Small beetle
Location: Montreal, Quebec
January 29, 2011 7:06 pm
Dear Bugman!
With the bedbug craze currently going on I am very worried because I found this tiny bug on my living room sofa. Please let me know what it is!
Thanks
Signature: Itchy and Scratchy
Probably Carpet Beetle
Hi Itchy and Scratchy,
Rest assured that this is not a Bed Bug. It appears to be one of the Carpet Beetles in the family Dermestidae. You can view examples of Carpet Beetles on BugGuide. Carpet Beetles are considered to be unwanted household pests and many species, because they feed on natural fibers like wool and feathers, can do considerable damage to museum collections as well as household items.
2
Strange cocoon
Location: Finland
January 25, 2011 5:15 pm
Hi there,
I found this strange bug cocoon underneath my fridge and am a bit worried that we’re about to be infested with an alien species. Can you tell me what it is?
Signature: Freaked Out
Mealworm Pupa
Dear Freaked Out,
This is a Beetle pupa, but we are uncertain of the species.
Hiya,
Thanks for replying so quickly. Once you wrote beetle I had a thought.. mealworms. I have baby newts here at the moment and was trying to feed them mealworms, and I reckon the cat got one and dragged it off and now it’s changing into it’s beetle state. Weird looking thing though isn’t it? Thanks for replying, much appreciated!
Thanks,
Lisa
pantry pest
Location: Maryland, January, in kitchen cabinet
January 22, 2011 4:38 pm
I just found these in some rice and other long stored grains that were in plastic bags in one of my kitchenm cabinets. It looked like a mouse had eaten through the bags, but there have been no signs of mice. I have cats so I would have known. The photo of the messed up food is what was inside the bag looked like. It smelled almost like cat urine, but there had been no cats in there. The beetles are just over 1/16 inch long. I couldn’t even tell they had segments or legs until I took the photos. Nothing seemed to be moving until I looked at one with a magnifying glass and it wiggled a little. I haven’t checked the rest of my cupboards yet. Sorry the photos aren’t great.
Signature: Maryland
Infestation in the Pantry
Dear Maryland,
It is difficult to be certain, but it appears that your Pantry Beetles are Flour Beetles in the genus Tribolium. You may compare your photos to images posted to BugGuide. A more detailed closeup image that shows the antennae would be helpful for a more certain identification.
Thanks for your help. I do believe you’re right. As I continue to go through my cabinets if I find any more with antennae intact I will definitely look closely at the antennae.
I love your site.
Mary Sue
Almost cute
Location: Queens, NY
January 6, 2011 10:29 pm
Not sure what it was, but it sure wasn’t in a hurry. Spent most of it’s time stuck in a puddle on my bathroom sink. It was about 1-1.5mm long. (color is correct, yes my bathroom sink is that ugly pistachio color). Sorry for blurry pictures, reverse mounting a lens is not great for handheld shooting.
Signature: Ian
Smooth Spider Beetle
Dear Ian,
Try as we might, we are unable to determine why you consider your fine photographs to be blurry. This is a Smooth Spider Beetle, Gibbium aequinoctiale, and it is a common household intruder that feeds upon stored flour products in the pantry. If you find more individuals, you may want to inspect the old cookies on the back shelf or the crumbs under the cushions of the couch. See BugGuide for additional information.
Smooth Spider Beetle
Is this a springtail?
Location: Baltimore, MD
January 2, 2011 8:30 pm
I keep finding a bunch of seemingly dead bugs just inside my basement door this winter. They are black and tiny –initially I thought it was mouse poop until I got very close. Tonight, I was sweeping them up again, and realized some of them were NOT dead. They look a lot like springtails, but the live ones I saw did not jump, and do not appear to have round heads like in the picture on your site. We are trying to sell the house, so any info is much appreciated!
Signature: Kevin in Baltimore
Grain Weevils
Hi Kevin,
You have Grain Weevils, not Springtails. You may have some stored bird seed or pet food, or possibly a bag of rice in the vicinity that has been infested.
¶ Posted 03 January 2011 § Weevils ‡ ° Unknown bug.
Location: on the coast of Wollongong, New south Wales, Australia
January 2, 2011 5:32 am
Hello, Im Rebecca Mather,
I was doing the dishes tonight and noticed something odd on the dried out spounge. Just under 1 mm long, White several tiny black lines across its body seperating the bug, like a grub or something.
Just curious as to what it is. Our unit is very high up, has those invisible security screens and we have no pets. so im not sure how it got in and if its a potential problem.
If you could identify it, i would be really grateful.
Thank you.
Signature: Rebecca Mather
Carpet Beetle Larvae or Maggots, or something else????
Dear Rebecca,
It is impossible to make an identification based on your photo, but we are guessing that you have either Carpet Beetle Larvae or Fly Maggots. Either might be feeding on organic material that has accumulated on the sponge.
Small red bug
Location: Silver Spring, MD
December 1, 2010 11:03 pm
Hello, thank you for helping me identify this guy. It is the second one I have found. I live in Maryland near DC in an apartment building. I the first one crawling across my wooden floor at a slow pace. This is the second one (found in my kitchen in a large bowl I don’t use).
I saw the first one in May and this one just last week (Late November). I brought it into work and took pictures under the microscope since it is only about 2-3 mm.
Upon first seeing it I thought it was some sort of spider, but then realized it only has 6 legs.
Signature: Thank you for your help!
Spider Beetle
Spider Beetles like the one in your photograph are one of the numerous species of beetles that will infest stored food. You should clean out the pantry.
Black bug in my pantry
Location: Gilbert, AZ
December 4, 2010 4:42 pm
We found these little black bugs in our pantry. They appeared to have eaten rice in a box of uncle ben’s wild rice and it apparently was deadly, because most of them were dead. We live in Gilbert AZ, which is just SE of Phoenix. Thanks.
Signature: Pete
Drugstore Beetle, we believe
Dear Pete,
There are numerous small and unrelated beetles that will infest stored foods in the Pantry, and we unscientifically categorize them as Pantry Beetles. Some are quite difficult to tell apart. We believe this is a Drugstore Beetle, Stegobium paniceum, which you may read about on BugGuide.
Drugstore Beetle to scale
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