# Ew! Ew! Ew! What Is This Bug???? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166 "2006-11-20T16:18:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/1 "2006-11-20T16:18:22Z")
I’m steam cleaning the carpet in the guest room & found a couple of tablespoons of [THESE](http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/GeezerMom/bugs/?sc=1&addtype=local) when I emptied the tank. They look just like dark sesame seeds, with a little dark spot at one end and maybe the suggestion of legs (or some kind of cilia). No head, but the body has striations (wrinkles?) in the shell. WTF is this? Ewww, now I’m starting to itch! We had that bed in storage for several months before moving to this house - along with a chair, which my husband hauled to the curb last night. I swear, I’m allergic to stuff that was stored! When we were unpacking our moving boxes from storage this past winter, I had a terrible time breathing! And now, every time someone opens the door to that room, I start sneezing & wheezing. Nobody else complains, though, and we HAVE had repeat guests - husband thinks it’s all in my head. Google gave me bedbugs (they don’t look that fat) or termites (no wings, though, and no separate head). Scary thing is, all I cleaned was the visible floor (I didn’t move any furniture), and that room has white carpeting. I can’t see a doggone thing. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/2 "2006-11-20T16:38:45Z")
If all you cleaned was the floor, could they be carpet beetles? We had them in a room we used to store junk while we were renovating part of the house - it looked like someone had spilled uncooked rice on the floor but apparently it was beetles. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/3 "2006-11-20T16:43:22Z")
Perhaps the tank wasn’t cleaned first - is it a rental stem-cleaner? Joe ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/4 "2006-11-20T16:50:17Z")
No, we own it - I cleaned dh’s office first. My girlfriends swear it’s bedbugs. Ewww! ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/5 "2006-11-20T21:04:03Z")
I can’t quite make out what they are from your photos, but they look somewaht like the larvae of carpet beetles [Link](http://entomology.unl.edu/images/storedfoods/sfbeetles/varcarpbtl_larv1.jpg). Not dangerous, and they are everywhere! You just rarely see them. ---
**Author:** ![Axxon2wire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5daacb/32.png) [@Axxon2wire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Axxon2wire)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/6 "2006-11-20T21:10:47Z")
[QUOTE=TwoTrouts] You just rarely see them. [/QUOTE] Well, thank God for that. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/7 "2006-11-20T22:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=TwoTrouts] I can’t quite make out what they are from your photos, but they look somewaht like the larvae of carpet beetles [Link](http://entomology.unl.edu/images/storedfoods/sfbeetles/varcarpbtl_larv1.jpg). Not dangerous, and they are everywhere! You just rarely see them. [/QUOTE] Bleeeech!! Sorry about the lousy pix (arr-arr) - my needs exceeded the limits of my camera phone. They do look more like the carpet beetles than bedbugs, except they tend to have just one dark line along the perimeter, and I can’t see a bunch of legs, just the merest suggestion of cilia. Plus I haven’t found any adult beetles anywhere, just these things. I did cut the cover off the box spring & inspected along the edge, where I found a bug hidden in the piping. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/8 "2006-11-20T22:43:56Z")
[QUOTE=fessie] Google gave me bedbugs [/QUOTE] You know, this could be construed as libelous. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/9 "2006-11-21T01:58:17Z")
The pictures are a bit too blurry for me to say for sure, but they could be bedbugs. These are apparently [making a big comeback](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0513_040513_bedbugs.html). I speak from bitter experience. There is a simple, if gross, test. Get a strip of masking tape, stick a bug to it (preferably a live or recently dead one), fold the tape on itself, and crush the bug inside it. If you get a bright red bloodstain . . . I’d say it’s a bedbug. ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/10 "2006-11-21T02:35:42Z")
I think they are cooties. Haven’t seen them since the sixth grade. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/11 "2006-11-21T02:40:08Z")
Dammit, now I itch. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/12 "2006-11-21T12:23:07Z")
I think if they were bedbugs, you’d know. They can’t breed without feeding, and they feed by sucking blood out of people. Unless you have been thoroughly chomped on in your sleep, they are unlikely to be bedbugs. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/13 "2006-11-21T12:28:38Z")
Yep, they’re carpet beetles - finally found one that hadn’t gone through the steam cleaner, so it was easier to identify. Bleeech! ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/14 "2006-11-21T19:49:11Z")
Bleh… congratulations on the identification of your pest, **fessie** , and after looking up images of carpet beetles, I finally found that that’s _exactly_ what we had at my parents’ house - things my father always called “wood bugs”. Our adult beetles looked just like [this](http://amol.org.au/recollections/img/photos/a1/t6-1374.jpg), and I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell they were for years. Sometimes we’d find the discarded larvae husks laying around on the carpet or deep in the bottom of random bedroom drawers, yet never once did we make the connection between those creepy, hairy wormy larvae to the grown up black and gold “wood bugs”. :smack: It was such a common bug in my childhood, and I haven’t seen even\* one \* since I moved out west. But thank you, **fessie** , for starting this thread and inadvertently solving one of my life’s little mysteries. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/15 "2006-11-21T20:20:54Z")
Boy, its too bad I missed the speculative portion of the thread 'cause I was taught while working at the vet clinic that things that look like sesame seed on long-haired cats are tapeworm larvae waiting to be eaten. A woman once brought us a whole baggie of them that her son collected out of his bed. He and the cat had been sharing the tapeworms, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/16 "2006-11-21T20:35:01Z")
Ah, well…there went lunch… ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ew-ew-ew-what-is-this-bug/381166/17 "2006-11-22T01:29:12Z")
BWahaha! 😛