Emily
Your laundry is clean...no need to rewash. The larvae crawled in the clean laundry after it was washed. They are probably on the floor in the laundry room or bedroom.
Best to do a thorough vacuuming of the floor around the baseboards, in cracks and crevices, and look for food sources. They feed on debris in homes such as dander, hair, wool, silk, leather or hide carpets, or other materials with proteins and fats like dog food, dead insects, oils and pantry foods, etc.
So I think I found one of these bugs in my just washed underwear. I was putting them away and saw a little moving brown thing. It had orange fur sticking out of it's but that was almost unnoticeable and a dark brown behind. Is this the same bug? If so, do I need to rewash all the laundry in the basket or just the underwear?
Dermestid beetle larvae by: Moni
Anonymous
As noted in the very bottom comment "The dermestid larvae turn into small beetles. They feed on fats and proteins. This group of beetles can be found in homes. They feed on debris in homes such as dander, hair, wool, silk, leather or hide carpets, or other materials with proteins and fats like dog food, dead insects, oils and pantry foods."
This means that as the kids drop food and it gets into carpets, cracks in floor boards, under baseboards...it is there for the larvae to eat. With children around you will probably always have a few larvae around...perhaps using professional carpet and furniture cleaning would reduce the incidence of food they feed on.
They are not dangerous...they only eat the protein and fats in the food crumbs.
I think I have these bugs by: Anonymous
I have read all the comments, and I see that there is a lot of reference to cat food. I do not own a cat, but I have a turtle and some fish. This insect looks like the ones I have been seeing in my apartment. I am curious on if they are poisonous or not. I have three small children, and I have noticed them when there is food on the floor that I missed from vacuuming and I noticed that they were around wood. Can someone please help me with this, sorry I do not have a picture to show, but the insects I saw look like the one in the picture that was posted.
Dermestids by: Moni
Sarah
Since you had the cat food in a closed container, the cat food was already contaminated. Many times the warehouses where the dry foods - cat or human - are stored have problems with dry food insect and rodent pests. So your cat food bag either had eggs on the package that got transferred into your container or eggs were laid in the bag on the cat food.
To rescue the food you have you can put it in the freezer for a week, bring it out for 2 weeks then back in the freezer for a week. The freezing kills the bugs, then out of the freezer allows any eggs to hatch then back in the freezer to kill any remaining larva. --Or you can pitch that cat food out and hope the new stuff is not infested.
Other insects also can get in pet food - like Indian meal moths, saw toothed grain beetles, etc. The freezer techique works for all of them.
To prevent infestations there are Pantry Pest sticky traps for the moths and beetles but not very effective on dermestids. :-( Sorry.
Our local Pest Control company has them or find them online.
Better luck on the next bag of cat food...also might try smaller bags, so it is used before the beetle larva can develop.
Bug by: Sarah
I found about 50 of them in my cats catfood and i asked everyone if they knew what it was and they didn't know. So i looked it up on here and this is what i thought it looked like. I have my catfood in a tote with a lid and when i first opened it there wasn't anything in the catfood, i have the tote on my bakers rack and it still got to it.
Dermestid beetle larvae by: Moni
Corey
Without more information on size, where you found it, what it was doing, and a clearer photo showing the top, legs, and head better, I believe this is probably a dermestid larva. The dermestid larvae turn into small beetles that feed on fats and proteins.
This group of beetles can be found in homes as well as on animal carcasus outdoors. They feed on debris in homes such as dander, hair, wool, silk, leather or hide carpets, or other materials with proteins and fats like dog food, dead insects, oils and pantry foods, etc.
Hope that helps!
