WTF
Location: Long Island NY
December 11, 2011 4:08 pm
Hey! So we found these creepy lil suckers in the basement of a Long Island home that has a back and frontyard. To me, it looks like the offspring of a spider, cricket and a bee. Any thoughts?
Signature: Sleeping with a Flashlight
Camel Crickets
Dear Sleeping with a Flashlight,
We didn’t have any new letters to post today, so we turned to our backlog of unanswered questions. Your letter arrived just prior to the end of the semester and holiday rush, and we didn’t have a chance to respond in a timely manner. It seems you might have an infestation of Camel Crickets in your basement. Camel Crickets are basically harmless creatures that will not bite you or your pets, but they may do minor damage to stored items if they get plentiful. According to BugGuide, the best way to get rid of them is to remove their habitat, piles of clutter including logs and boards that might be in the basement. Also reducing the humidity will make the basement inhospitable.
Camel Crickets
Small bug found on guest bed!
Location: Central FL
January 15, 2012 10:53 pm
I found this bug while changing the bedsheets on our guest bed. It hasn’t been used for almost a year and I have been doing some cleaning in there. I went in today to lay down some clean sheets and found this little guy on the foam topper that lays on the mattress. I really hope it’s not a bedbug! I searched the creases of the mattress and between the mattress and box spring but couldn’t find anything else. I have guests coming in four days. Should I be worried?
Signature: Elizabeth
Carpet Beetle
Dear Elizabeth,
In our opinion, this appears to be one of the Carpet Beetles in the family Dermestidae, a group that includes many household pests. Many of the Carpet Beetles look very similar, and yours is a close match to a Megatoma variegata which we found on BugGuide, though it is only represented on BugGuide from the western states. We are not terribly concerned with the range report on BugGuide as Carpet Beetles tend to be cosmopolitan in their distributions. Carpet Beetles feed on a wide variety of organic fibers and substances including wool rugs an upholstery, taxidermy specimens, fur coats, museum specimens, pet hair and even stored foods. They will not bite your house guests.
Thanks for getting back in a timely manner! Glad to hear it isn’t anything serious. Thanks again!
Bug problem
Location: Minnesota
January 12, 2012 9:22 pm
Hi, there is a bug that my fiance and I have seen in our apartment a few different times now. We’ve lived here since November and spotted it originally the first week we were here. Then we haven’t seen it since then, until today (1/12/12). We saw one crawling on the wall in the bedroom and took a picture of it then attempted to smash it, except it escaped under the carpet. Then a little bit later (probably 10 minutes) we saw what appeared to be a smaller (maybe a baby?) version of the same bug crawling on the same wall. So I’m hoping you can help identify what it is and if we should be concerned about an infestation or anything else. Thank you.
Signature: Jeremy W
Silverfish
Hi Jeremy,
You may have a Silverfish problem. They are household pests that eat a wide variety of organic items in the home including the glue in book bindings and wall paper. Interestingly, when we tried to name your photo, we found that last January we received an email from someone named Jeremy who moved into a new apartment with his wife and found they had Silverfish. Coincidence or not? We wonder.
That was not me last January, but interesting coincidence. So what do I do about a silverfish problem?
Hi again Jeremy,
We do not give extermination advice, however, it is our understanding that they are extremely difficult to eradicate.
1
UCB- Unidentified Crawling Bug
Location: Charleston, SC
December 18, 2011 7:36 pm
Dear Bugman,
I see these little things crawling around, mainly on the first floor of our house. This is one of the biggest that I’ve seen. What is it?
Signature: Brian from Charleston
Silverfish
Hi Brian,
This is a Silverfish, a common household pest. They will eat many stored foods and even some items not normally thought of as food, like the starch in book bindings and wallpaper adhesives. Silverfish are generally found in damp, dark locations.
1
household bug
Location: ireland, dublin – ceiling and under beds
November 30, 2011 3:42 pm
dear mr. bugman
for many years now i have had these white small 1cm size chrysalis hanging from my ceiling and now i have uncovered them under the beds, along with oodles of small black piles…? they seem to like leather and clothing under the beds but i have never seen them produce anything like a moth or worm? can you advise
I do not think them any harm but wonder if they contribute to my asthma and allergies, dust mites etc
Signature: debbie m
Case Bearing Moth Larvae
Dear Debbie,
These are Case Bearing Moth Larvae, a common creature found in homes worldwide. While we do not believe they contribute directly to your asthma, they often feed on organic debris like shed hair from pets as well as people. The accumulation of debris under beds and various other places might be contributing to your asthma, and the Case Bearing Moth Larvae are just symptoms of a pre-existing dust problem in your home.
Case Bearing Moth Larvae
Really interesting! Do you mean the moth lives inside the casing and moves about in it? As I have never seen any moths in the house or anything emerge from them? Are they living and moving about in the white case
Kind regards
Debbie Millington
Hi again Debbie,
The case is spun by the larva and occasionally incorporates sand and debris in its construction. The larva lives in the case. Eventually the larva will pupate in the case. Perhaps they have never had a chance to emerge as tiny adult moths because you have discovered them and cleaned them away. It is possible that Case Bearing Moth Larvae my eat organic fibers and protein, hence being considered Household Pests.
1
What type of bug is this please?
Location: Buffalo, NY
December 1, 2011 1:58 pm
What type of bug is this please?
I added my correct email address. Previous one was misspelled. Thanks!
Signature: Dev
Bed Bug
Dear Dev,
First we apologize for the delay. We have a small staff and we are unable to respond to all the requests that we receive. Our identification requests are at their lowest with the arrival of winter in North America, so we are trying to catch up on some unanswered mail. Had we responded sooner, you might have begun taking steps to ensure that you do not develop an infestation. We get many frantic requests to identify creatures found in beds because of growing internet and journalistic coverage on increasing populations of Bed Bugs, especially in urban centers. Most of those identification requests are false alarms, however in your case, we believe you have a real Bed Bug. You should probably seek some professional assistance if you have any indication that there are more Bed Bugs at the location where this individual was found.
¶ Posted 30 December 2011 § Bedbugs ‡ ° Also tagged: What is This?
Location: Glenview, IL
November 7, 2011 4:29 pm
Found these bugs on the outside of paper bags of wheat in our basement
Signature: Brittany Priz
Booklice
Hi Brittany,
You have Booklice tiny insects that are often found in homes, especially damp cellars and garages. According to Charles Hogue in his wonderful book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin: “The most common is the true Book Louse (Liposcelis bostrychophila), a cosmopolitan pest for the food industry, households, museums, and libraries. Although it is a contributor to the allergens found in house dust and its feeding may do minor damage to book bindings and paper, the presence of the Book Louse is usually no more than an annoyance. Out of doors, this species lives on woody vegetation, on fungi in gournd litter, in soil, or in animal nests.” See BugGuide for additional photos.
Booklice
1
Greyish Beetle?
Location: Calgary AB Canada
December 13, 2011 11:48 pm
Hi There
I’ve seen this bug all over the house and am wondering if you can identify it. Thanks!
Signature: Chelsey
Tick
Tick
Thank you for your speedy reply. We believe (and hope) they are coming off our dog. Most of them have been spotted in his favourite areas (dog bed, our bed, couch). Thinking back now I have also seen the smaller, baby-type ones. I thought it was just a small spider hiding in the trim/moulding around the doors. Thanks again for identifying it.
-Chelsey
Hi again Chelsey,
Sometimes in an attempt to provide as many responses as possible, we just provide a name to a request that we do not post. We had a few spare minutes this morning so we are posting your letter and photo in the belief it may help other visitors to our site identify Ticks which are often found in homes at the onset of colder weather. They most likely did come indoors by hitching on your dog.
Thanks Daniel. We took our dog to the vet and the vet spent 2 hours taking 25 ticks off him. Since then we have found about an additional 10 on him. We’ve scrubbed our house, finding probably 50 ticks (all sizes and shapes but mostly small/baby ones) and finding eggs as well..we’re hoping the cleaning will help prevent them from coming back.
Fortunately neither myself or my husband have been bit, just my dog. We did find one attempting to bite my rabbit as well but he couldn’t burrow far enough to reach the skin past the thick fur.
Do you know what their resistance to cold weather is? It’s floating around -5 degrees Celsius right now (at night going to about -10) and we bagged all of our clothes and put them on our porch, until we are able to wash them, in an effort to try and kill any hiding in our clothing.
We were shocked to hear our local exterminators had no tips on trying to get them out of the house. It’s unheard-of to have a tick infestation here. haha what luck I guess?
Thanks again
-Chelsey
Hi Chelsey,
Alas, we don’t know what the Ticks tolerance to low temperatures is. Many insects and arthropods can withstand low temperatures for short periods of time.
¶ Posted 16 December 2011 § Ticks ‡ ° Also tagged: 
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