“Infesting” is a bit of hyperbole but honestly I got lots and lots of these little fuckers running around my place (sorry for the bad pic…the two brown ones on the upper right…not the gnat on the upper left).
I have no idea what they are. They seem totally harmless but I do not want them. There are dozens (literally) lying dead by my windows. I sweep them up regularly.
I have, near as I can tell, determined they are coming from the potted house plants I have. I have used poison and combed through every plant spraying poison to kill them.
The poison seems to work to an extent. They come out and they die (leaving me to sweep them up). But, in true bug fashion, the little bastards are prolific and even if I manage to kill 99% of them that 1% repopulates in short order and I am back at square one.
I have nice plants and some are not cheap so I’d rather not resort to throwing everything out. While these buggers are annoying it is not exactly awful but definitely annoying.
Any ideas on how to rid myself of them?
Also, out of curiosity, anyone know what they are?
There’s not nearly enough detail in that pic to tell what they are, unfortunately. I can actually easier identify the fungus gnat you pointed out than the other ones.
Are your houseplants showing symptoms of any problems? If they’re coming from there, we may be more able to identify them from plant symptoms than from the pic.
I think you might have an infestation of black carpet beetles. They are known to come into houses from flowers, and they also hang around windows. In their larval stages, they feed on organic fabrics like wool, cotton and pet hair, and they shed little caterpillar-like skins, which you might find in corners of your house or in your closets.
In the second link I provided, you will find a picture of an adult black carpet beetle. These are usually less than 3 mm in size. Might I suggest sprinkling some food-grade diatomaceous earth around your plants?
I suppose you could re-pot the plants. Discard all the old soil, rinse the roots, rinse the pots, and re-pot with new soil. That’s all I got. Also, I’m a big fan of the DE.
So that’s what those things are. I never connected the fact that the beatles and the lavae were the same creature.
As an aside, people frequently recommend diatomaceous earth for pest problems, but I can’t find it in stores anywhere…which makes me think I’m looking in the wrong places rather than no stores carry it. It’s not with pesticides and insecticides, so what part of stores like Lowes and Home Depot should I be looking for it in? And should I be looking for a bag, jug, or box? I’d really like to find it so next spring’s pansies aren’t all eaten by slugs too.
I’m not sure you can find it in those particular stores. You can order it online, from Amazon.com and here. Just make sure you get the food-grade type, as the pool-filter type is crystallized and is not recommended.
That also matches the OP’s statement that they come out and they die - might not be anything to do with the pesticides - woodlice tend to die of dehydration indoors.
I got infested by grain weevils a few weeks back. They look similar to your little black bugs, but I don’t see the little proboscis in your pictures. If you want a better look, tear off a strip of duct tape and gently put it over your bug, then lift it up. They’ll wave their legs around helplessly and give you lots of time to examine them.
The grain weevils were quite prolific, but controlling them was just a matter of removing the food source, cleaning well, and spraying the baseboards. Turns out they were attracted to a container of birdseed I had that wasn’t quite air-tight.
