Thanks everyone. OP here with an update. We used a bug bomb in my office last night. I checked my computer this morning and didn’t see any bugs, but I only looked very briefly. I’ll update again tonight when I get home from work and actually use it.

Hoping for no bugs crawling out of it tonight.

Maybe burn that laptop and start over.

Don't do that without removing the lithium-ion battery first. Those things go up immediately and can't be extinguished, once ignited.

Sounds like German Cockroaches. They are tiny, with a stripe on them. They are attracted to the warmth and EMF the electronics give off.

OP - I’m with you. I’m also an arachnophobe and that spider story may have me off devices. Maybe burn that laptop and start over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what I did: put laptop in a waterproof box with pest control traps/incecticide for 2 weeks. It worked!

Were there dead bugs in the bag? Something on the internet said I could do this with moth balls.

Perhaps dead bugs but they were so small to begin with, and they just become smaller and shrivel up into teeny black dots

If they are ants, they will come out to eat. And they will be dead before they can reproduce in there.

Get an oversized ziploc bag and keep your laptop in it. They can't get out of a ziploc.

Then put that Terra bait near the laptop.

Use clear packing tape to pick them up and crush them.

Given the few that you've seen, there's probably just a small colony that got into your house and onto the laptop.

I get ants invading my house from holes in the brick near the doors. A couple hundred can show up in an hour. Your problem is mild. Kill as many as you see. Put laptop in ziploc when not in use and put bait out when you are using it.

Imagine you are at a picnic. Be brave!

Anonymous wrote:
Double seal your laptop in trash bags, put it in the freezer for a day. That should kill them.

If not, put ammonia in the plastic bags and seal well for a day.

I’m afraid that will damage my computer?

Anonymous wrote:
Are they like these, mold mites?

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbug/comments/17mztvf/my_roommate_just_found_bugs_on_and_inside_her/

This video was probably the first thing I found on the Internet lol. No, that’s definitely not it — what I’m seeing look a lot more like little ants and the bugs coming out of my machine are probably 2 to 3 times as big as those. Tiny, but not as tiny as those. And I saw like three at a time, not a gazillion of them.

Anonymous wrote:
How? How did the bugs get into a MacBook? They have to pass so many more livable places before getting there. Is the laptop caked with sugar or food bits?

I really don’t know. From what I read on the Internet, people do have this problem and people seem to think it has something to do with the warmth? There definitely aren’t food bits on the computer.

Anonymous wrote:
Double seal your laptop in trash bags, put it in the freezer for a day. That should kill them.

If not, put ammonia in the plastic bags and seal well for a day.

Somebody on reddit said it's the best way to kill and preserve insects for entomological collections.

Double seal your laptop in trash bags, put it in the freezer for a day. That should kill them.

If not, put ammonia in the plastic bags and seal well for a day.

They like the warmth.

Leave it turned off for a while, and put something warm (like another laptop or an incandescent lamp) and a hot sweet smelling drink next to the old laptop to draw their attention.

Don't let them in the new laptop, though!

Are they like these, mold mites?

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbug/comments/17mztvf/my_roommate_just_found_bugs_on_and_inside_her/

How? How did the bugs get into a MacBook? They have to pass so many more livable places before getting there. Is the laptop caked with sugar or food bits?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: The compressed air did nothing. But it is a MacBook and there isn’t really anywhere to blow the air other than the keyboard and ports. We are going to put it in a room with a bug bomb and leave it overnight.

DH did see a few bugs when he picked it up and he also thought they looked like ants and blamed it on the rain.

Sugar ants, maybe? They're tiny. If the compressed air doesn't work, then put a Terro ant trap very close to where you saw the ants leave the laptop, on a flat surface. The ants will be attracted to, and drown in the trap. You might have to wait a few days, though.

Honestly, if they're ants, it's not that big a deal. You squish them when they come out. They can't hurt you, OP.

Yeah, I know. Unfortunately they are tiny and I do have some arachnophobia and that earlier post has me freaked out. I know I’m being childish but really can’t help it.