brown, black and white bug looks like a ladybug but smaller
May 14, 2010
I found these bugs on my asters and I am wondering if they are harmful to the asters. Reminds me of a ladybug or mabey a beetle. there were several on each flower.
thank you, Tina
downstate, NY about 40 miles north of NYC
Varied Carpet Beetles
Dear Tina,
These are Varied Carpet Beetles, Anthrenus verbasci, a common household pest. According to BugGuide, the larvae of Carpet Beetles “feed [on] keratine and chitine, and may cause considerable damage on wool, fur, feathers, and natural history collections.“ Most of the identification requests we receive at What’s That Bug? are of the larvae or of the emerged adults that congregate around windows in an attempt to gain access to the outdoors. They die on windowsills in great numbers. The adults feed upon pollen and do not cause any damage in the garden or indoors.
Apartment Bug – Manhattan NYC
April 12, 2010
Hi Thanks for your help! I live in a newly renovated apartment in Manhattan, New York and keep coming across these bugs. (image attached). I am concerned that they might be ticks or bed bugs? I usually find them crawling the walls, but found a bunch in a light fixture. Any help identifying them or any risk they may pose? Thanks so much!
Bob from NYC
West Harlem, New York, NY
Spider Beetles
Hi Bob,
You have a sizable infestation of Spider Beetles, Gibbium aequinoctiale. You should check your stored foods as they often infest items in the pantry.
What is this little bug?
April 6, 2010
I found it tonight.
Sleepy Guy
PA
Spider Beetle
This is a Spider Beetle, Gibbium aequinoctiale. According to BugGuide: “This species is a scavenger, feeding on a wide variety of dead plant and animal materials.
It has become a pest by feeding on dry stored products.” You might want to check the pantry to see if they have infested an old box of pancake mix or the forgotten cookies on the top shelf.
Hi Daniel,
Yup that’s right.. thanks for the response.. not happy to hear that though! This is the second one I’ve found in here.
The exterminator will be here tomorrow, that’s for sure.
I guess at least its not a tick, beceause that’s what it sort of resembles.
An exterminator won’t help if they are in the food unless you direct the exterminator to spray the food directly. You need to find out where they are feeding.
oh ok. I think they’re actually living off the wood grain in the ceiling (older building).
I am seeing them all over the place (usually dead (or nearly dead) on the floor, probably from falling).
I have no idea what to do if they’re in the wood ceiling.. but the exterminator is my only hope.
It’s invading my home
April 6, 2010
We get these beetles? in our house whenever it’s not winter. We find them mostly in the bathrooms and in the kitchen under the stove. Thanks,
C. Lloyd
Upstate NY, Saratoga County
Larder Beetle
Dear C. Lloyd,
Larder Beetles, Dermestes lardarius, infest stored foods, but they also do considerable damage to organic museum specimens. Larder Beetles may be found year round, and they have a cosmopolitan distribution. Search the pantry for the infestation.
dark borwn bug small like a lady bug with white dots on and wings.
March 4, 2010
i keep finding them round my room, sometimes on the wall but i have found one in the car. They are really starting to freak me out and was hoping you could tell me what they are.
Help
Bedroom
Blurry Dots or possibly Pantry Beetles
Dear (not terribly) Help(ful),
We believe you may need more help than we are able to provide. A bedroom and a car are not really geographical locations in any way that would provide us with the information we requested in terms of geography, and your photo is pretty much useless for any identification purposes. We can only surmise that you probably have either Pantry Beetles or Carpet Beetles, or perhaps even both.
LITTLE TINY BROWN BUGS
February 21, 2010
bugs are found in our laundry room most commonly. found more feeding on the dog treats in the cupboard. they were boring holes in the food. clinging to the towl in the cupboard. most of them are crawling up walls towward the white ceiling and light
Pat
columbus ohio
probably Drugstore Beetle
Hi Pat,
Numerous small beetles infest stored food products, and the Kendall Research website pictures many of them. Your photo is not ideal for conclusive identification, but we believe this is most probably a Drugstore Beetle, Stegobium paniceum. The West Virginia University extension website has a good pdf document on the Drugstore Beetle, and you may also view BugGuide for more photos and descriptions.
Thank you for your help. I think you are correct and as soon as I can further inspect a bug I will know for sure. Thanks again. Pat
Concerned a little
February 18, 2010
Hi,
I’m not a bug enthusiast by any means so I have no idea what this bug is. It seems to look like a minute lady bug-like insect. Colors seem speckled with gray and dark red/brown with wings. Tentacles too.
It must have fallen on to me at some point during the day as it fell out of my hair when I rinsed my face. It fell into the sink. I have no idea how it got on to me. That day I was painting indoors and had a hat on most of the day except when I ran out, but was painting a very old dirty room, maybe it was in there.
this was 2 days ago.
It was below freezing.
This couldn’t carry a disease right?
Thanks for your help
nycreptile
NY/CT
Carpet Beetle
Dear nycreptile,
This is a Carpet Beetle in the genus Anthrenus, a common household insect. It does not carry disease, but they may cause considerable damage to wool, fur, feathers and natural history collections.
So you think you’ve got bedbugs? Don’t jump the gun.
February 3, 2010
Dear Bugman,
Thank you for just being you. This is a wonderful blog. I will spare you my gushing, but suffice it to say that this experience has turned me from a bug hater to a bug enthusiast! Here’s my little story:
I was doing a little(overdue) cleaning under my bed last Sunday, and pulled out a cotton sock that had little bugs on it. I admit, I panicked. I found more in and on a broken umbrella that I meant to throw away, and immediately ran to bag those things and put them outside. I have noticed that bedbugs have been getting a lot of press these days, so I assumed that’s what they were. I completely flipped out and commenced to cleaning my whole room top to bottom, baseboards first. I found another smaller nest of them under/behind st of drawers on a couple of cotton balls in a little nest of cathair, human hair, and dust. I have two cats that live indoors, so my bedroom had quite a bit of cathair on the floor. Gross, I know, but these bugs were loving it I guess. It’s like a Vegas buffet in there!
Anyway, I did a lot of internet research after I flipped out (bagging my mattresses and boiling my sheets) and began to think that maybe I had something that’s not a bedbug.
I hadn’t gotten any real bites that I was aware of, but I deduced the ‘bedbugs’ must be feeding off my cat, Prissy, who happens to have a bald, itchy belly right now. I also found one, lone bug between my boxpring and mattress. I found a few more around the plastic reinforcing corner on my boxspring. That was my confirmation that I needed to evacuate. Besides that, I was itching like crazy just thinking about them.
Today I finally found a few that I had not yet dispatched (sorry) so we had a little photoshoot. They are either very sleepy or dead, because the ones that were not just casings (or skeletons) don’t move a lot that I can tell.
While I was under my chest of drawers (also wood, like my headboard, and used) I saw a brighter, more active bug with orangey black striped/spotted wings. Again, I was freaking when I saw that, so into the trash it went.
After I looked at the pictures I took, I thought I may have carpet beetle larvae instead of the dreaded bedbug. I am praying that you can confirm this! Thanks for your time, and keep up the great work.
Jen in TN
Pulaski, Tennessee, USA (Mid-South USA)
Carpet Beetle Larvae
Good Morning Jen,
It must give you such pleasure to awake in such a clean bedroom. If only we would be similarly inspired to thoroughly clean our own room, we would probably find some Carpet Beetle Larvae as well. Goodness knows how many we would find in our own cat’s favorite hiding place in the back of the closet. You are correct that these are Carpet Beetle Larva. We wanted to direct your attention to another letter from our archives, and we couldn’t locate it, so we are transferring the information from our old computer to the new computer and reposting as it seems to have gotten lost in the site migration. Thanks so much for your highly entertaining contribution.
Carpet Beetle Larva
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