A few days ago we received a question through the all about worms facebook page about a brown worm on a reader s mattress.
Carpet beetle bed bug larvae worm.
On the basis of articles we have published she suspects she found carpet beetle larvae and we think she is correct.
Bed bug larvae look like little worms while carpet beetle larvae look like fuzzy bugs with little spines all over them.
Bed bug bites are itchier and the carpet beetle s rash is more painful.
The main difference is the color.
In this post we ll talk about carpet mites what causes carpet beetles where carpet beetles come from and how to avoid a carpet beetle infestation.
The most diverse animal group in the planet p p more simply a nymph is a bed bug that hasn t fully matured into adulthood.
Carpet beetle larvae have prickly little hairs that cause a reaction in some people that looks very much like bed bug bites.
For one it looks like a carpet beetle larva with its brown and stripped body and in addition carpet beetle larvae are common household pests and of course one is more likely to find a common pest than an uncommon one.
Carpet mites although you may see the terms carpet mites and carpet beetles used interchangeably these two pests are actually quite different.
Larvae young carpet beetles are 1 8 to 1 4 inch long and tan or brownish.
Their food preference includes all kinds of fabrics and dead insects.
She learned that they did not need to chemically treat for carpet beetles as it isn t the live insects that cause the allergy.
They re covered with bristles.
Varied carpet beetles do have brown on their backs but they look more spotted or striped with white and light colored patches mixed with brown.
Because carpet beetle larvae can cause an allergic reaction to some people when the larvae s hair or dead skin gets in touch with our skin.
Thus we are fairly confident in identifying the larva in the above photo as a carpet beetle larva.
You might not know.
How can you tell.
Larvae are basically immature carpet beetles which have come out of their eggs and are now looking to feed.
Carpet beetle larvae are the form of beetles that comes between the egg stage and the adult stage of their growth cycle.
The allergic reaction is so bad in fact that it s hard to tell the difference between both.
She also found dead worm bodies on the carpet and on a spare mattress in her bedroom.
