Can I kill bacteria with distilled water?

Question

Given that bacteria are hypertonic (contain more salts) compared to distilled water, and that they rely on ion concentration differences across the plasma membrane to survive, can I kill a bacterial solution by adding an excessive amount of distilled water to make them explode? If I add distilled water on a surface, are the bacteria on it going to die?

Answer 1

This will not work. Bacteria have a cell wall that prevents this from happening.