“I found one of these crawling on my bathroom floor” states this reader about the glossy, white creature in the photograph below. Our reader’s husband reported that two more of these segmented critters fell from the ceiling and onto his chair.

“What are these and should I be concerned?” asks our reader at the end of her submission.

Now, this creature could be a lot of things. There are plenty of worm-like creatures that are white, segmented and grub-like, such as housefly larvae (commonly known as maggots), clothes moth larvae, pantry moth larvae, multiple species of beetle larvae and more. As our reader can probably tell by now, we do think it is some kind of larva.

Regardless, the question is how and why these creatures ended up in our reader’s bathroom and on the ceiling, and where they are coming from. There are many creatures that are known to show up in bathrooms as they come up through the drains, such as drain fly larvae and earthworms. That said, we think it more likely that the source of the larvae is the spot on the ceiling from which they have been dropping down on our reader’s husband’s chair.

This is because the ceiling is an odd spot for larvae to travel to, but not an odd spot for them to travel from. To clarify, we think that there may be an egg deposit on this part of the ceiling, and so the larvae are hatching there and dropping onto our reader’s chair. What our reader can do is check this spot for eggs and, regardless if she sees any (insect eggs can often be difficult to spot with the naked eye), wipe it down with a regular disinfectant .

Moreover, to answer our reader’s question, we do not think she needs to be concerned about these larvae. They do not resemble anything that is parasitic or harmful in any way. Of course, since we do not know the exact species, we cannot say this with 100% certainty, and we still warn against touching any unidentified organisms of any sort as allergic reactions may occur.

What we suggest is that our reader clean the spot on the ceiling, and that she move any roaming larvae outside on a dustpan. The larvae may be attracted to the bathroom if there is something there to eat, and this may indicate that the bathroom needs cleaning. We always advise that our readers make sure to keep a consistent cleaning regime for their spaces, as it can prevent a whole host of critters from infesting one’s home.

Additionally, it is likely that the mother bug simply came in through an open door or window, or perhaps through a torn window screen or crack in the walling and flooring (she may want to investigate this if she thinks this might be the case), and laid her eggs on the ceiling. Naturally, we cannot rule out an infestation, so we urge our reader to send more pictures and context if she were to find an abundance of more larvae, and then we can take it from there.

To conclude, we are not sure exactly what it is our reader found. The generic appearance of this white grub-like creature does not tell us much about its exact species, but we hope that this article was still successful in calming down our reader and providing some ideas as to where the larvae may have come from.

Summary

Article Name

White Grub-like Larvae Fall from Ceiling and Crawl Along Bathroom Floor

Description

"I found one of these crawling on my bathroom floor" states this reader about the glossy, white creature in the photograph below. Our reader's husband reported that two more of these segmented critters fell from the ceiling and onto his chair.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton