I Suspect I’m Being Bugged
Apr 16th, 2007 by Alex
I found a small insect in my upstairs bathroom a few weeks ago. It was resting on the side of the shower, approximately four feet in the air. It didn’t react when I used a piece of paper to remove it. I thought it was a tick, so I flushed it.
Last night I found a half dozen more in my living room, mostly in one corner by the window. They look almost identical to the first one I found. Upon closer inspection I suspect that they are carpet beetles, although they’re more zebra-like in their coloration. They are very small, such that two or three might be able to fit on the base of a wooden match. I’ve been observing them through a glass jar, since my breath could send them flying around. Some are alive and moving about slowly, some are probably sleeping or dead. The eggs of these things take between 250 days to 3 years before they mature into adults, which means that they’ve either migrated recently or they’ve been around since I bought the place. Lovely.
Assuming that’s what they are, there’s no steps to rid myself of them besides applying pesticides. Not that I found, anyways. All of the information is about prevention, not removal. Vacuum up their sources of food, such as spilled crumbs and hair. That’s easy enough, but I also read that they feed on carpet. What am I supposed to do about that?
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