one of them, first i thought it was ON the screen- and wanted to move it with my finger.
    BAD IDEA, since it was BEHIND the screen- and got squeezed in place *sigh*.
    Having learned from my mistake, when the second came i looked up what you guys did, switched of the screen, let it die, and then whacked a bit behind the screen, and it fell simply off. worked.

    Now i only need to get rid of the squeezed one…

  • matt said:

    i just had a little bug behind my very expensive laptops screen, what i did was put the laptop screen on my laps so the gravity won’t work on the bug, shined a flashlight and the f*cker moved, i though it was dead coz he stopped moving, better results you get when you put the laptop in the closet where it’s dark and the bug seems to be more attached to light, hope it will never come back and die inside the laptop 😛

  • David said:

    Damn it, now I joined the bug club. Stupid bug is just taunting me by doing exercise up and down my screen. I Haven’t squished it, so hopefully it just goes away and dies somewhere off screen. This is definitely karma for killing so many ants, spiders, flies, ect. But oh well now I am going to kill more of those suckers for payback. Muuhahahaha.

  • phil said:

    I to have a LG LED 47inch tv with a giant ass dead fly in it. IT appears to be behind the screen. not in the screen. tried to take it apart .couldnt get to it. its dead wonder how long it will take to rot out.it sure is a design flaw. Imgoing to try suction cup. or maybe hammer. very annoying.

  • Boerkie said:

    I got two screens. About 3 weeks ago I got a big in my main screen. It lived for 4 days and died just of to the left of my cross hair when I ply bf 3. It is stil there. Now (3 weeks later) there is one crawling in my second screen. How can I get it out before it dies and get stuck?

  • Larry B. said:

    OK, I had to Google: thunderbug; mine is definitely a fruit fly. Tiny but annoying and I am hoping it will die and drop. Yesterday it was going across the middle of my 32" RCA HDTV that is my monitor. Today it is just crawling around the bottom, on and off screen.

    Shoo fly, Don't bother me………

  • Kevin said:

    Found one today when I was browsing, I tried squishing it but it didn't work, now I know not to anyways. XD
    It's gone now and is somewhere near my webcam or something.

  • Gavin said:

    I had just bought a new Samsung 55 inch led 3d smart tv and a thunderbug decided to die in the center of the picture behind the glass and did not go, I was not a happy bunny to say the least, now I cover my tv wits a sheet on really got days when they decide thrive.

  • Emil said:

    DAMN!!!
    Last night a tiny little stupid bug decided to walk around and across my screen for hours.
    Then I went to bed and this morning it's dead :S
    Right in the middle of the fucking screen!
    Just lying there being totally stupid and to great frustration.
    I have tried the things I can do.. this bug won't dissappear out of my life!

    #FML!

  • Nicola said:

    I too have come across this blog trying to search ways to get rid of a 'bug behind my screen'! I think i will just wait for it to go off screen and die-hopefully! It is VERY annoying though! It is also interesting that we are now in July as well…!

  • Chris said:

    Hello our brothers and sisters in pain. I got one s.o.b. walking around my screen too. At first I was afraid that it was some vicious software and scanned my PC with antivirus for half a day… Later I picked my lens and saw that it’s actually organic o.O Are there better ways than just waiting? I guess i will squash it on the black Windows task bar where it’s invisible 😛

  • Ghffv said:

    I have that same problem there’s a “pincher” bug in my tv though there’s no holes in it especially big enough for it to fit through

  • Krisna said:

    Just struck by stupid ants on the middle of my Dell U2412M a few minutes ago…. It doesn't make any move, I'll try to leave my U24 tonight and see what would happens tommorow .. hope it will gone

  • Karen said:

    I ahve a Toshiba laptop and live on the south coast of new south wales in australia – it is summer here and i have these little white bugs runing around this laptop and also the one that is stationary in the office. Thought it was just me until I did some research on the bugs and came across this article and found out it is common. I will just leave them alone until they die as they arent dong anything excpet being annoying to see them come in and out of the monitor section.

  • Kim said:

    Yay, it seems that I'm not alone in the world! Last night I was hungry and stressed because I was dealing with two different problems at the same time and it seems that it wasn't enough for me.. I suddenly noticed the presence of a bloody ant crawling on my screen. By the holy efforts of my unconscious rage, I now have a black dot making me company on my LCD screen. I promise you that the first thing that came to my mind after I realised what I've done was the "spirit" of the dead ant with a troll face, saying to some other dead ants in heaven that I finally had a payback for burning and drowning them when I was a kid. Anyway, I thought of opening it, but I guess I'll just keep flicking the damn thing until I break it, get bored or finally remove it of my sight… So, what's left for me now? Laugh at my own stupidity and disgrace! DO NOT SQUISH IT! =)

  • Mike C said:

    Having lived in Norfolk and now Lincolnshire, surrounded by wheat and Barley fields, summer is a constant battle with pesky Thunderbugs. They have invaded both mine and my sons LCD's and even "infected" all our hanging (and taped) photos on the wall between the glass and the pictures. My Laptop has so far escaped the plague that comes every summer, but has just picked up an even bigger fiend – a flipping cat flea! It has been in the computer for 12+ hrs now and I am awaiting to see if it finds it's way out! Will turn Laptop off and see if he can escape before he dies.

    • Jill Smith replied:

      I have a bug squashed behind my screen, its dead but its getting bigger as its got lines coming from the side’s. Its about a good inch wide.
      I live in Lincolnshire uk but in town so now fields near me. I t will cost me a new screen if it gets any bigger.

  • Vic Pitt said:

    Just to update you, I rang Panasonic direct yesterday. Today a man came out from an independent repair firm on their behalf, and has taken the TV away to sort the problem, either by removing the bugs in a clean room, or replacing the panel. That is what I call service.

  • Vic Pitt said:

    I have got two dead thunderbugs four inches apart in the centre of my six months old 42" Panasonic LED TV. This, I was told this morning by the retailer "was a cosmetic problem" and not a warranty fault, which they had never come across before, great…..
    I don't hold out much hope for them moving as they have been in the same place for a few weeks now. I agree this is a design fault if all of us have the same problem. I am pig sick, this tv cost a fortune and was supposed to be the bees knees, its not so impressive viewing with my little friends in the front row.

  • karthik said:

    i found one roaming like hell around my screen-after an hour it disappeareed ,don't know weather it comes again feelig soo bad wat should i do now

  • Ryan M said:

    I have one stuck in the center of my brand new laptop… I dont see how i can disassemble the screen and take it out… Cant believe that one tiny little bug can ruin a £800 laptop…

  • Brad said:

    I have one underneath my iPod touch 3G screen, any idea how to get it out? I think it's died as it has not moved for a while

  • fugg said:

    well its dead and in the center of the screen. dammit that little bastard! what can i do instead of hitting my screen like an ape!! first of all how and whyyyyyyaah!??? i got a laptop fyi. stupid problem to have. but it could be worse. could have an infestation of whatever the hell they are.

  • Callum Coleman said:

    Don't bother touching it, There just Thunder Bugs and manage to get into the worst of place's, Best thing to do is wait for it to die,
    I have one stuck in my screen right now!

  • Andromidus said:

    Had two bugs and killed them thinking their would be a way to fix them…. then a google search brought me here and ive found out that there is no way to get the dead ones out… sigh…

  • BrianM said:

    Something in my left ear said 'patience my son' then something in my right ear said 'squish the blighter' it was a battle but the primeval nature of territory and dominance took over and i squished it in frustration. My only consolation is a continual reminder of my visctory over the screen insurgent.

  • Helping you out said:

    The thrip inside your monitor will probably end up dying of starvation (considering there is no food inside your monitor for it to survive on). I'm not sure how long it takes, but when it happens, the feet should lose suction and the bug should just fall to the bottom of your monitor and out of site. It'd kinda gross knowing that these things can pile up at the bottom of your monitor, but the best thing to do is to wait for it to starve to death.

    DO NOT SQUISH IT!

    If, when died, the bug stays on the screen, your best hope is to take it apart using suction cups (as mentioned before). A computer specialist/repair shop should be able to do this fairly easily and cheapily, and may even clean the whole monitor out whilst they're doing it. There should be no need to get a new monitor if there is a bug inside it.

    • Helping you out replied:

      P.S: My live one died the same day I noticed it in my monitor. It was stuck in the same position for a good half hour, but I left my monitor ON so that the heat would frazzle it's feet. Low and behold, it worked! Gave the monitor a few (gentle) taps with my knuckle and the bug dropped to the bottom and out of site.

      Maybe a good idea is to, when dead, shine a bright light (or a few) on it, so that it frazzles faster and can easily be knocked down with a tap or two in a short amount of time.

  • Tina Reid said:

    i've just recently seen a thunderfly behind my screen,which is why isearched on google and found this site. i was gonna squash it,but my boyfriend cleverly said it wasn't the best option..after reading experiences here,im so glad i never squashed it. will have to hope he goes away on his own.

  • Edward said:

    I'm sry to say this but some of the comments are seriously hilarious (read both pages) and yes I'm one of those who squished the bug and now have a red circle not to far of the center on my LCD monitor like many i read this a bit to late . I mean this is the first time seeing a bug literally inside my monitor I mean how was i supposed to know 0.o

  • Andy Bushman said:

    These bugs get me itching so i squished minbe now have 7 dots slap bang in the centre of the screen. Time for a new monitor, grrr!

  • uiashd said:

    Feckin Bugs :@ Dissapeared (After damaging plastic outer of screen with antibug spray by mistake) turn it on today after it being in the dark and the Bas**** is back :@ I hate you nature at times.

  • Rozza said:

    There is one tiny bug over this comment box right now! i thought i had won and was celebrating when it went completely off screen for 5 mins, only for it return and literally BUG me again 🙁

  • David said:

    I have had this happen to Dell, Sony and Toshiba laptops and Dell monitors. It has never happened to any of the 4 Apple Mac screens that I have.
    Another reason to buy Apple!

    • Lisa replied:

      I have one right now inside my MacBook. I thought it was on the outside of the screen, and I've squished it. That's why I am looking at this page, and reading the comments. The only fortunate part is it's not in the middle of my screen but towards the edge.

  • @sw4rfega said:

    Trouble is, when they do die, they dont decompose. Theyre also often inside the internal display unit which makes it impossible to clear them out.

  • RS1 said:

    I too have one in my monitor but I learnt some time ago not to squish it until it's on your terms.

    There are two ways to deal with this I find. One is to turn the monitor off and hope for the best. The second method requires you to fire up notepad and maximise it. This makes the entire screen white so you can track the little bugger easily. These things like to move around and they'll eventually walk off one side of the screen. At that moment immediately press the screen and the bezel in the area and put as much pressure on it as you can.

    Yes, you may have a bug in your screen. Yes, you may have a dead bug in your screen. But it will be hidden behind the bezel and I can live with that.

  • sudzs said:

    I had a little black bug crawling around a week ago. Like a moving fullstop! Then it disappeared, yay! 🙂 But just now after startng up my laptop, there he is again. but motionless. He came back to die, the little bugger. 🙁

    Will he eventually disappear?

    • Freakedbythemite replied:

      Hi just found this, I have no bugs on the screen. But, I have two old laptops; one in it's case and one not. They were stored firstly under the stairs and then when we moved to the farm in our outer utility room. We were going to throw them out as they are outdated. But my brother took them to see if he could salvage them. He turned them both on, waited till they booted up, pressed the keys and as he describes thousands of small white bugs came scurrying out of the keypad, and over his fingers. He freaked grabbed the hoover and sucked them all out. The hoover is now no longer allowed inside the house as it is full of these white mites, bug thingies, and the laptops are in the shed with the hoover just in case. Anyone heard of anything like this we would love to know as my bro was really quite freaked. Thanks

  • IHateBugs said:

    I have like 12 bugs crawling around, but they whiz in and out of being seen or not on screen. I've TRIED SQUISHING THEM ALOT…and then just fade away…and then come back. They're freaking ninjas, and I don't know if they'll die, or procreate 🙁

  • Remus said:

    I've got a bug too.These little bugs are called thunder bugs or thirps.It seems that every time it's hot they appear.They like warm places and i think i should just let it die because it can't stay there more than 6 days without food and aybe it will die and fall off.

  • Sonya said:

    I had one yesterday in my mac laptop, that only appeared on my facebook page. It seemed just to stay in that one area, and scrolled down when you scrolled down on the screen, and out of sight. Today another one showed up, on FB, and they don't seem to be on any other page. I don't see them anywhere else except FB page. And then I can scroll down, to get them out of sight. But it freaks me out! Where did they come from? I don't have bugs anywhere else. Occasional, ant, but these don't look like ants. I guess I'll try the lamp idea.

  • blair said:

    i got 5 in myne i tried the suction cup and 1 moved 15 cm and i got excited and now all 5 of them are in a perfcircle right in the middle

  • Jason said:

    My problem isn't a bug, but its definitely a dark 'something' that's about the size of an ant and even the same shape.. I've dealt with it since I got the monitor, but I think I'm gonna go for the disassembly to see if I can remove it. I'm wondering if some dirt got inside during the manufacturing process, or if its some kind of defect on one of the layers. Anyone have any advice?

  • Steven said:

    I have one of these bugs in my lcd tv could i possibly use compressed air and without opening the tv blow the little bug out of the tv?

  • ZugZug said:

    I'm the proud owner of a dead thunderbug just off-center in my 22" samsung syncmaster. As it's still under warranty I sent off a request and they have agreed to exchange my monitor. Result! Hoping for a better model as this one is now over two years old…

  • rik said:

    hp compaq 6910p,i got a thunderfly behind my screen a few months ago,i decided to leave it in the hope it would escape or die,it died yey,mid screen and very annoying it is too,i took the laptop to pc world and was told it was a dead pixel,i said its a dead thunderfly mate,can it be removed i asked,no the assistant replies its a dead pixel grrrr,my pixel wandered around my screen for 24 hrs before it died i told him!!! and its still there,just to the right >>>>>x there,tried tapping,rubbing,my dyson attached to every small gap but nooo hes there to stay me thinks,

  • Peter (and Carol) said:

    We have 22 of these in our Dell monitor, all dead, tried tapping and the suction thing nothing worked, going to try taking it apart its kill or cure! Maybe we should start a competition to see who has the most.

  • MOHITX7 said:

    THE ONLY INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR SAD USERS WHO SQUISHED THE BUG LIKE ME IS THAT WHETHER THE BUG WILL ROT IN FEW MONTHS TIME OR CAN THE LCD OF ANY MAKE OR DESIGN BE PROFESSIONALLY CLEANED FROM THE BUG.

    KINDLY HELP.

  • Keith said:

    I experienced the same problem recently and complained to the manufacture, Iiyama, and they replaced the monitor as they said they could not fix it.. I agree with previous suscribers, I consider it a design fault.

  • JJ (and Noixez) said:

    Wow, seriously… I had fun reading these, you guys crack me up. But seeing as there was little suggestions on fixing this problems, when Thunder (sorry, its the pet name!) sadly passed away last week after a months fun. I finally got the courage to pull apart my screen with a mate, and he was moved to a better place… with a tooth pick! Check out the pics, was so hilarious we posted them. And you find out some amazing things too, like how many parts there are to and LCD screen! ROFL
    Cheers! Good luck!

    (Check pics and enjoy! http://yfrog.com/1gimg0366djx )

  • Shane said:

    Hey the bug in my TV has lasted 7 days I'm getting really worried its not gonna die soon. I think its an ant as i cant see any wings and.

    I need to get this sorted ASAP.

  • Morton said:

    I have exactly the same problem, and not only with my laptop but my dsi as well! I would love to know what the insect is called so i could look up on them.

  • Kyle said:

    Wow, I just seen like three different spiders crawling through mine! I thought it was on the outside, but apparently after smashing my screen (dumb move btw) it was still creepin along. I was like, wtf, Am I crazy? No, Im not..lol so i guess the only thing to do is just let the scary looking critters move along.

  • jen said:

    i got my sparkly new lap top 3 weeks ago then the tiny bug appeared. As previously mentioned it seemed to like living in the middle of the screen. I did not want to squish it and hope it would just go away when i turned my laptop off… but no, when i went to use it the next time it had died right in the middle. Not impressed. Any suggestions for bug removal?

  • Mactire said:

    I thought I found something unique when I discovered a little bug in my screen. I googled it and found out I wasn't.
    I've got a 24" Samsung LCD monitor and of all the room it had to die it had to die right in the center of the screen!
    This really spoils the joy of working on this screen.

    I think I scared it tapping the screen, not it barely moves.

  • Edward said:

    Same Problem Here. I have a Alienware m15x. under warranty. 6 months old. Dunno how to open the screen? Dunno idf the warranty will provide me of the repair.

  • wiz said:

    FLICK THE SCREEN PEOPLE!
    Just did that and the one that has been dead behind my screen for the last two weeks just dropped away. Nice.

    • Mark replied:

      Seriously, I love you!

      A year or so I’ve had one of these f*ckers trapped behind my screen. Gave the back of the monitor a little whack and it fell down!!

  • Tom, the xbox sado said:

    i have four in the center of my new 22" lcd hdtv, it is very anoying when im on xbox. and because they are in a group its offputting when im aiming or something.
    it sounds stupid, but somehow the little buggers (gotcha there!) stand out like a saw thumb + my brother has the same problem, but his have been in there since day 1, 4 years ago. maybe the gama melarcy stuff nucularly disindergrates the midge! i dont know but any way its anoying.

    not as anoying as B.T broadband's super duper broadband service!

  • Paul Haines said:

    Had the problem twice with Dell Ultrasharp 1908FP (I live in the heart of East Anglia where fields of barley and wheat are only a short distance away so these bastards really do swarm in late July/ early August). First thing to do is switch the monitor off as soon as you see one. Whatever you do don't try to kill the thing or it will stay in there forever. Then place a hot, bright light close to the monitor and leave it on for a day or two. I used a photo lamp with a transparent white cloth over the front so it resembled a softbox. If you have a fan, point it at the monitor and leave it on while you wait. Thunderflies are attracted to heat and light, so the little so-and-so should be attracted out of the monitor, which is now relatively cool and dark.. Not much use if you need to work on the computer, but mine came out. Once the harvest is in they disappear.

  • Andrew McEwan said:

    I had two thunderbugs inside my 24" LCD monitor. This has happened before, and they usually disappear after a couple of days. However, these guys were inconvenient enough to die where they were. After reading some of the posts here, I tried simply gently tapping the screen just above where the bugs were resting in peace. They immediately dropped from the display area, and currently reside somewhere in the bottom casing where I assume they can do no damage.

  • Onk said:

    Dell Inspiron 1525….i have now joined the 'bug club' also thought it was on the outside moved my finger across the screen and now its just in the middle DEAD! Warranty has ran out aswel so no luck getting it fixed for free. Why are these bugs finding there way into screens they have alot of outside space they shold just stick to!!

  • Joe said:

    I am bloody outraged. This happened to my old Acer monitor and they wanted £40 to just LOOK at it whilst it was still under warranty. Now my new LG TV/Monitor has two of these dead bugs, and I did not squish them, but they have both died, one very near the centre and the second to the top right. I am not accepting this, its a design flaw, I want my money back or a replacement. Will be phoning Dixons tomorrow.

  • sgj said:

    Well i just had one of those thunder fly bugs in my screen as well, and seems it died this evening, at least it was sitting still. So i knocked gently on the screen, and it fell down to the bottom, so now i cant see it anymore yay! So neeeever squash 'em! Just outlive 'em lol

  • Fubar1977 said:

    Just joined the "bug club" today and yes, I squashed the little b*****d before i realised he was inside it.
    2 month old laptop.
    Fuming.
    Going to ring round tomorrow for a price to clean it out, don`t fancy the DIY and it isn`t a warranty issue
    as no-one has yet had any luck getting a mfr to replace cos of this issue.

  • maybug said:

    i had one underneath my laptop screen (Acer). Thought it had died, so prodded it a bit and it started moving about again. Luckily it wandered off 🙂

  • vrsmanner said:

    Just used the suction cup method detailed above and it worked on my screen a treat. Had a dead thunderfly in the centre of the screen (23″ Samsung). Thanks all for the help 🙂

  • Erik said:

    I've just got one of these "thunder-bugs!" in my screen and it's REALLY annoying that the stupid little thing sits there dead with no use at all! Of course I did try to flick the screen, but that never worked, so better not try that one again.

  • Erik said:

    I've just got one of these "thunder-bugs!" in my screen and it's REALLY annoying that the stupid little thing sits there dead with no use at all! Of course I did try to flick the screen, but that never worked, so better not try that one again.

    Unfortunately turning the laptop off and putting a light next to it never worked because it would have to be alive for that!

    Looks like the only options open are to either crack the monitor open, throw the laptop out of the window and buy another one or just declare war on these bugs so they never have a chance to infect my screen again, but I think I'll go with DIY bug removal.

    I'm glad that I'm sort of patient haha.

  • Hooch said:

    Gah… As we speak there is a thunderfly crawling over this blog. As a CAD draughtsman this is a major annoyance, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I have tried to delete/erase the dead one. Now I have to pray this new one doesn't die in the centre. I have tried disassembling the housing but the screen itself seems sealed (obviously not sealed enough!!). As I speak it has stopped moving in the bottom right of the screen. : (

    • hooch replied:

      Tried tapping the monitor………………. This didn't work. So I commenced whacking the monitor with my fist! …………… This also didn't work. I will try and find a suction cup.

  • Adam said:

    Just got one in my Packard Bell screen, not cool. I squished it as well, gutted. Only had this laptop a couple of months.

  • ifd said:

    and oh by the way, it's a dell inspiron so that seems to be a theme. Definitely no more Dells for me. This laptop has been a nightmare as well as dealing with Dell's customer support.

  • ifd said:

    I squished what looked like a "red brick" bug inside my monitor- thought it was on the outside. Now I have a red splotch about as big as an "o" on my screen. Pretty pissed.

  • Janitza said:

    UGH. I got one of these today. I had a new program running and I saw this little dot going around in circles so I thought it was some kinda animation in the background.

    I then saw it move to other parts of the screen and I followed it around with my finger then I decided to squish it, thinking it was on top of the screen. UGH. Now I have two little red dots on my screen and though they are small It’s driving me nuts. This is a new screen! :-

  • Baz Cooke said:

    If you get a Thunderbug – proper name "Thrip" in your monitor screen you will find that they crawl around for a while and then eventually die. Normally this happens in the most visible spot on the screen. They never fade away so they just stay there cocooned forever! The only way to remove them is to take apart the monitor front and blow them out with an air blaster. ( Not an easy task always )
    These bugs live in wheat or grain crops and wait for warm weather to fly out in their droves – and I do mean droves, billions… So if you live next to fields of grain – look out, because from mid-June until August when the crops are harvested you will be deluged every warm, sunny day with these little blighters.
    Modern farming entails spraying the crops on numerous occasions during the growing period. So why farmers can't use an insecticide while they are spraying to rid us of these bugs – I don't know. Perhaps it's not cost efficient. Whatever, the farming community could do everybody a massive favour and eradicate the Thunderbugs/Thrips to free us of this problem. But, will they? I doubt it, so I'm sorry you'll just have to put up with this scourge every year!

  • Eric said:

    I've got 5 death thunderbugs in the middle of my lcd laptop…probably i'll have to open it, how long does it take for them to desitegrate?

  • clb92 said:

    I know this is an old thread too, but I just squashed sitting near the center of my screen. Normally, that would be bad news, but the bug was outside my screen, so now I can say for sure, that it's not going inside my lovely 26" Iiyama screen 🙂

    I'm going to cover my screen with something for the night… I'm not taking any chances here!
    Some days ago, I accidentally squashed on inside my old laptop. The laptop is 4-5 years old, so my warranty won't cover anything…

    PS. Another one just landed on my screen! Please, thunderbugs, stop it! At least, they're not inside… yet!

  • James said:

    Thank god for this blog. Thought my little thunder bug was some ingenious virus that was designed to look like and act like a thunder bug. I sware it was following my mouse pointer. I was waiting for it to reach the delete all button, press it and with a crack of thunder all my files get deleted. But thankfully, this blog has put me right. I never even thought that a real thunder bug would be able to find away into the screen.
    Now, how to get the dam thing out!

  • Luke said:

    Adam,

    I think it’s the same as my Dell studio 15. Look there should be two screws on the left and two on the right edge of the screen. If you remove them you can use a screwdriver or knife to prize the layers away from the screen.

    Luke

  • Aj200 said:

    Ok, yesterday i found a bug crawing in my monitor. i didnt know what it was till i squashed it.. now i have a black dot stuck in the middle!

    It is a Samsung SyncMaster 226BW – I want to open it to clean out the insect now.

    I have removed the back panel+front rim from the screen, but the LCD is clipped shit with an inner metal rim..

    Please, does anyone have a Samsung syncmaster and knows how to access the inside of the screen – I would be VERY greatful.

    – Adam

  • Angus said:

    I've currently got 7 of them in my LCD. I've had them every summer for the last few years but have always got rid of them by leaving a portable TV on next to the monitor overnight and they've always gone. I've had my first one die today (I have 1 dead, 7 live currently). Going to have to open up the LCD 🙁 Thanks all previous commentors.

  • debi k said:

    Thanks so much. Holding the lamp worked. I was so scared. We just got this 52 inch projection tv and a bug was flying inside it. I really am greatful for you tips. Of all day, Super Bowl Sunday and our first big screen tv You fixed our tv and our party. Thanks.

  • Terri said:

    Ok I too thought it was on the outside of my screen and now it is dead in the right top corner, fortunately not the middle. There is another one running around. I will try the light thing when I am done for the night.

    The worst part is I was eating fresh raspberries out of our garden that were rinsed. I didn’t finish all of them and set them on the table next to me. After seeing the bugs, I looked in the dish and sure enough they were in there. The bad part is I am not sure how many I ate!!! Yukkkkkk!

  • Ian said:

    I had the same problem. 2 weeks ago, a tiny spider somehow crawled into my 22inch Samsung LCD Monitor. I left it alone for 2 days but apparently it died and I was left with a perfectly good, very expensive monitor with a glaring black blob in the middle of the screen. I tried to dislodge the dead bug by gently tapping the screen, to no avail. I even tried the suction cup suggestion — no luck there either.

    I did not have the time or inclination to do an RMA request to Samsung (plus I could not find my receipt). I finally decided to open up my LCD monitor. I disassembled the sealed LCD unit and I found the dead bug lodged between the Polarizing filter and the LCD pad module. I used a cotton swab with 90% IPA to gently clean off the bug from the Polarizing filter and some bug residue on the LCD pad. I gave it sufficient time to dry and I reassembled the whole monitor, connected it to my PC and crossed my fingers… viola, good as new!

    Disclaimer: Never disassemble an LCD product under any circumstances. If unqualified operators or users assemble the product after disassembling it, it may not function or its
    operation may be seriously affected.

  • Jana said:

    Heh, I have an ANT inside my Dell Vostro 1700 LCD screen. Luckily,it has died only like 100 pixels from the left side. The Dell repair guys tried to remove it, but failed… they have just cut it in two parts…. but its still in… meh 🙂

  • Rob said:

    OK, two days ago I noticed a little black spot on my 42″ LG LCD TV. Of course I freaked, but then noticed it was some type of spider or gnat that made its way between the screen cover of the actual TV. Thanks to Pat(above post), I was able to get rid of it. Wait till it dies!(VERY IMPORTANT, or it will leave a permanent mark!) I used a small 2″ diameter suction cup, gently placed it over the area of bug, then gently pulled on it. At first it just kind of shook a little, but then when I removed the suction cup with my finger nail, the bug fell clearly out of site! No more bug! I can’t stress enough on how gentle you need to be with your screen! Do not put too much pressure on the screen, you can possibly leave a permanent discoloration on that area! Everyone, please try this option, it just might work! Thanks to this forum and Pat for the idea!

  • Pat said:

    I know this is an old thread but I just had the same issue and I fixed it. First, I didn’t smash the bug. I went and got a suction cup off of a shower rack and stuck it to my LCD screen right over the bug. I gently pulled on the suction cup. It flexed the glass just enough that the bug fell straight down and out of sight. This was really frustrating since I just got this TV four days ago. Well anyway, I hope that I can help someone out with this tip. Good luck!!

  • joe said:

    they have just e-mailed me back now, and just said take the monitor to a computer reapir shop or the place where you bought it and they will fix it, but for a small fee, it may also take a fiew days for the shop to clean it.

  • joe said:

    I also have the same problem, i have a HP w2007v 20″ LCD screen. i have never had this problem before and i have had the screen for about 2 years in the same spot. iv just contacted hp, because i have a (HP w2007v) and they should be contacting me within 1 working day, so ill try and let yu all know how to clean it (if you have a hp w2007v).

  • Toke said:

    I’ve had my Samsung 22″ for almost 2 years, but recently i got this bug. I suspect it happened, because of an old 19″ that used to be my grandpa and grandma’s. It had about 10 of these bugs, but yet i used it as my second monitor (i like having 2 monitors). 2 days after i got it, i spotted one in my 22″. I immedietly put a lamp to one of the corners of the screen, and got rid of the 19″.

    I seriously recommend getting rid of monitors with these bugs, or atleast not getting them close to any pictures with frames, or other monitors. I believe my 22″ got “infected” because of the 19″, that already had these bugs.

  • Kaite said:

    Yeah, I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 and have a dead thunderfly in the middle of the goddam screen. I emailed Dell, they say its gonna be £220 to replace the screen. I am utterly RAGING! I cant believe it to be honest. But yeah, I guess I will end up paying for that cos i cant put up with it.

    • dylan replied:

      that should seriously not be 220 quid!!!
      just dismantle the monitor yourself and remoove them!

      or wven better- put a mark on your screen so you know its yours- send the screen off to get repaired and if you still have that mark on your screen complain to them that they didnt replace it like they said they would and get it done again free!

      also i have 11!! bugs in my screen, luckily its a hell of a crappy screen (hp pavilion f1703)
      it dosent realy bothem me tho because that is my sdecondary monitor that i watch dvd's on while playng gmod =P

  • Yes said:

    Just squished my bug as i thought it was a software bug (or virus).
    It’s dead in the middle of my screen.
    I’ll buy me a new one tomorrow, since this one is almost 5 years old, it’s definitely time to debug it 😉

  • Paul Evans said:

    Thank you for keeping comments on this blog entry open. Hopefully some of the advice here will be useful to me. I took my old laptop out of the bag this morning to see a bug crawling around in there. I’ve turned it off, covered it up apart from a corner and put a lamp nearby to see if that tempts it out.

    I don’t really want to do surgery on the screen, if it dies in there I guess I will try that. Annoying though, I use that laptop daily and can’t justify a replacement right now… even if it were to die in a stupid place.

  • raid said:

    Totally feel for you Jack. Was so chuffed to replace my dead bug filled 19″ with a 24″, but within a couple of months created a new cemetry. Definitely best advice is to switch off and leave a light on nearby as soon as you spot one.

  • foxtrot said:

    i have one inside my tamagotchi
    right now i’m treating it as a special bonus virtual pet, but pretty soon the novelty will wear off

    i find that gentle/violent tapping in the centre of the screen can coax it off the edge so that it’s less of a nuisance

    we also had a few in our computer monitor, but we just left them for a few days and they disappeared. i suppose we got lucky? 😛

  • Michael said:

    From Dell: “I apologize for the inconvenience. Bugs can appear on the LCD panel in the gap between the LCD and the backlight. These insects are a common problem with modern LCD panels, monitors, and TVs, where they are attracted by the light. The ability of these insects to enter the LCD panel does not represent a panel manufacturing defect. This issue is not covered under the warranty of your system.”

    Not a manufacturing defect??? Obviously! It’s a design defect!!!

    I guess what they say is true. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

  • Michael said:

    I too got a bug in my LCD screen (on a laptop). I didn’t squish him but he stopped moving, so he is either taking a rest or died. I sent an e-mail to Dell tech support, so I’ll see what they recommend.

  • Web Systems said:

    Hello guys

    I have had the same problem and I googled this blog. After some reading I decided to clean my LCD monitor myself.

    What you need is:
    1) screwdriver
    2) air duster (compressed air)

    Estimated time 15-60min (depending on your technical skills)

    You have to disassemble the cover of your LCD (be carefull to not to brake it), then you will find some screws under it. I think every LCD looks different inside so I can’t give you detailed manual, but you have to get under the LCD glass (there is a white background under it (I didn’t touche it so I do not know what is it made of, but it is not important).You have to use air duster and clean all the insects from the glass and white background. Then just assemble everything as it was at the beginning.

    Voila, no more bugs 🙂

  • Jack said:

    rofl, I cant belive my luck!!

    I replaced my 19″ HD monitor with a 24″ monitor the other day, and already two bugs are under it, i havent even taken the plastic cover of the screen..

    £200 down the drain, ill have to but another now. for fucks sake i hate summer.

  • harvie p said:

    hi. i got same problem. just a few mins ago it was crawling around when my temper gt the better of mee. only had the laptop since 21st june 09. its now dead in the middle of the screen. im thinking of phonin acer. do u reakon they will cover this? its still under warranty.

    cheers

    harvie

  • Jo said:

    Please help same thing bug on screen found this blog through google. My screen isn’t yet one year old and i bought it from amazon.

    If anyone is reading this can they tell me will i get a full refund for the screen from amazon as the screen is withing warantee and bought directly from Amazon

    Please help i don’t really know wot else to do coz the bugs have died inside my screen!!!

    Thank You 😀

  • Lozzy said:

    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!!!!

  • libbyribs said:

    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

  • Marie-louise said:

    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

  • bryn said:

    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? 😉

  • zoe said:

    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 🙁

  • Kyne McCullough said:

    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.

  • Charlotte said:

    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!

  • mprost said:

    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!

  • Ben said:

    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.

  • Hailey said:

    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!

  • lauren said:

    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:(

  • Janine said:

    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

  • Emiily said:

    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

  • Ben said:

    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…

  • Rasmus Christiansen said:

    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 🙂

  • mikee said:

    i never seen this untill i squished mine and then i realised it would stay there so i searched bug inside screen XD

  • Alex. said:

    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?

    ?!

  • Nathan said:

    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.. 🙂

    • Maggie replied:

      Worked like a charm! I just turned the monitor off, held a couple of lights near the edge and as you promised, voila, no more bug! I also took a little anitbacterial scent and rubbed that along the top of the monitor hoping it wouldn't like the smell. Your light technique didn't take too long, just about 10 minutes. We'll see if it returns. Thanks for the tip!!! 🙂 Maggie

    • Jon replied:

      I tried it too–worked without a hitch! I rigged a flashlight to point at a seam in the plastic, hoping that would provide a good exit strategy for the little guy. Thanks for the tip, Nathan.

  • Beth said:

    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…

  • Ken said:

    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.

  • Simon Loftus said:

    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. 

  • Khlo said:

    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.

  • Adam Dempsey said:

    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!

  • Ollie Bradley said:

    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.

    • Bob replied:

      Put your monitor in a dark room( switched off) and leave a bedside lamp (switched on) next to it pointing downwards. They soon leave your monitor, unless you squashed them already.

    • Charlie replied:

      Yep it is July and I have about 7 insects behind my Mitsubishi DLP TV. Going to give them a few days and see if they will just leave. If not I will have to figure out how to take screen off and remove insects manually

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