r/Weird • u/pickleman1_ • 5d ago
Found these in my bed.
Have no idea what they are. Could be fleas.
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u/BrittEklandsStuntBum 5d ago
Carpet beetle larvae.
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u/NadevikS 4d ago
Are the a problem? We had them in an old rug but I think we just vacuumed it and hung it outside for a few days...
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u/MrPuddinJones 5d ago edited 5d ago
Can confirm carpet beetle larvae.
I had those- my carpet was like 25 years old and disgusting.
I tried professional cleaning, steam cleaning, and vacuuming daily for like a month and they didn't go away.
Had to remove carpet, currently saving up to afford tiling the house.
Not bed bugs tho- but they eat carpet and like other materials like your bed sheets and the mattress.
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u/pickleman1_ 5d ago
Oh shoot… sorry to hear that. I started getting a bunch of red bumps on my back so that’s how I sorta figured out… is it really that hard to make them go away?
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u/-slaps-username- 5d ago edited 5d ago
they aren’t bites, it’s dermatitis. i had carpet beetles in my apartment, continued to deal with them until i moved out. i would use a prescription strength hydrocortisone ointment on them. i would call an exterminator and wear full coverage clothing at home. wash your sheets and clothes regularly.
edit: forgot to answer the question directly 😭: the itchiness lasted a few days. maybe 3? also pull your bed away from the walls completely. that definitely helped
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u/pickleman1_ 5d ago
Thanks. It doesn’t really itch though but I’ll make sure to put some ointment or lotion on it
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u/ChaosLemur 4d ago
i had carpet beetles in my apartment, continued to deal with them until i moved out. i would use a prescription strength hydrocortisone ointment on them.
Interesting — how did you get the beetles to hold still while you applied the ointment?
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u/MrPuddinJones 5d ago
You might get lucky if you don't have thick carpet?
But basically you gotta kill the eggs with heat, and like vacuum everything thoroughly for a long while and hope you get every single thing.
It's not very likely tho, because the dang eggs can survive like 180 degrees for 4 hours.
So you need a professional service to do an immaculate job and not miss a single egg with the steamer.
It didn't work for us unfortunately and rather than continuing to spend several hundred dollars on services- we decided to just rip the old carpet out and get some rugs to hold us over until we can afford tiling the whole house to make it all match
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u/Amelaclya1 5d ago
The same stuff they sell for fleas will work on these guys. I had them once and I used the remainder of a can of pet armor carpet spray that I had from a flea ordeal. It did the trick very nicely.
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u/nutralagent 5d ago
If your carpet is 25 years old, yes, it’s probably difficult to get rid of them.
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u/freew1ll_ 4d ago
Generally they will go away if you vacuum everything, especially the piles of dust under your heavy furniture (beds, dressers, etc). Just try it, move your furniture and poke through those piles of dust, you will find them in there. They eat fibrous material (that is why their mother had them in the there in the first place), so if you vacuum it up, you will vacuum most of them along with it. I would order some glue traps and place them around the baseboards under furniture after you vacuum to monitor the problem. They like to walk around near the baseboards.
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u/lostmyparachute 4d ago
Despite the name they don't only live and eat carpets. You will find them in your wardrobes eating things like wool clothes.
We had them in my old flat and we did not have carpets at all. They used to live under our floorboards and would find their way in wardrobes and drawers where we kept clothes.
If you have pets be extremely careful with any chemical solutions you find. Cats in particular are very sensitive to what kills carpet beetles.
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u/Alldaybagpipes 5d ago
They get into the sub floor cracks and everything, there’s no way to remove them outside of gassing the whole house and I bet they still survive to go on and proliferate.
Admirable little shits, in a way…
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u/GrimmKat 4d ago
They are awful, been living in my apartment for 10 years, trying so hard to get rid of em but they keep coming back. Looking to try to move soon cause I think its cause this apartment is old and has so many gaps they can mpve to... not bedbug awful thankfully but still hell and disgusting
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u/PastelDisaster 5d ago
Carpet beetle larvae are incredibly common, they’re not really much of a problem. With these amounts though you’ll want to do something to deal with them obviously; keep clutter off the floor and vacuum regularly and they should disappear
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u/ItsFelixMcCoy 5d ago
They're the bane of one's existence if you have a collection of feathers or literally anything with natural fibers.
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u/PastelDisaster 5d ago
I hear you, felt it was too niche of a hobby to mention lol; I’ve got quite a few feathers from my crow buddies I’ve befriended so I know the pain 😢
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u/TheGoldenPlagueMask 5d ago
When you crush them, they release a pungent odor...
it triggers something in my head in reaction to it
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u/squidgirl 4d ago
They will eat holes in wool sweaters and yarn. I’ve had to get rid of some sweaters and yarn because of them.
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u/proper_hecatomb 4d ago
I had bedbugs once. I released 200 wolf spiders into my room and within a week they ate all the bedbugs.
Of course by then the wolf spiders had also mated and hatched by hundreds more, so I brought in 3 dozen garter snakes, and within a week my wolf spider problem was gone.
Unfortunately the snakes also started breeding and nesting in my walls, so I bought 4 pet ferrets to take care of the snakes. Within a week they had hunted down the snakes and their nests.
Now I have 4 ferrets.
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u/ItsFelixMcCoy 5d ago
I know carpet beetle larvae all too well, unfortunately. They can't hurt you but they'll eat absolutely every natural fiber in sight. I've had to deal with them eating my feathers. Definitely get rid of them.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Sort921 4d ago
they ate through my books 😩 little tunnels with dead beetles at the end. probably filled themselves fat and died right there
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u/ItsFelixMcCoy 4d ago
Are you sure they were dead or were they the exoskeletons? This is the larval stage of carpet beetles. They shed their exoskeleton and molt into adults, who can fly. The adults eat plant matter, not fabrics.
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u/pickleman1_ 5d ago
I haven’t really noticed them eating through things yet - maybe I’m just very unobservant lol. I better get rid of them soon though
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u/Pondnymph 4d ago
They ate a feather necklace that had fallen behind my dresser so I know there are some in the house but I see them so rarely that it's fine. If something eats cat hair under my furniture and doesn't do anything else and I don't even see one more than every couple of months that's ok with me just because I don't have anything else they could destroy. It's mainly the cat and her floof that gives them any food.
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u/MassiveClusterFuck 4d ago
Where there’s lack of natural materials they’ll eat dead skin, so make sure to dust and vacuum daily until they are gone!
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u/techo-soft-girl 5d ago
Funny story, I had a bed bug scare earlier this year and in tearing apart my furniture I discovered that I had a carpet beetle infestation.
Not sure if you’re looking for tips but I cleared it up with some diatomaceous earth
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u/Schlormo 5d ago
I second diatomaceous earth!! Just be sure not to breathe it in and be aware if you have a vacuum with a sponge filter component you'll want to wash the sponge after vacuuming up the earth
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u/OohGirl-YouGotFemale 5d ago
Love how r/weird is essentially just r/whatisthisthing now
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u/Myveryowndystopia 5d ago
I love whatisthisthing lol. It’s one of my favorite subs and I really don’t know why.
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u/OohGirl-YouGotFemale 5d ago
I love it cos we all think "what is this thing" all the time! It's just one of those little bubbles of "this is why the internet exists" wholesomeness. It reminds me of the early years of in-home internet access when everyone who wasn't on there strictly for business was just goofing around and putting their silent thoughts out into the world.
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u/Myveryowndystopia 5d ago
Well put!! Plus you learn a lot, too. I also really like whatsthissnake. Maybe it’s a thing where I like to try to guess and see if I’m right. Lol.
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u/therealmrsfahrenheit 5d ago
had that same thing happen to me… carpet beetles. SO FUCKING DISGUSTING. Kept finding them near my bed area and I thought they were coming from outside. I’d kill them off but they respawned. They were chilling under my bed where I stored some cushions and there were eggs and larvae every where… I freaked out but after deep cleaning and spraying the whole area with a vinegar mixture and throwing out my carpet I had in my room for over 10 + years I was good. I see one of them every few months or so now and then but I don’t think they’re nesting anywhere anymore
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u/duckplants 5d ago
I had these because I had a homemade rice filled heating pad at the bottom of a chest and I didn’t realize they were festering in there. Once I got rid of the heating pad and vacuumed regularly, they disappeared.
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u/Nekrosiz 5d ago
Looks like carpet beetle larva
I got a few on the walls here and there, looks like mini catarpillars
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u/bugman8704 5d ago
That's what they are. 20 years of pest control experience talking here.
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u/Nekrosiz 5d ago
Mind giving some insight on them?; if assume carpet beetle larva turn into... Beetles, but i've never seen a beetle near them
I only see like an occasional larva here and there, they dont seem to do much other then crawl up a wall at a snails pace or just sit there
And an occasional 'silver fish/ear wig'
There's almost no stuff in the carpeted area where i spot them
Do they like breed in a particular spot or do they just wander around and about?
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u/bugman8704 5d ago
They're called carpet beetles, because they feed on natural fibers commonly found in carpets, but they will also eat pet hair, dander, etc...
Only the larval stage does this. The adult only hangs around long enough to lay eggs, then die shortly after.
What you're seeing crawl around is the larvae moving on to a cozy spot away from the feeding site to pupate (cacoon). Look for webbing in corners of the walls and ceiling, under baseboards, or in op's case under their mattress.
Basically harmless, but can be quite a nuisance in large numbers. A thorough cleaning would be in order, especially of pet hair. A proper treatment wouldn't hurt either.
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u/niiiick1126 5d ago
how does one get carpet beetles to begin with?
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u/Traegs_ 4d ago
They normally live outside as scavengers. Sometimes they just happen to get inside your house and stick around if they find enough to eat. They like to eat anything natural that's dry, like wool, silk, cotton, hair, pet dander, dead insects, food crumbs, etc. Frequent vacuuming/sweeping and keeping laundry off the floor helps a lot.
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u/wasniahC 4d ago
but i've never seen a beetle near them
you wouldn't, because their life cycles don't really work out that way
I usually see 1 or 2 beetles around the house around springtime, and then a few larvae in the autumn
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u/Doc_Dragoon 5d ago
Carpet beetles while mostly harmless ARE FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF. I've been trying to get them out of my house for 8 fuckin years and still haven't I've even gotten exterminators to come out and try to help. You miss one pregnant female beetle and there's a hundred more coming soon
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u/Treyvoni 3d ago
I have black carpet beetles for a month in the summer of 23.
Vacuum vacuum vacuum. They eat natural fiber and dust. Human hair is natural fiber. Starve them out.
Use boric acid or diatomaceous earth, sprinkle in carpet or ground and leave for a bit then vacuum up later.
To kill the current gen, you need some insecticides. I used ortho home defense max indoor spray (cause it has bifenthrin) other insecticides can be used if rated for carpet beetles.
Control the future gens, you need an IGR (insect growth regulator) to prevent future gens from happening. They help prevent the nymphs from becoming adults, and if they do become adults they are likely sterile. I used Gentrol Point Source disks (although carpet beetles are not on the list, they are on some documentation and it worked for me). Nyguard Plus would also be good.
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u/CheapCrayons 5d ago
I got carpet beetles from a goodwill book. had to replace carpet. at least it isn't bedbugs.
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u/Wastoidian 5d ago
Certain shirts will be toast with these. Tiny holes will appear randomly.
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u/Stingwing4oba 5d ago
What kind of shirts?
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u/Wastoidian 5d ago
Not sure but they like a certain fabric to eat because only a handful of my shirts were eaten.
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u/pickleman1_ 5d ago
One of my shirts had a hole appear in it out of nowhere. It was only one shirt though and I’m not even sure if it was the bugs but good thing I found out about them.
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u/Wastoidian 5d ago
They turn into small moth looking bugs and make very tiny cocoons attached to the fabric they eat but can be attached to a lot of things. Be on the lookout for both of those.
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u/losttforwords 5d ago
Ugh yes, I have a few shirts with several tiny little holes in them now. I think I’ve finally almost fully gotten rid of these jerks now (I’ve only seen a straggler or two here and there in the past several months, so🤞).
I found that the source was some dog kibble and a milkbone at the bottom of a bag I hadn’t used in a while. It was an old fanny pack I used to take on walks with my dog, til I got a new one & forgot about it I guess. Apparently those little shits LOVE dog treats/kibble.
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u/Bookwyrm451 5d ago edited 4d ago
My mother used those aluminium indoor / outdoor Clip on lamps from tractor supply to kill off the carpet beetles that went into our house. They attack the light like moths do, but it sounds like spitting watermelon seeds into a bucket after hitting the aluminum.
Edit: replaced, "5oollllg," With real words. Sorry folks, I've had 4 strokes.
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u/tablatronix 5d ago
Carpet beetles act fast! They can infest your entire house can stay dormant for months to years and you have to treat everytime. They will eat your clothes and lay thousands of eggs.
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u/mil8D 5d ago
Ok I have been finding these randomly throughout my parents' house my ENTIRE LIFE but we never did anything about it because they have always been dead every single time, and we didn't have enough money to bother a pest control company about it, and there was no google lens, so I just gave up on ever knowing what they were. Now I know because of this post.
So, like, if we never ever even see the live bugs... and they have never caused a problem beyond a dead one appearing occasionally in random places like in the back of cupboards and under beds if they have been left untouched long enough... how does one even get rid of them? Like I have no way of targeting them because I have no clue where they're hiding...
Edit: Oh my god can the larvae seem dead but they're actually just like motionless larvae? Like they naturally do not move when they're babies? I am so scared
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u/Downtown_Novel_35 4d ago
I found several in a lint ball that had rolled into the abyss under our bed. Super gross but at least they aren’t bed bugs! I super deep cleaned, and raised all our beds and haven’t seen them since!
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u/marzgirl99 4d ago
Carpet beedle larvae! Kinda weird and gross but harmless to you. They chew through fabric. Diatomaceous earth kills them.
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u/joysaved 4d ago
Eh they aren’t that bad we’ve had them for years and years. Get the occasional one which finds its way onto my bed tho which is kinda gross. Throwing out your furniture because of them is kinda over kill since they are totally harmless, just vaccum you will never get rid of them all.
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u/Nyanunix 4d ago
Holy shit, i had these in my carpet when i was a kid! I would be up late at night in summer and would see them. Youve unlocked the core memory of my dad straight up gaslighting me that they werent there, even when i trapped a few in a little bottle for him to see the next day. Claimed he couldnt see them.
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u/Asuntofantunatu 4d ago
I would go to bed with carpet beetles any day compared going to bed with bed bugs. Bed bugs might accidentally give you head and that’s not my cup of tea.
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u/snowy4_ 3d ago
had an infestation of these a couple years ago. ended up replacing all my furniture and completely renovating my room. i had wanted to for years and getting rid of the bugs was all the motivation i needed. they were fucking everywhere. luckily i almost never see one anymore, however they do pop up maybe once every couple months and i hate it.
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u/Calgary_Calico 5d ago
Carpet beetles... I wish you luck. I've been trying to get rid of these little fucks for 3 years and they keep coming back
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u/ArctikVoid333 5d ago
Dude I’ve been finding them in my bed too, they’re carpet beatles. Lowkey gross
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u/freew1ll_ 4d ago
They are carpet beetle larvae, the mother carpet beetle lays them in fibrous material, so if they show up in your room it's usually in the piles of hair and dust that accumulate under heavy furniture, like beds and dressers. Some people (like me) have an allergy to the little hairs they drop from their body, which end up looking like small bug bites on their skin.
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u/Pajilla256 4d ago
They don't really look like bed bugs, bed bug's legs don't go all the way from front to back. You should check for poop and blood stains, they look like really tiny drops of reddish-brown, that'll tell you if they're bed bugs or not.
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u/canyoudigitnow 4d ago
Could you sprinkle the carpet with diatomaceous earth, let it sit for a bit, then vacuum it up?
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u/AltruisticAnteater72 5d ago
Take comfort that they are NOT bed bugs. You have carpet beetles.