Parking your car near shrubs, bushes, and underneath trees makes many white bugs get onto your car.
These tiny white bugs all over the car are harmless. Yet, they can be a nuisance.
One of these bugs also leaves behind their sticky excrements on your car’s exterior.
Their poop, unless removed quickly, can lead to indelible yellowish marks on your car.
That’s not a good sight especially when your car is white or light-colored.
Let’s find out what are these little white bugs on your car’s exterior. And how to ensure that your car doesn’t get these bugs.
Woolly Aphids
Woolly aphids are tiny white lint-like bugs that fall off the trees and bushes and land on your car.
Woolly aphids are plant pests that feed on the plant’s sap. These are active during the warmer periods of the year.
If you’ve parked your car near trees and plants with woolly aphids infestation, then chances are they’ll spillover from the plants to your car.
The lint of cotton-like layer on their bodies is for protection from the predators. Woolly aphids develop the woolly layer over time when they start to mature.
But the actual color of woolly aphids is blue or green.
The worst part is that woolly aphids leave behind their yellowish sticky excrements on your car.
If you’ve a white or light-colored car, then their poop appears as yellow smear marks. These marks can be hard to eliminate when they dry up.
Woolly aphids are harmless to humans. They don’t bite.
Ash Whitefly
Ash whiteflies are tiny white V-shaped plant pests that reside underneath the leaves. These flies can hop off from the infected to your car.
During the spring and summer months, the population of whiteflies explode.
And it’s a common theme across green areas to have these plant pests.
Whiteflies feed on the plant’s sap. And they tend to attack the tender areas underneath the leaves.
White flies appear as white dust or white powdery layer on the plants. When disturbed, these flies take off in swarms.
Whiteflies can bite humans. But it’s an interrogatory bite to find out if the thing they’re sitting on is a plant or not.
Whiteflies bites are harmless and don’t cause any reactions.
With the arrival of fall and winter, the white fly population die off.
Mealybugs
Mealybugs are white scale insects that show up on the car. They’re also plant pests, and they can fall off the trees and plants onto your car.
Mealy bugs look like woodlice. On the plants, and on the car, you’ll notice these pill-shaped white scale insects aggregating in one place.
But mealybugs can’t fly. And they won’t cause any harm to your car’s exterior.
Spider Mites
Spider mites are small white spider-like garden pests that attack plants. On your car they look like tiny white moving dots.
Spider mites are arachnids, meaning they’re close relatives of spiders.
These mites cause webbings on the plants. And they’re known for making the plants weak if you don’t get rid of them.
Spider mites can sneak inside the car and hide in the gaps.
But inside the car they can’t survive for long without plant’s sap, which is their food source.
Spider mites are not just white. There are green, red, and yellow spider mites.
Yellow spider mites can also get onto your car. So, if you’re noticing tiny yellow bugs on your car, then chances are they can be yellow spider mites.
Dust Mites
Dust mites are little white bugs that are notorious allergens. Dust mites will accumulate both on your car’s exterior and interior during the dust mite season.
A dirty car with layers of dust will draw dust mites.
Dust mites are microscopic and they’re hard to detect with the naked eye, especially when their numbers are low.
But when their numbers increase, dust mites look like a layer of whitish or grayish dust on the car’s surface.
Dust mites can also latch onto things that you keep inside the car.
And when you carry those things inside the house, you can bring dust mites home.
Dust mites are a risk to your respiratory system. They trigger allergic reactions like sneezing, runny nose, and breathing problems.
For asthma patients, dust mites can be deadly.
White Springtails
White springtails are tiny white jumping bugs that can jump off from the soil beds, decaying organic matter, garbage cans, and dense vegetation to your car.
But unlike woolly aphids, whiteflies, or dust mites, white springtails won’t be in large numbers on your car.
There might be a few at the hood or the roof of your car.
Springtails come in different colors other than white. They can be bluish, greyish, and some are even brown.
Springtails are harmless and they don’t bite.
How To Get Rid Of White Bugs On The Car?
Taking your car for a wash is the best way to remove the tiny white bugs on your car.
Also, thoroughly vacuum cleaning the car will get rid of any of those bugs that might have sneaked inside the car.
But the key to prevent these bugs from getting onto your car, or inside your car, is by choosing your parking space wisely.
Don’t park your car underneath trees, especially near hackberry trees, that draw many pests, or near dense vegetation and bushes.
Dense vegetation can harbor biting bugs like fleas, ticks, and bird mites that can sneak inside your car.
Parking you car underneath trees and near bushes can also draw wasps in the car during the wasp season.
If your home has a lush green garden, then ensure that you cover your car with a dust-proof and weather-proof car cover.
And under no circumstances don’t leave the car windows open.
During the spring and summer months, bugs like carpet beetles, spiders, ants, and even roaches can get inside the car.
Summary
The little white bugs all over your car shouldn’t worry you much. These bugs are spillovers from the vegetation surrounding your car.
Parking your car away from organic debris and trees prevents these bugs from getting onto your car.
Simply washing your car will remove these white bugs from your car’s exterior.
Also, ensure that there is no accumulation of organic debris, trash, excessive moisture, and plant pests in your garden.
Most of the white bugs in the list reside in these areas and they can spill over from your garden to your car and home.
Dr. Thomas Orbert is a PhD in Entomology with extensive research experience in ectoparasites and microbials. He has also worked in the spaces of ecology conservation and has multiple years of experience in field research and scientific publishing.