# Tiny brown bugs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 30, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495 "2016-04-30T12:52:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/1 "2016-04-30T12:52:39Z")
In my windowsill. That’s the only place they live. They look exactly like tiny little seeds. That’s what I thought they were at first, but then they started crawling around when I disturbed them. They mostly don’t seem to move at all.
I remove them periodically and throw them out, but they always come back after a while. Well, presumably not the same ones, but new ones appear. There’s about a spoonful worth of them at a time. There aren’t any in my pantry or anywhere else in the apartment, they just hang out in that one place.
Any guesses for what they are? Anything I need to worry about? They don’t really bother me, but it seems a bit weird that they keep coming back.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/2 "2016-04-30T13:28:53Z")
look up
cigar beetles
carpet beetles
verigated carpet beetles
Do they fly? You said they’re not in your pantry, I assume you checked the grains…check the sweet stuff, when I had them (I’ll find that link), I found a lot more of them in things like chocolate than pasta. If you have any chocolate bars, chocolate chips, bowls of candy… check that.
I’ll have to see if the links to my videos and pictures still work.
> **[What are these very tiny bugs?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=636270)**
>
> Can you tell from these very tiny pictures and this videoI took of one walking (quite quickly and with a bit of a waddle) what this little bug is? It’s dark brown and about an 1/8th of an inch long. I’ve been finding them in my house lately. At a...
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/3 "2016-04-30T13:34:03Z")
I showed the picture to an Orkin guy I know, he’s the one that mentioned either Cigar Beetles (I’m not sure if that’s a reference to the shape or them liking or traveling with tobacco) or a ‘stored product pest’ which seems to be code for ‘you brought it in with something, it didn’t come in on it’s own’ and sort of left it at that.
Mine looked like a brown carpet beetle, but never ruined anything. I think the Orkin guy was right, just some kind of ‘stored product pest’ and when I cleaned out my pantry (they were in some of the grains as well as the chocolate) it more or less cleared up.
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/4 "2016-04-30T15:37:17Z")
Impossible to definitively answer without a pic.
That being said, I’d guess psocids ([booklice](https://livingwithinsects.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/living-with-booklice/)).
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/5 "2016-04-30T16:20:56Z")
> [@mozchron](#):
>
> Impossible to definitively answer without a pic.
Yeah, sorry, I should have included one in the OP. I’m having a hard time getting a good pic, though. They’re really tiny bugs, and I just have my crappy phone camera.
Best I could do: [Behold, bugs.](http://i.imgur.com/WnupxpR.jpg) The USB connector is for size comparison.
The topmost bug is on his back, I think I flipped him over pushing him into frame. They were all trying to run away, silly little buggers. As I said, they mostly don’t move, but when I try to make them pose for a picture, of course they don’t want to cooperate.
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/6 "2016-04-30T16:26:21Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#):
>
> Yeah, sorry, I should have included one in the OP. I’m having a hard time getting a good pic, though. They’re really tiny bugs, and I just have my crappy phone camera.
>
> Best I could do: [Behold, bugs.](http://i.imgur.com/WnupxpR.jpg) The USB connector is for size comparison.
>
> The topmost bug is on his back, I think I flipped him over pushing him into frame. They were all trying to run away, silly little buggers. As I said, they mostly don’t move, but when I try to make them pose for a picture, of course they don’t want to cooperate.
A bit hard to say exactly, but I think maybe Attagenus smirnovi (brown carpet beetle). Where are you located?
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/7 "2016-04-30T16:33:56Z")
> [@mozchron](#):
>
> A bit hard to say exactly, but I think maybe Attagenus smirnovi (brown carpet beetle). Where are you located?
I’m in Norway. They do look like your carpet beetle!
If that’s what they are, they eat
> [@](#):
>
> wool-textiles, carpets, skin and fur
according to Wiki. I guess I can let them munch on my curtains, if that’s what they’re doing. Seems harmless enough.
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/8 "2016-04-30T16:34:34Z")
Norway? Yep - Attagenus smirnovi. Its a pest in Europe and the UK. If you said USA I’d look for a different pest.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/9 "2016-04-30T16:37:14Z")
> [@mozchron](#):
>
> Norway? Yep - Attagenus smirnovi. Its a pest in Europe and the UK. If you said USA I’d look for a different pest.
Cool. Thanks!
How do they keep reappearing in the same place the way they do? Are they breeding inside the walls, or something?
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/10 "2016-04-30T16:39:20Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#):
>
> Cool. Thanks!
>
> How do they keep reappearing in the same place the way they do? Are they breeding inside the walls, or something?
Do you have wallpaper?
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/11 "2016-04-30T16:51:09Z")
> [@mozchron](#):
>
> Do you have wallpaper?
Well, yes.
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### Author:  [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-brown-bugs/753495/12 "2016-04-30T16:58:19Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#):
>
> Well, yes.
Check the wallpaper around the windowsill where you see them - my guess is they’re breeding behind it.