# Strange particles on mattress cover
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 26, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659 "2016-12-26T18:17:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Paxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paxx)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/1 "2016-12-26T18:17:03Z")
This morning, I was taking apart my bed and I noticed some strange particles on the mattress cover.
They are brownish, smooth and quasi-cylindrical, hard and brittle. About 2 mm, or less than 1/10 of an inch.
Doesn’t look like bed bug feces or anything to do with dust mites.
Here are three photos: [Microsoft OneDrive - Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online.](https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnbRIHr8uTj_gsdbabwJRVrojFMmwQ)
What do you think they are?
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### Author:  [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/2 "2016-12-26T18:45:35Z")
Looks like pieces of the dried out shell of a centipede type insect. It was probably crawling up the wall, fell, and died.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/3 "2016-12-27T03:00:13Z")
Could be cricket poop.
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/4 "2016-12-27T03:51:13Z")
It looks like something I would brush off and never think of again.
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### Author:  [@Paxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paxx)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/5 "2016-12-27T04:15:54Z")
I’ve never seen anything like it and there was quite a bit, so I am still thinking of it, even after I washed the various layers of bed covering.
> [@voltaire](#):
>
> Looks like pieces of the dried out shell of a centipede type insect.
The pieces were solid, not hollow.
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### Author:  [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/6 "2016-12-28T19:00:14Z")
[Carpet Beetle larvae.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=carpet%20beetles%20larvae'&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=carpet%20beetles%20larvae&sc=6-21&sp=-1&sk=)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2016, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-particles-on-mattress-cover/775659/7 "2016-12-29T09:55:30Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#):
>
> [Carpet Beetle larvae.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=carpet%20beetles%20larvae'&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=carpet%20beetles%20larvae&sc=6-21&sp=-1&sk=)
The OPs pictures are fairly consistent with available online pictures of carpet beetle droppings (not the larvae themselves).
Some kind of insect dropping almost for sure. Not bedbugs.