“Is there something in the carpet or is it just old/cheap?” asks Laura in La Mesa City, San Diego county, California. “It was professionally cleaned about two weeks ago. Additionally, and not 100%, I positively believe there are some creatures with white heads and darker bodies in the soil of a Money Tree that is on our catio. I’m used to the drain fly larvae or whatever that stuff is but these just seem different. Also, I do NOT feel anything in or on my body. These look too small to be carpet beetle larvae but my entire carpet looks like that. My photography skills are horrible and I could not get a good shot of these lines that run through the substrate. In conclusion, I have touched them but cannot just pick them up; they seem too deep. Sorry for yet another paranoid sounding inquiry; I just don’t want to get in trouble with property management. Thank you.”
Now, it is difficult for us to answer Laura’s question for a number of reasons. Firstly, we cannot see any worm-like organisms on any of the photos she sent in, which is likely due to her “horrible” “photography skills” – to us, this just looks like a regular carpet. Though we suppose there is a dark line in the carpet, which we assume is one of the “lines” Laura mentions that runs across “the substrate”. Secondly, we cannot tell Laura if her carpet is “just old” or “cheap”, as we have no context about how old or cheap the carpet was in the first place. And from the photos alone, we cannot tell what condition the carpet is in, or what quality it is.
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In our opinion, if she just had the carpet professionally cleaned, there is a slim chance that there are organisms living in the carpet. If the carpet was cleaned properly, then any worms, larvae and/or eggs would have been eliminated. Of course, if she truly believes there are still worms in the carpet, or if she just thinks these lines prove that the carpet is not entirely clean, then we suggest she take it back to the cleaners and tell them to do it again. Evidently, they did not do a very good job. Additionally, when it comes to the “creatures with white heads and darker bodies” on her “catio”, we cannot really help her identify these, as there are no pictures included of these creatures, and we cannot tell what they are merely from the description provided. That said, she might want to change the soil of her money tree.
To conclude, we are unfortunately unable to answer Laura’s question, due to the poor quality of the photos. That said, Laura also admits that she may just be “paranoid”, so she might want to take into account this possibility as well. We hope this helps, and we wish her the very best!
All About Worms is always free, always reader-supported, we don't subject you to ads or annoying video pop-ups. But it does cost us money out of our pocket to keep the site going (nearly 20 years so far!) So your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP Publishing.
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Hi Sue! Let me first say, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! This sounds almost EXACTLY what I went through, and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemies, because it also took me months of ER visits, tons of research through scholar articles and reaching out to multiple doctors and insect infestation professionals! I first had what looked like freckles, but they burned and it felt like I was being shocked like electrocuted left and right, but some of those bites had little black hair fibers in them that stung so bad unless I dug them out! They had put me on tons of steroids, antibiotics and skin relief for months before I found out what was truly happening… HOWEVER, what was just as bad, is my husband, family and friends all said they were worried that I was losing my mind and should get on some psych medication!! I felt like I had no support because I am a Registered Nurse and I knew that even though people’s minds ARE powerful enough to make you physically sick, that wasn’t it. I also was finding lint balls ALL OVER my house, regardless of how much I cleaned. First I was told it was carpet beetles and to use Borax, and vacuum daily for a couple weeks, but then I was told by one of my ER doctors that it was chiggers, and the ones that looked like freckles, but could come off with burrows in my skin was from mites. Luckily, I got rid of those using dexamethasone and a steroid ointment regularly.. but I still was getting those lint balls that looked like eggs of some kind and other parasite looking things that would leave worm-like markings in my carpet after I vacuumed! Actually, every time I cleaned, they would attach to my shoes and I could feel them eating my socks and when I’d pull off my socks or clothes (because once one thing was infested, everything touching it was – so I can’t tell you how much money I spent on laundry using hot water), I could see those lint worms/balls or egg looking things?! They came in different colors but mostly white, black, or grey. We were doing a remodel on our house that was build horribly in the 70s, and had gaps that went all the way to the floor past the concrete. I swear I could see the carpet start showing the worm like patterns like some parasite was slithering underneath! Well, I don’t know if this helps you at all, but I FINALLY found out what it was after MONTHS of hell, and I still have an obscene amount of scars on my body, but after we moved, it only took about a week to get back to normal. So, I will tell you what happened to me: it started one day in our front mat (we had one of those black rubber mats which also matched the one we had in our kitchen…), I was cleaning the floor, and with all those holes and having a couple dogs, it looked like the holes had dirt and maybe dog hair built up in it so I started cleaning it out.. I was beyond blown away… turns out, each hole had pupa, the size of quarters wrapped in leaves, dog hair and dirt curled up in the holes… I can show you pictures, but it might be too disturbing to post here. Needless to say, I got so sick and immediately cleaned out both mats and tossed them! Luckily they can’t fly at that stage but man I was BLOWN away, after 6 years we’ve never had those before! There must have been something going on because they spread like wildfire! Not to mention, mites came along within days after that, which I found out come from rats if you have any within you or your neighbors yards (EW)! I even walked out to find them curled up in leaves in my car!! I immediately had it professionally cleaned out and never parked by bushes again. Well, then I thought those were done bc that’s when the mites took over and ruined my body and health (I have an immune disease so I can fight or recover like normal people can). After I had a specialist ER doctor verify it was mite bites, my family and friends finally apologized bc even with the huge bugs in the kitchen, front mat and my car, no one believed me, and wanted me to get on medication until it was verified. Even after that, my husband still couldn’t trust me when I tried to explain that some of them were different, and had little hairs or fibers in the sores that stung and hurt so bad! I also kept seeing our clothes being destroyed and eaten and I was in a bad place, out of work and spent weeks and eventually months with gloves, Lysol, mask and hair net while I had to coverup my skin 24/7. I could barely even shower because I didn’t want to expose my bare skin there and showered at my parents house. Well, I eventually found out that behind our washer and dryer in our outdoor laundry room by the garage, there were TONS of caterpillars hanging against the walls!!! I IMMEDIATELY vacuumed them all up, but I found out the pupa ARE caterpillars during their changes throughout the seasons.. what was REALLY weird, is that their organisms are so small when they start, they eat clothes and use lint to turn into larvae looking things! They would look like grey or white lint (I know it sounds crazy but I have video/pictures to prove it), and have little black eyes or heads. I could even watch them move! They were lint worms that looked like grey lint balls (eggs) or worms (larvae) and the worms would slowly move like a caterpillar! After doing research with various scientists and experts, you’ll read that they not only eat fabrics off your rugs,clothes, etc. but a way of defense when they feel threatened, is they distribute little tiny hairs to stick to your skin/any broken skin and cause rashes and bites that feel like splinters! It’s a way to defend themselves. So I finally proved that the little hairs or fibers were NOT in my head. That’s what they do! And they sting and hurt, specially if you have sensitive skin. I also have pictures of what they looked like and one video of them moving without any breeze. I even would put a pint roller by it and the heads would try to dodge it. Like move away from whatever I held up next to it. I then realized that was what was causing my carpets to look like that! They not only were all underneath the carpet, but I saw a few fully developed ones poke their heads out of open holes, so I went around and cemented all the open spaces! The only place that was the worst was our separate laundry room, where I found all the ones hibernating/growing behind our gross, old appliances! Luckily, we no longer live there. We even have a couple dogs, but the mites bit their poor noses and the last thing I needed was for our fur babies to try to go after pesticides or the infestation when it takes literally 5 min. Of touching something infected for it to spread to your entire outfit.. man, the pain and the embarrassment of everyone thinking I was crazy got so exhausting and hurtful. I am so sorry you had to go through that, but I’m almost relieved that I’m not alone, and I want to share my experience as much as I can because as my house started I think with the caterpillars thinking our house was up for grabs, which brought on carpet beetles and mites, even tho the rats from the cities street bushes didn’t help. I just had mite burrows, hair fibers in my arms and hands and about 80% of my wardrobe gone, at least I finally got my answer. However, it still blows my mind because it seems like the organism from the caterpillar can use any fibers to form a solid larvae, I even had single carpet fibers just fall out, and actually watched it move and crawl like a caterpillar and showed others for more proof since I always took pictures and filmed as a defense of my family thinking I was crazy and paranoid. That’s the worst part of it. On a side note , I’m sure you’ve done your research, but a way you can tell it’s carpet beetles, the adults can fly! Also, Lysol spray kills almost all of them on contact (I lived off Lysol for weeks/months) right away, but it doesn’t kill the infestation. I shampooed my carpet and vacuumed everyday for about 3 weeks and it slowly helped.. I even used distilled vinegar with my laundry as a softener and to kill all mites and carpet beetles and caterpillar “babies?” Or whatever they are when they are almost invisible and can cause SO much damage! I would recommend a steroid, and antibiotic (dexamethasone worked great for me), and make sure you wash ALL your clothes (if you can) with hot water and Borax as an additive. That worked for me. You can also sprinkle borax on places you can’t reach to vacuum, but be careful bc it’s not safe for children or pets if they can access it. ALSO, check your ceilings!! I had to go through washing my entire wardrobe bc my clean clothes got contaminated bc they were falling off the ceiling! Since they can’t fly, they like to hang out in (normally black or grey lint) in high places like ceilings and window sills so they can glide off and try to land on things they can eat like clothes or food! They also love getting into dry food. I had to throw out my dog food and rawhides because they were obsessed with them. You’ll see with carpet beetles and clothes moths that they’ll collect seeds and dry food. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found weird looking reddish/brown sharp looking things that they’ve collected and put together into some food thing for them. Another sign, they LOVE seeds. So you’ll find a lot of random seeds around (we didn’t have seeds in the house so that was a huge sign), like in the couches under the cushions, etc. Another temporary solution is to fill a spray bottle with distilled white vinegar and spray areas that are bad, but watch out spraying anything that can damage the color! They hate essential oils and that vinegar smell, but again, the only way to completely get rid of the infestation of whatever you have; I apologize, but you have to either hire an exterminator or just vacuum and clean every 12-24 hours for about 3 weeks. Hopefully you’ve caught it early enough to save most of your clothes, as the damage is not reversible. But I still say, the hot steam clean worked wonders! I have seen lint ball/worms of eggs even come thru drains, so just try to stay on top of cleaning and please wear a mask and gloves! I wore my Covid gear from work and you have to make sure you have a space that’s never contaminated, like removing clothes before going to bedroom and at least have a place to sleep and change without making yourself vulnerable. I also wore shoe covers, but remember how I mentioned I had to wash my wardrobe twice… remember, those parasites/organisms and larvae will eat fabric, paper and cardboard! I made the mistake of packing them in boxes, but had to redo it. What cleared it, was to get big vacuum sealed clothing storage bag, then when that’s sealed, then pack it In either plastic tub or box, but throw in moth balls (don’t let them touch your clothes, leave them outside the bag, but inside the box. If you let them sit in the vacuum sealed bag, then sit the bag in a box of some kind, they kill tons of them within a week or so! As for the caterpillars, it’s not that time of year for the grown, and we moved after I vacuumed all of what I could, but those are the pests that use their hair fibers to stick into skin and cause pain.. you can research that. I was so happy just finding what the heck those hair fibers were, and what were making worm like movements in our carpets! They were all over the base of the house, and someone them made their way through the carpet holes so that totally made me feel like at least I knew what they were, what the issue was, and where those painful hair fibers were coming from.! Anyway, I hope I shared enough for you try some of the things that worked for us. Please contact me for any questions or want to chat, I know that I felt so alone until I could finally prove I wasn’t crazy! These tiny micro organisms and insects that you can hardly see sure can cause detrimental damage! Try to hang in there! FYI; Lysol you can find at dollar tree, same with lint rollers and moth balls, storage bags and distilled white vinegar. The only thing is Borax at Safeway for less than $5! Also, they like to eat paper and plastic, so keep an eye out/keep your cubby snacks in safe places – I’ve found a few thinks that looked like the plastic was poked, and the item looked like it had holes/burrows.. but my husband ate it anyway and got really sick for 3 days or so, so watch your snacks! If you babe let’s, please don’t leave food or any bones out. I’m telling you it was one of the hardest and gross times I’ve had to deal with in my life, but you CAN recover and get through this if you stay strong and resilient! Ignore what anybody else says and take care of yourself, you got this! Remember, most of those love humidity and warmth, I completely worshiped my air purifier and I don’t think I could have gotten through the nights without it. I got mine at ikea and it works GREAT! Also, try offerup, I’m sure you can find a great one for a decent price. You’ll be glad you did! Oh! One last piece of advice: when you do your laundry, out of the dryer; if you turn them inside out and see lint that doesn’t match that garment, it probably needs one more cycle. Also l pay attention to the texture of the lint. You can tell regular lint from lint that infested with eggs by the texture.. it tends to get almost gooey, or stretchy if it’s not just lint. I also recommend getting a new sweater shaver! Only $12 at Target for a new, amazing one that did wonders for me through this. I sure hope you find some relief soon. I didn’t see when this was posted, so it might be old, but I am more than happy to lend an ear or any kind of support/advice if you need to vent, or just talk to someone about this. Just remember, you are NOT alone! I am shocked how little we know about this stuff. Let alone other creatures that come with carpet beetles/or seem like it, like tons of arachnids that look like lint but as little white sticky micro arachnids that also get sticky/stretchy and ruin clothes.. I’ve done so much research for months now and I’d love to help if you need anything. I also was getting sick and throwing up and has gastric issues when all of this was going on, so please reach out anytime! Sorry for the long response, but I hope you don’t feel crazy, just because we dealt with something that’s not well known yet I believe. The whole thing about using anything to transform into a living, moving creature has always intrigued me to not only find a cure to save my clothes, but also research more about these creatures, and their incredible abilities! I mean, they’re so fast that I could feel them going through my jeans if they got in and I I’ve to throw them off, but sure enough they’d be on the liners, building up from the threads, just crazy! Anyway… Thank you for sharing, take care Sue, maybe I’ll talk to you soon, but either way, the only way people will start to take us seriously to do the research and learn more about these incredible organisms is to speak out. Thank you again! Feel free to Reply if you’d like my contact info and perhaps like to chat more, I would like to hear how it works out!
I don’t know where to begin
I woke up on a January cold day and my chest wouldn’t stop itching.When I got home from a 12 hour shift my chest had little red bumps all over the place. I thought they were pimples but when I started popping them little black hairs was coming out of the pimples and then I would feel like a sting then I realized the hair like black things were going right back in my hands,oh goodness they really hurt. That has been over 2 years ago. I have been to countless doctors who (almost say I’m crazy) or must be on drugs. I have been covered with sores , my head eat up with bumps and soars and no one will help me to get rid of this.
For example: it was in July, the temperature was in the 90’s. I was at work on assembly line wet with sweat when my head started itching so bad I couldn’t take it after a very intense scratching session I started seeing these puffy black things about eighth of an inch falling out of my head like crazy getting all over a bright yellow shirt I had worn that day turning it black in spots and the smell was horrible so I decide to go to the ER so they could see was the heck was falling out of my head and give me some meds to get ride of what I have. No that didn’t happen, when the woman doctor finally decided to check me I tried to show her my head and my shirt that was covered with those fuzzy black wads of strings all wound up together still falling out of hair and sores all over my body and saying I thought I had gotten some type of parasite and she started yelling at me and saying I was drunk ( mind you I said I had worked a 12 hour shift got of work and went straight to hospital and that’s what the doctor said to me because I said parasites. No blood work she didn’t even want to touch my head. this has been the worst thing I have ever had and been made to feel like ( how dare you come to my office and say parasites don’t dare say the word parasite and my family went to a judge and had me committed to a mental hospital mean while what ever I have it wakes me up crawling all over me sometimes I see real then long clear like hair strands with wet beads all the way down them crawling on me and when I tried to knock them off part of them go right through my skin and they hurt and the things that are in my feet are round and black and has something like fishtails sticking out of them. Like I’ve said I’ve tried to get medical help and no one seems to think there is parasites in the state of ky.my stomach hurts most of the time as well as my heads hurts really bad at times. There is a huge knot under my ear that won’t go away it gets bigger all the time I got 7 or 8 days before I can do number 2, I toss and turn so much that I loose a lot of sleep I’ve had several situations think I’m having a heart attack get dealtly sick afterwards can’t swallow it’s like something there blocking me from breathing too I feel whatever it is come from my feet like heat from my feet legs belly chest in to my throat chocking me when I come in from work my feet kill me that I spray bleach on them and those wades of black threads like things will come out some how been 2 inches down to a hafe inch white wad all thangled together but you spray them with bleach they can really move them. Did I mention about the top of my mouth stays a funky yellow and when trying to sleep my stomach is like a washing machine and my stomach has work me up thinking there’s a bunch of puppies just to realize all the sound is coming from my belly we want talk about these thing taking over my cloths home and car and you can’t bring any kind of sweets home because these things swarm like honeybees I have bunches of picturs luv to send you well I’m feeling dealtly si
Sue, we would encourage you to contact Lighthouse Complex Care, we recently added them to our resources page because we believe that they will absolutely take you seriously and help you; please look at our resources page and see “Lighthouse Complex Care”, they are a medical clinic that specializes in things like this. We are not affiliated with Lighthouse, and we receive no compensation or anything else from them, we just have been impressed with how caring and effective they are. Here is our resource page: https://www.allaboutworms.com/get-medical-attention-and-tests-for-parasite