Thunderbugs/wheatflys

Soldato
Joined
9 Jul 2005
Posts
2,646
Location
High Wycombe
These darn bugs - getting in my tft screens, the lcd on my fridge - everywhere. Anyone know how to get them out - my screens have about 10 in each, some behind the panel, some between, some just behind the glss - its driving my nuts - Help!
 
Dam things! I have lost a tft to one of the dam insects. Why cant these people make screens insect proof... every summer I see these kinda posts on forums.

Im sorry if im ranting in your thread btw, I just cant see any way of stopping this problem other than reverting back to a tradtional crt monitor :(
 
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I get the same, I have one tft with a single "dead pixel" thunderbug. I have seen posts where a car ride will vibrate them out of the screen but not going to say that worked as it didn't with my older screen.
 
a samsung tech once investigated this, the bugs are getting in thru holes that have to exist, nothing they can do - you have several layers sandwiched together if you hermetically seal them during the winter the screen will bow in, summer it will bow out. thats gonna kill it in short order.

best things to try and some gentle vidrations to move them, eg a trip in a car, see if you can get a waruntee replacement.

for the record, i have personally seen this mostly on screens with samsung pannels, and touch wood, my several year old hyundai Q17 with an..... au optics has been fine.

you might be able to take preventitive measures, eg installing a bug zaper / attractor somewhere close to the screen to atract them away befor they get in.

*edit*

this isnt to say its samsung related! thats jsut my experience. i coud jsut be very lucky!
 
Know Your Enemy !

Hey, just my 2p worth..

The first bit is the biology lesson...skip down if it bores you..

***********

Thrips (Order Thysanoptera) are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings (thus the scientific name, from the Greek thysanos (fringe) + pteron (wing)).

Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs and corn lice.

Thrips species feed on a large variety of sources both plant and animal by puncturing them and sucking up the contents. A large number of thrips species are considered pests, because they feed on plants with commercial value. Some species of thrips feed on other insects or mites and are considered beneficial, while some feed on fungal spores or pollen. So far around 5,000 species have been described.

Thrips are generally tiny (1 mm long or less) and are not good flyers, although they can be carried long distances by the wind. In the right conditions, many species can explode in population and swarm everywhere, making them an irritation to humans.

Like the word sheep, the word thrips is used in both the singular and plural numbers. So while there may be many thrips there can also be a solitary thrips. The word thrips is from Greek, meaning wood louse.[1]

Thrips feed by piercing plant cells with their paired maxillary stylets, which form a feeding tube. Thrips, unlike the Hemiptera, have only one mandibular stylet, or if a second is present it is greatly reduced and non functional. The one fully formed mandibular stylet is used to pierce an entry hole in plant cells or pollen grains, wherein the maxillary stylets can easily enter the cell and suck out the contents. Thrips feed on hundreds of different crop plants, especially during flowering where they also feed on pollen.

Many thrips are pests of commercial crops due to the damage caused by feeding on developing flowers or vegetables which causes discoloration, deformities, and reduced marketability of the crop.

Thrips in the genera Frankliniella (flower thrips) and Thrips also spread plant diseases through the transmission of viruses, such as Tospoviruses. The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, has a worldwide distribution and is considered the primary vector of plant diseases caused by Tospoviruses. Over 20 plant infecting viruses are known to be transmitted by thrips. These enveloped viruses are considered among some of the most damaging of emerging plant pathogens around the world. Virus members include the tomato spotted wilt virus and the Impatiens necrotic spot viruses.

To survive the winter temperatures most thrips species over-winter as either adults or as pupae under ground litter. A typical flower thrips generation time will be from 7 to 22 days depending on the temperature. The eggs are about 0.2 mm long and reniform (kidney shaped), and may take on average 3 days to hatch. Thrips have 2 larval stages then go through a prepupal and a pupae stage, with the adults taking 1 to 4 days to reach sexual maturity. In the two suborders, the females of the Suborder Terebrantia are equipped with an ovipositor which they use to cut slits into plant tissue into which they insert their eggs, one per slit, while females of the Suborder Tubulifera lack an ovipositor and lay their eggs singly or in small groups on the outside surface of plants.

Due to their small size, cryptophilic behavior, and high rate of reproduction, thrips are difficult to control using classical biological control. Only two families of parasitoid hymenoptera are known to hunt them, the Eulophidae and the Trichogrammatidae. More effective biocontrol agents include members of the Anthocorid bugs and the Phytoseiid mites, who are small and slender enough to penetrate the crevices that thrips hide in while feeding, and prey extensively on eggs and larvae. For this reason, many growers are occasionally forced to make limited use of pesticides to control thrips populations in the field and in greenhouses.

******

Indeed, they are swarming in all this hot and humid yet oppresive weather and they love to make a beeline for your TFT.

It's believed that the light from the TFT attracts them, and they can squeeze in anywhere.

If you notice 1 or more crawling across the screen, IMMEDIATELY turn off the monitor.

This will ensure there is no light under them, and they walk to the edge of the screen looking for light / warmth.

Wait 30 mins, then turn on..repeat until they are gone.

Apparently, they also find the LCD goo quite yummy, so as well as annoying the hell out of you, those little 1mm pests are also feasting on your nice new monitor.

Obviously don't poke the screen, because you will squash the thrips permanently in place.

Whislt one of the best 19" TFT's on the market, they do like the Acer AL1951 models and have got in to both of mine (luckily, the turn off trick worked for 1, and unfortunately the other had a thrips die mid screen) which my fiance ignores.

I keep meaning to open up the TFT and see if I can remove it, but I'm concerned that I'd need a clean room otherwise a spec of dust or more may get in and then I'll be even more worse off.

Never opened a TFT so a bit hesitant to be honest...
 
I managed to get one last night!

It was on my mouse matt, so I slowly put a pint glass over it! Trapped!

Now, I had many options now, but I chose to bust out my 100W modded maglight, and see how long it would last!

It went crazy and started flying around, but it dodn't last much longer than 10 seconds! It was driving me crazy, but not any longer!

Good job there's no exclaimation mark limit! :D
 
depending on how big they are (never seen them tbh and i use a crt atm) putting the foam stuff they package stuff like hard drives in over the air holes might stop them going in but still allow air (unless they are smaller than the holes in it) and itd look pretty stupid

the topics about this are making me want to get a bug zapper to put by the pc when i get my new tft... i wonder if its possible to make something which detects how many bugs have died and shows on a little screen the number of bugs stopped from breaking the screen :D
 
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I think this thread is cursed.

I read all this yesterday, thinking "that would be a pain, still I havent seen any around so far." :cool:

The guess what, last night I had one wondering around inside my 6 month old TFT!

Luckily after wondering around on my emails he decided to "bug" off again, though not until I'd had a little fun trying to shepherd him with my cursor.

PK!
 
Talk about sods law eh!

I have now declared war on "Bugs that like TFT's" lol
One of my screens has one trapped down near the left and guess what.... its a samsung panel :(

I HATE BUGS!
 
So far I have 3 in each of my 19 inch monitors (2 of them) and 5 in my 22 inch - WHAT A PAIN! I found if they are still alive I can lure them to the bottom out of sight with a white box on a black background, but it really is becoming tedious - its like having 3 dead pixels in a row!

Many have been inconsiderate and died in the middle, they could at least have moved out of the way - swines!
 
I'm gonna phone the retailer i'm buying the 32" LCD off and ask if the warranty covers the little buggers getting in, doing the twist and blowing rasperries at me behind the film. :cool:
 
Where abouts do you all live? Are these bugs more common in some parts of the country than others? Living in Surrey, I've never had any bugs find their way underneath any of my screens, nor heard any complaints from friends locally. Hell, I'd never even heard of thrips before reading these forums :p. Maybe I'm just lucky.
 
Heres something interesting I found while googling away:

"I know that this problem effects mostly ALL tft screens, the ones that aernt effected are either oldish tft screens or ones that are in a area of a house/building away from a window or a ventilated area (such as a bedroom) the advice above is great, but i have found a good preventative measure that is safe to your screen ,but pretty sticky... is to use some old-fashoned fly paper, its a bit messy so take your time, but if your tft screen's back is facing a wall and never moved or very descreet etc..you can safely smear ( tap the paper on the vents at the rear, take your time) some of the gooey flypaper gue on the rear of your monitor (only a little bit mostly around the vents, this methood does not block any vents and reduces significantly the risk of flies getting inside) and oviously when the fly's land or walk on it they stick to it and hey presto!"

Now where's that hardware shop!!!!!
 
Wiggins said:
Heres something interesting I found while googling away:

"I know that this problem effects mostly ALL tft screens, the ones that aernt effected are either oldish tft screens or ones that are in a area of a house/building away from a window or a ventilated area (such as a bedroom) the advice above is great, but i have found a good preventative measure that is safe to your screen ,but pretty sticky... is to use some old-fashoned fly paper, its a bit messy so take your time, but if your tft screen's back is facing a wall and never moved or very descreet etc..you can safely smear ( tap the paper on the vents at the rear, take your time) some of the gooey flypaper gue on the rear of your monitor (only a little bit mostly around the vents, this methood does not block any vents and reduces significantly the risk of flies getting inside) and oviously when the fly's land or walk on it they stick to it and hey presto!"

Now where's that hardware shop!!!!!
Ugh, don't fancy turning my monitors into a permanent fly graveyard (remember that this will attract other flies too...), but keep up the advice, I like this thread a lot :D

The thunderbug problem always seems a lot worse when I'm home in Essex compared to back in Nottingham. Don't know whether this is an accurate observation though :)
 
Hmm, I wonder if you could replace the backlight on a TFT with one of those bug-zapping lights often seen in butchers.....

PK!
 
Luckily i've never had this problem (yet!) but my bedisde lamp is on the opposite side of my room... i have a 100w bulb in it and it's shining across the room, so hopefully that will attract the bugs instead of my LG 22"...

I also have a glass of water under my lamp, as the bugs seem to like flying into the lamp and concussing themselves... water just saves them from trying again ;)
 
I would suggest to everyone who lives in a problematic area, dont have your monitor on when your not using it. No groovy screensavers niether - Set maybe a 5 min power saving standby, so its totally dark and wont attract them.

Having a quick google, it seems most companies will replace your screen if under warrenty and a bug dies in it, as they should nowadays all be shielded from such insects (as its a common problem) So if one does get inside, then the monitor is faulty.
 
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