Help!!! Tiny black lavae on laundry - what are they?

[Alabasterangel6]

Been away. Last thing I did before going was tumble dry some last laundry and then folded it and put it on my bed. It’s been there 8 days. I’ve just sorted the pile and about halfway down one white Tshirt is absolutely crawling with tiny tiny tiny microscopic wriggling lavae (the look like tiny caterpillars) just plain black and moving like a caterpillar would. About 2mm long and hundreds of them. By the time I’d picked the Tshirt up and realised I scattered them in the process - so they ended up all over my bed, carpet, and the remaining clean laundry.

I’ve hoovered the best I can and will strip the bed but they are sticking to stuff and there were literally hundreds.

I feel I should know what they are in case they hatch/develop? Anyone?

Bleugh!!!

Photo of a tiny amount.

I would be burning the bedroom and it's contents.

I would guess at carpet Beatles

You need to pop to B&Q and get yourself a flame thrower

Sounds horrendous OP

Burn all your laundry.

If they’re cute little somethings I don’t mind at much but if they are going to morph into horseflies or a swarm of moths I need to know. The chances of me having eradicated them all is just about zero. Most definitely inside the folds of totally dry tumbled (not line dried) laundry. Could it be moths?

I googled tiny black larvae and the only thing I got was drain flies. I don't know why drain flies would be on your washing though and I hope that's not what they are

Do they have tiny legs at all?

Wow. No idea but really curious. You seem remarkably calm about it, well done!

I thought it was going to be those little tiny fly things, we call them thunderbugs or cornlice, but little creepy larvae seems more like some sort of infestation! :v

My extremely houseproud neighbour would go completely crazy at this time of the year whipcracking her laundry off the line to try and get them off before folding and placing her line dried laundry into the basket.

Do you have a cat? Cat fleas go through a larval stage.

I would keep a sample to find out. no feckin way I would keep a sample but I NEED to know what they are

No legs (they do that shrink-stretch wormy/caterpillar movement) and no cats! It went into a clean dry plastic laundry basket and they are well within the folds and no signs of a ‘parent’ (that I have found)

I’m okay with little bugs but not if they turn out to be something vile!!

Thunderbugs don't move like a caterpillar.

I have no idea what they are but I would run to the nearest place which sells Indorex and spray the house, especially the bedroom like mad. Maybe set off a few moth bombs as well.

Brown house moth?

Lavender spray stuff from Lakeland should help

I am no expert but they look very much like young caterpillars to me.

Clothes moth caterpillars are white so almost certainly not that. And carpet beetle larvae are very distinctive and furry so not that either.

Are they 'looping' as they move? Or just shrink-stretching like a grub?
If they are looping then it's almost definitely a caterpillar.

No one else thought spider willies?

The do loop a bit. When disturbed. I don’t really understand the lifecycle of these things but is it feasible that a moth could have laid so many eggs? I’d estimate 200+?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varied_carpet_beetle

Fungus gnat larvae maybe ? Do you have houseplants in the room ?

Oh balls I think they are drain flies.

But how the chuff have I come to have drainflies in a pile of clean dry tumbled laundry?

Washing machine is free now so I took a couple more pics before putting the infested clothes in on a hot wash with laundry cleanser stuff too. In the second zoomed in pic you can see the little horrors in detail. The other photo shows more of the quantity I am dealing with

Try again

And again

Have you noticed drain flies in the house?

Bloody hell 😱