We just received a wonderfully written message from one of our readers: “I found two dark brown worms in my room. My room has parquet floor tiles and I have been cleaning my room on a regular basis due to a slight infestation of cat fleas recently. I believe the worms are larvae of some insect, but I do not know which. The larvae have around 6mm of length, no spiky hair, and are dark brown in color. They appeared the next day after i mopped my floor with detergent. So far I could only spot two near to a shady area of my room. Hope you can identify them.” She also included this photograph:

While the picture isn’t very clear, by zooming in we were able to notice stripes or segments lining the specimen. This detail, in addition to the information from our reader, lead us to believe that our reader might have discovered carpet beetle larvae, which are some of the most common household pests.

Carpet beetle larvae feed on a wide variety of items found in a house: linens, fabrics, animal products, pet hair, pet food, dust, carpet, upholstered furniture, bedding, and other various particles. To get rid of them our reader will need to find their primary food source and remove it from her house immediately. She should also continue to clean thoroughly every day to eliminate potential food sources for these larvae. This cleaning regime should include vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, and doing laundry! While these larvae are annoying house guests, our reader might find some solace in knowing they are harmless.

To sum up, one of our readers found a few dark brown “worms” in her home. We think these creatures might be carpet beetle larvae, which are some of the most common specimens we write articles about!