Subject: Plague?
Geographic location of the bug: Tamaulipas, MEXICO
Date: 11/04/2017
Time: 01:14 PM EDT
Hello, i called 3 diferent exterminators and any of them know what kind of bug are these, help me plase. They are in the walls and the roof of my house but they are infested parts of mdf wood in the furniture. The structure of my house isnt of wood is all cement block, concret and stoff nothing of wood and insulating filler. The weather is tropical and hot with a lot of humidity. I hope you response as soon as posible good bless you…
How you want your letter signed: My english its poor sorry about that i dont use an online traductor. Thx…. Agustin
Dear Agustin,
These are Booklice, and according to BugGuide, they are found: “under bark, in ant nests, in homes” and “worldwide and across NA; many spp. are now nearly cosmopolitan or otherwise widely spread through agency of man, mostly with stored products.” According to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin: “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.” According to DenGarden: “Booklice are itsy, bitsy little bugs – about 1/16 ” long and they are not actually lice at all, so although they are harmless, they are still bugs. If you’ve got any dried out, or decaying plants, you might find these little critters enjoying a plant buffet, or they may even be lurking around your stored food. The head and abdomen appear large, and the midsection is more narrow. Huge, compound eyes protrude from the sides of the head. They also have thread-like antennae that sweep backward toward the abdomen. Not all booklice have wings, but some do (usually the booklice that stay outside), and when they do, there are four of them – two smaller front wings and two larger back wings. Most of the ones you will be hunting down should be wingless booklice. Booklice really love paper, so you might find them on bookbindings, photographs, or even your wallpaper. You can look for them to thrive in a dark basement or storeroom, if you have one, and if you have a second home that you close up for part of the year, they have probably set up residence there as well. If you live in an older, loosely-constructed home, there are probably a lot more booklice living there than people. You may need to invest in a good magnifying glass to see them, but they are there.”