I found this bug in my bed this afternoon. Link. It’s about 8mm long. It was crawling pretty quickly and resisted being captured and killed. I’ve googled bed bugs, silver fish, earwigs, termites etc and can’t find anything that matches very clearly. Since the head end is somewhat translucent, I’m wondering if it’s an immature whatever it is.
I stayed in a motel a couple of days ago so I’m quite concerned that I might have imported something. I also have a cat that gets on the bed so she might have brought something inside as well.
If it helps, I’m in southwest Oklahoma. My trip was to northern Oklahoma. There are no reports of bed bugs at the hotel where I stayed. My son just returned from college so who knows what he might have brought back with him.
It’s a winged termite that has shed its wings. You can see the stumps of the shed wings on its back. Winged termites (male and female) undergo mating flights and afterwards land and shed their wings. They then look for a place to found a colony.
Not necessarily. It may have come in from outside.
When they reproduce, termite nests launch many thousands of winged reproductives at the same time. If you have found only one, then the colony probably isn’t inside your house. If it was you would probably find dozens.
Check the eaves of your house and garage for dry rot.
If you have a crawl space, you might need someone to go underneath the house (shuddering) to knock down the mud tubes that termites construct from the soil to the underside of the flooring.
Also check window sills, under sinks in cabinets, anywhere there might be an opening to the insides of your walls. They’ll be pouring out if they are from your house. You may still need an exterminator even if you don’t see more obvious signs of infestation. They can stay hidden from casual looks for a long time.
My termite signs were wings and dead termites on window sills, and termite poop (little pellets) in the bathroom from kick-out holes. It’s exactly what it sounds like…they poke a hole in the wall to get rid of their crap.
I opted for spot treatment - the termite guy drilled holes in the wall and injected chemicals, then went into the crawl space above it and sprayed an area.
