# What happens to bugs that I vacuum? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927 "2006-04-24T02:26:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/1 "2006-04-24T02:26:57Z")
Do bugs die immediately from the force of the vacuum cleaner? Do they linger in the vacuum and suffer a long dusty death? Can they crawl out of the bag and back onto my floor? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/2 "2006-04-24T02:32:18Z")
I am pretty sure that there is a one-way valve on most vacuum cleaner that opens when it is sucking and then closes when it is turned off. This would mean that things generally cannot get out although the odd smart and industrious ant might. I would also guess that most bugs are alive when they hit the bag. Bugs are tough and light and can withstand extreme forces pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/3 "2006-04-24T07:54:58Z")
They breed. Breed, and plot their revenge. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/4 "2006-04-24T12:53:39Z")
My mother told me that vaccuum cleaner bags were treated with a pesticide, meaning that any alive bugs would die inside (which is good for me, but not so good for the spiders I vaccuum. I’m terrified of spiders, and the thought of them crawling back out is not a pleasant one.) Whether this is actually true or not, I don’t know. Now for your bagless vaccuums (of which there are more and more), I dunno. I doubt they’d be able to survive, however - seems pretty violent in there, regardless of size. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/5 "2006-04-24T13:01:58Z")
I work in a museum, and out back, we have a “pioneer log cabin” that tourists can go through. Because it’s not constantly inhabited, every bug in this county treats it as a motel. The tiny lady-bug things are the worst. You’ll go in there and see thousands of them. Being a jill-of-all-trades around here, I was the one who got sent out to sweep them up. Afterwards, I could hear them crawling around in the bag. Now, _that’s_ a sound to give you the willies. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/6 "2006-04-24T13:21:54Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > I work in a museum, and out back, we have a “pioneer log cabin” that tourists can go through. Because it’s not constantly inhabited, every bug in this county treats it as a motel. The tiny lady-bug things are the worst. You’ll go in there and see thousands of them. > > Being a jill-of-all-trades around here, I was the one who got sent out to sweep them up. Afterwards, I could hear them crawling around in the bag. Now, _that’s_ a sound to give you the willies. To deal with this, sprinkle a little soap powder on the floor, & vacuum it up. Works like a charm. And a strong solution of liquid soap, like Mr. Clean, & water, put into a spray pump or squirt gun makes a good insecticide. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/7 "2006-04-24T13:28:30Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > To deal with this, sprinkle a little soap powder on the floor, & vacuum it up. > > Works like a charm. > > And a strong solution of liquid soap, like Mr. Clean, & water, put into a spray pump or squirt gun makes a good insecticide. Thanks for the suggestion, but they wouldn’t allow this. We’re not permitted to use any carpet powders, or anything like that, out of fear that particles of it would be cast up into the air and settle on the surface of the artifacts. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/8 "2006-04-24T13:29:51Z")
I would WAG that the bugs do survive the trip, but would die of dehydration. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/9 "2006-04-24T13:43:19Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Afterwards, I could hear them crawling around in the bag. Now, _that’s_ a sound to give you the willies. We seem to have an Asian beetle problem here in the summer months, and one solution seems to be to hang these odd plastic bags from your trees and bushes, it attracts them in by the hundreds and then…if you look close you can hear them all moving around, and the little bag positively writhes with their movement. Apparently then you get a flame thrower to finish them off or something, but I’ve never stuck around one long enough to see. Creepy. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/10 "2006-04-24T13:57:02Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Thanks for the suggestion, but they wouldn’t allow this. We’re not permitted to use any carpet powders, or anything like that, out of fear that particles of it would be cast up into the air and settle on the surface of the artifacts. _shudders_ Do it in the alley then! Use some imagination. (Mine’s got the willies imagining that “scrabble, scrabble” sound.) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-bugs-that-i-vacuum/353927/11 "2006-04-24T14:15:58Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > _shudders_ > > Do it in the alley then! Use some imagination. > > (Mine’s got the willies imagining that “scrabble, scrabble” sound.) Still can’t do-- the powder could remain in the nooks and crannies of the vaccum. What my curator did was to put the vaccuum bag into a trashbag and spray copious amounts of bug killer into it, sealing in the poisonous fumes. I’m sure they all died quickly.