Electronic items attract bugs. Why? It’s because the heat from the electronic items draws them.
Bugs like ants and roaches are notorious to get inside electrical appliances like coffeemakers, laptops, and dishwashers.
Your phone, and other handheld gadgets like iPad, will draw bugs because of the heat they produce.
Also, many little bugs can accidentally get onto your phone and iPad screen signifying that there’s a bug infestation that has overshot inside the house.
Some of these bugs can get inside the phone and can cause damages too.
In this guide, you’ll find out the 6 tiny bugs on phone screen.
Although these bugs are small, and hard to identify, you’ll find out how to identify them and the best ways to eliminate them from your phone.
This guide classifies the bugs in terms of their colors so that it’s easy for you to identify them.
Keep reading.
3 Tiny White Bugs On Phone Screen
- Dust mites
- Spider mites
- Bed bugs nymphs
Dust Mites
Dust mites are tiny arachnids that sneak inside the house during the dust mite season, which is from May to October.
These tiny white mites are microscopic bugs and they’re difficult to spot when their numbers are low.
But when their numbers increase, they appear as a layer of white dust on items like electronic appliances, bed mattresses, couches, carpets, and even on drapes and curtains.
Dust mites also gather on dirty and dusty hard surfaces such as furniture, floor, and walls.
Dust mites appear as a layer of white dust on the thing they’re on.
Moisture is one of the factors that draw dust mites inside the house.
As dust mites can’t drink water, they absorb it, they’ll accumulate in places that have both dirt and dampness.
When dust mites are on your phone will look like little specks of white particles.
Under a microscope or magnifying glass, they’ll resemble little white ticks with eight legs.
Dust mites feed on the dry skin, also known as dander.
So, they’ll crawl onto your body to feed on the dry skin.
Dust mites won’t bite you. But their feeding will cause skin rashes and intensely itchy red welts.
Dust mites are terrible allergens.
And they can trigger allergic reactions like sneezing, itchy eyes and nose, and headache even in healthy individuals.
For asthma patients dust mites can be deadly. They can get into the respiratory system and trigger breathing problems.
Spider Mites
Spider mites are tiny white mites that are also arachnids. Spider mites resemble spiders and they’ve got eight legs.
They’re white plant pests that feed on the plant’s sap.
If you’ve got indoor plants with spider mites on them, then chances are they can spillover from the plants and show up on your electronic appliances like your phone.
Spider mites on the phone will appear as little white spiders crawling on the phone screen.
These spider mites are harmless to humans.
But they can turn into a nuisance if you don’t get rid of them from your indoor plants.
Spider mites can also cause allergic reaction in sensitive individuals. But they don’t bite.
And some spider mites can be red too.
Baby Bed Bugs
If you’re seeing miniature white bed bugs on your phone, especially when the phone is in your bedroom, then you’ve got a bed bug infestation.
The bed bug nymphs are always on the lookout for hiding places, especially when their numbers are high.
Baby bed bugs are translucent, pearly white, oval, and flat. If they’ve had their blood meals, then they’ll appear as tiny red dot.
Baby bed bugs on the phone screen and on other electronic devices are a rarity.
It’s because these parasitic insects like to hide in the cracks and crevices near the bed, walls, furniture, and floor.
But they can end up on your phone and other devices when there are too many of them.
Seeing baby bed bugs in your home, no matter where, should trigger your alarm bells.
You should inspect your home further for bed bugs. Or call a pest controller to inspect and treat your home for bed bugs.
3 Tiny Black Bugs On Phone Screen
- Chiggers
- Biting mites
- Sugar ants
Chiggers
The presence of chiggers on the phone or other electronic items in the house is purely accidental.
If you’re seeing chiggers on the phone screen, then chances are you’ve brought chiggers home.
And there are too many of them inside the house.
Chiggers are larvae of mites belonging to the Trombiculidae family. And chiggers bite humans to feed on the human skin.
Their bites are intensely itchy. And chiggers bite in the regions where clothing is tight.
Chiggers on the phone screen will appear as crawling little black bugs. But chiggers are not typically black, they are dark red.
That’s why chiggers are also known as red bugs.
To confirm if the black bugs on the phone screen are chiggers or not, take a magnifying glass.
Under the magnifying glass, chiggers will look bright red, with six legs, and an oval-shaped body with no thorax.
Some chiggers can also be yellow or orange.
Biting Mites
There are two types of biting mites that sneak inside homes. They’re rat mites and bird mites.
Rat mites and bird mites are parasites on rats and birds respectively.
Their presence on your phone is also purely accidental. And when they’re on your phone, it means that you’ve been to a place where there were these mites.
Or your home harbors them.
Rats and other rodents like mice in the house will bring the rat mites along with themselves.
Their nests can also have these mites because these mites feed on the blood of their hatchlings and babies.
If there’s a bird nest, or there was a bird nest which you didn’t remove, then your home can bird mites too.
Biting mites crawling on the phone screen is a clear sign that they’re looking for a place to hide.
And they’ve accidentally discovered your phone.
Both rat and bird mites are gray when they’ve not had their blood meals. After blood meals they turn black or brownish-red.
These mites bite people. But they can’t survive solely on the human blood.
They need their host’s blood to survive.
So, unlike bed bugs, rat mites and bird mites can’t breed and lay eggs inside the house despite biting humans.
Both rat mites and bird mites can persist in your home for a few days despite removing their sources which are rat hideouts and bird nests.
Little Black Ants (Sugar Ants) On The Phone Screen
If there’s any bug on the phone, and in the other electrical appliances and gadgets, like laptops, that you need to worry about is the ants.
The heat from the phone and electronic products draws these ants.
Also, the food stains on the phone attract ants because those stains are food sources for the ants.
Ants can damage your phone. They can get inside the phone and mess up with the circuitry inside the phone.
The tiny black ants on the phone and other electronics are mostly sugar ants that feed on sweet stuff and protein rich food.
The presence of these ants on your phone is a clear indication that your home has ant infestation that you need to take care of.
Can Bugs Live Inside The Phone?
No, bugs can’t live inside the phone despite showing up on it.
However, ants can get inside the phone and damage the phone from the inside.
Most new phones today are waterproof, so, there are very limited entry points for the bugs to get inside.
However, old phones have more orifices which can let the bugs get inside it.
Summary
The tiny bugs on the phone screen can be one of the following bugs –
- Dust mites
- Spider mites
- Bed bug nymphs
- Chiggers
- Biting mites
- Sugar ants
The best way to get rid of bugs on the phone is by cleaning it with a disinfectant. It’ll remove any food stains that might attract them.
Keeping the phone in a dry and clean space also ensures that it won’t attract bugs.
Also, the presence of any of these bugs on your phone signifies that your home has an infestation of the respective.
Or you’ve been to a place that has bugs and it latched onto your phone.
This is specifically the case with chiggers which live primarily outdoors but they latch onto things to travel to homes.
It’s only the ants that can cause significant damage to your phone if they can manage to get inside.
But most bugs that land on your phone are accidental intruders.
Nang Chen is an Entomologist and Arachnologist who is associated with Vienna’s museum of natural history. He’s also a consultant with real estate groups, insecticide conglomerates and law enforcement groups as a forensic entomologist. Nang Chen holds an M.S. from South China University and he’s a regular contributor to our site.