Is this a bed bug?
Location: Chicago north side
July 7, 2011 10:36 pm
People at work have reported an infestation but the company has not publicly addressed it. I found this bug tonight at work and I’m freaking out. I didn’t believe it at first but now I’m scared.
Signature: Thank you, jp
Bed Bug
Dear jp,
We hope you don’t work in a mattress factory or hotel. Generally, when we get frantic requests from folks wondering if they have found a Bed Bug, it is a false alarm. You, on the other hand, have correctly identified a Bed Bug. We would strongly urge you to have your company deal with the matter, and until the infestation has been resolved, use extreme caution transporting things from work to home. You might want to consider not bringing belongings like purses or jackets to work as Bed Bugs are notorious stowaways. Good luck with this problem.
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¶ Posted 08 July 2011 § Bedbugs ‡ ° Also tagged: Need This Bug Identified, Please
Location: Western New York State
July 8, 2011 7:02 am
Hi! I’m glad I stumbled upon your site. I’m having a problem this year with these particular bugs (beetles, perhaps?) in my home. Once, wandering around in the bathtub and three times scooting around on the kitchen floor. I’ve never seen these before, well, at least not IN my house! What exactly am I dealing with here?
Signature: Betty
Yellow Mealworm Beetle
Hi Betty,
Check the pantry. This looks like an adult Yellow Mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. The larvae are often sold in pet stores as live food for lizards and other small carnivorous pets. The larvae will also infest stored foods like cereals and grains. There may be a box of long expired food on the back shelf in the pantry that is hosting a thriving Mealworm population. Not eating your oatmeal fast enough? You can verify this identification on BugGuide.
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flies
Location: St. Louis, MO
June 22, 2011 10:55 am
Recently my family and I have noticed flies in our kitchen. (They look bigger
than normal houseflies, and are showing up in great numbers.) We don’t know
where they are coming from or what type they are. The flies have red eyes, red
head, and a hairy body.
-The Fogarty Family
Signature: The Fogarty Family
Flesh Fly
Dear Fogarty Family,
You have Flesh Flies. Some species breed in rotting meat and others breed in other types of rotting organic matter. In our Glassell Park studio in the 1980s, we had a horrible infestation of Flesh Flies that bred in the rotting potatoes under the kitchen sink. Take out the garbage more frequently especially when the weather is especially warm.
Attack of the flies!
Location: Pleasanton, CA
June 20, 2011 3:45 pm
Before this morning, I haven’t seen more than 2 flies in my home at one time. Last night the coast was clear and then this morning I woke up to my hallway covered in these suckers. They look like house flies but gray and probably like 5 times bigger. At first none of them were flying, only crawling around like a spider would but then when it started to get warmer during the day they flew all over. I took to the internet and tried to identify the best I could and the closest I saw was a stable fly. Um, how and why?! Orkin man came later on in the day and sprayed and said that I had nothing to worry about that it’s not what I think it is. He told me that it’s just a bigger version of a green house fly. I was comforted until he said that because it looks nothing like that! These things are resilient too. I sprayed one with Windex and Pinsol and then stomped on it and it was still squirming!
These are the best pictures that I could get since all the other ones I killed have all their guts smashed out and markings are not quite visible any longer.
Please tell me I’m wrong in thinking that this is a stable fly. I would love to be wrong. And/or tell me that I’m overreacting to the dangers. I keep thinking that I’ll go to sleep tonight just to wake up to welts from bites and have more of these suckers on the wall and everywhere around me!
Signature: Scared and paranoid
Flesh Fly
Dear Scared and paranoid,
We hope we are able to comfort you by telling you that this is NOT a Stable Fly, though our actual identification might send you over the edge. This is a Flesh Fly in the family Sarcophagidae. We also don’t believe the Orkin Man solved your problem, though we are certain he had no problems separating you from your money. All he could succeed in doing was to kill the living Flesh Flies that had emerged in your home, but he could do nothing to prevent future occurrences. Flesh Flies do not bite and the adults do not pose any threat to you. Flesh Flies breed in decaying organic matter, including decomposing animals. Perhaps there was a dead animal in the walls which resulted in your Flesh Fly invasion. When the weather is warm, Flesh Flies may breed very quickly in decaying food like meat bones and fat or fish carcasses in the garbage can that has not been properly emptied. Once, we had some rotten potatoes under the sink and that proved to be a breeding ground for Flesh Flies. You need to locate the source of the invasion, though Flesh Flies will not continue to breed in a carcass once it has passed a certain stage of decomposition. Generally, once the original infestation has occurred, you do not need to worry about subsequent invasions. See BugGuide for additional information on Flesh Flies.
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Tiny Black Beetle Like Bug
Location: Southern California (Huntington Beach .5 mile from beach)
June 16, 2011 6:17 pm
It is a tiny black bug (less than cenitimeter) that looks simliary to an Emperor Beetle. They are numerous and come out from under the stove and stairs. Exterminator did not know what it was.
Signature: What does this mean?
Grain Weevils
I figured it out. It was a weevil. No need for your assistance. Thank you,
The signature on our form is the place you put the name you would like to be posted with your letter. Some people provide their entire given name, and others prefer to sign with initials. Some of our readers provide a clever moniker in that field. You do have an infestation, but we would strongly urge you not to hire an exterminator. You have Grain Weevils, and you need to find the source of the infestation. Tenting your home will not help with this problem. Grain Weevils often infest birdseed, and pet food, so if you have bargain size items that you have not used up in a timely manner, the Grain Weevils may be reproducing there. They will also infest a wide variety of stored grain products, including big bags of rice. Check the pantry thoroughly. Once you find the food source and eliminate it, things should be fine. Food products often have an expiration date, and at least once a year, you should make an effort to remove old boxes of cookies and crackers and similar items from the kitchen shelves.
Annual bug ID needed.
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA
June 16, 2011 8:27 am
Hello,
These little beetle-like bugs seem to appear annually in our urban Philadelphia home.
We often see them on their backs, seemingly unable to right themselves. They crawl around otherwise, and we’ve never seen them fly, so I don’t think their capable of flight.
They appear for a month or so, then we don’t see them again for a year.
Thanks for any info you can provide.
Signature: Phrantic in Philly
Maybe Black Carpet Beetle
Dear Phrantic in Philly,
These annual household intruders resemble Black Carpet Beetles, but the photo quality is not ideal. It seems there is some discrepancy with the shape of the prothorax and the antennae, but we are not certain. We have requested assistance from Eric Eaton. Meanwhile, you may read about Black Carpet Beetles on BugGuide. Black Carpet Beetles are sometimes called Fur Beetles because the larvae damage fur and hide objects, and they can do considerable damage to museum collections.
Another Ham Beetle?
Location: Outside Anchorage, Alaska
June 10, 2011 7:40 pm
Hi WTB.
You might hear enough of this, but thank you as always for the friendly and open nature of this website and the easy search engine you have for the fans.
To the point, however; out at a cabin near Anchorage, Alaska, my parents discovered a few beetles on top of their bed and on the windowsill. As they shooed the ones they found outside, I caught one on a book I carry around just for moments like this. The attached photo shows the beetle crawling over the millimeter ruler on the back page, clearly defining its length and providing a fairly good backdrop for close-up examination.
This is where WTB comes in. I had been looking around in bug books for Alaska on just what this beetle might be, until I remember coming to What’s That Bug a while ago with a spider from Bavaria. Using your search engine and getting lucky with a very recent post, I spotted another Alaskan with a similar-looking beetle. I now presume that what I found was a Ham Beetle, and not the Spruce Bark Beetle we feared it was.
Yet again however, I leave the final judging to the friendly experts.
Have fun on your vacation
Signature: Zachary Boyden
Black Carpet Beetle
Dear Zachary,
Thanks for your confidence in us. We actually believe this is a Black Carpet Beetle, Attagenus unicolor, a common household pest. We are going to try to get a second opinion on this identification, meanwhile, you can compare your individual to this image on BugGuide.
Eric Eaton Confirms ID
Sure looks like it to me, Daniel. Welcome back!
Eric
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WHAT ARE THE POSSIBILITIES THIS BUG IS PARASITIC? OR MAYBE ITS PARASITES PARASITIC?
Location: Urban ”forest” Surrey BC
May 13, 2011 2:31 pm
Dear Mr. Bug man
moved into ground level condo one year ago 3 months ago rash developed. shortly there after began seeing moth like winged guys (once or twice) very late at night in kitchen. Got extermination stuff. dr said the moth and rash were not related and that rash was scabies. Did treatment washed everything in house steamed extra. while doing scabies treatment small slightly transparent creature came out of my eye and then went under my fingernail. Husband dr. and mother think I am crazy. Other strange occurrences. Husband acnologes moths as pests but refuses to believe my story. I have been under stress at work… dr says the mind is very powerful and my stress has triggered these delusions.
Can you give any insight into this?
Heres some specimens i have collected. There are also ”lint” like cases attached to many of our clothes… which everyone also says I am over reacting to…. Ive never had so much lint. also had two budgies recently die…. related? or have I gone mad?
im hoping I have gone mad…
Christina
Signature: An otherwise normal happy slightly exentric housewife
Indian Meal Moth
Dear Christina,
We need to begin our response with a disclaimer. We are not doctors and we have no qualifications to diagnose any health related issues, nor are we entomologists, so any insect identifications we provide are questionable at best. We are artists who have a mission to promote an appreciation of the lower beasts as well as to make people aware of the interconnectivity of all things on our fragile planet and beyond. With that stated, we are convinced that the moth in your photo is an Indian Meal Moth, Plodia interpunctella, and that you have also supplied us with a photo of its larva. You may find information and photos of the Indian Meal Moth on Bugguide and you can also compare your larva to this image of an Indian Meal Moth Larva on BugGuide. According to BugGuide, the Indian Meal Moth: “infests a wide variety of stored food products such as flour, oatmeal, dried fruits, seeds, nuts, powdered milk, biscuits, chocolate, and bird seed“ With that said, it is senseless to try to exterminate your Indian Meal Moth problem with pesticides since they are feeding on your food. The pesticides would need to be applied directly to your food before they would have any effect on the problem. You should thoroughly inspect the food in your pantry and definitely discard anything past the expiration date. Pay close attention to corn meal, oatmeal and any boxed cake mixes or flour products. You should be able to locate the place where the larvae are feeding and dispose of those items. Larvae are the destructive stage and adult moths do not feed on stored foods. It is virtually impossible to rid you home of all insects, but you can take certain precautions to guard your clothing against clothes moths. Sachet was a popular item in days of yore. There are certain herbs that are known to discourage insects from damaging clothing. These dried herbs can be sewn into small silken pouches and hung on hangers with woolens and other organic fibers. The herbs of choice include lavender, sage, rosemary, wormwood and peppermint. Not only will this sachet repel moths, it will also make your clothes smell nice. We do not know what caused your birds to die. If your doctor believes that stress is contributing to your condition, you should follow his advice or perhaps seek a second opinion. There is a condition known as Delusory Parasitosis and here is a link to a journal article called Delusory Parasitosis by Nancy C. Hinkle that originally appeared in American Entomologist, Volume 46, Number 1 in Spring 2000. Stress can cause the mind to trigger delusions, and “Bugs” are an easy target. We hope your condition improves.
Larva of Indian Meal Moth
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