To be totally freaked out by what I just found on my towel?

[tastylancs]

My heart is pounding honestly. What is this insect? Do I need to boil all sheets and towels? Burn the house down?

It's the size of a large puy lentil. Perfectly round with legs. Filled with brown bits, kind of like a teabag.

Heart still pounding. Please help. I can't actually look at my own photo.

Please don't freak out but that looks like a tick, have you been bitten?

Looks like a tick of some sort. We get a lot of deer ticks round here and they look similar to this once they've fed. They are greyer though

That’s a tick.

I think a tick too. I don’t think they come in swarms or anything so it’s unlikely you’re infested.

Do check yourself, family and pets for any signs of bites and it would probably be worth looking up the signs of lymes disease

Also should say, keep hold of it in a ziplock bag or similar. Can be useful for IDing if you or someone else has been bitten.

Carpet beetle who's lost his way.

Do you have a dog ? Been on any wooded/ countryside walks recently ?

It looks like a tick. You don't have an infestation. It has been carried indoors on a pet/person.

Check your pets and family members skin for any more or for round marks. When they have fed on blood (sorry) they drop off.

Oh really, you all think it's a tick? It's about the right size but doesn't look like the ticks I'm used to. We have a dog and live rurally so I'm fairly used to ticks. Maybe this is of a new variety.

I'm a bit relieved to be honest, I was imagining an infestation of something truly evil. But I know ticks aren't great. Will check myself and children for bites just in case.

That's a tick. Nasty little bugger.

Is it a flat disc shape or spherical? I’d expect a fully fed tick to be more spherical.

I don't think it's a tick

That's not a carpet beetle. I'm pretty sure it's a tick. They can look flattened like that when they haven't fed, they only get all spherical and blob-like when they have had a feed. How many legs does it have?

It's flat like a teabag but doesn't look like a tick to me. It's transparent like a teabag and you can see inside it's filled with little black rods.

That's an unusual towel (and tick)

It looks like a squashed tick!

Looks like a deer tick.

[scratch, scratch].

Yikes! I don’t know but it doesn’t look like the tics I’ve seen. I do not blame you for panicking! Maybe try an insect ID forum?

Looks like a tick. Do you dry your washing outside? My husband got a tick bite on the testicle years ago 😱 but no ill effects! I’m sure it was brought indoors by the dog.

I don’t think that is a tic. I routinely remove them from dogs and have never seen one like that.

Carpet beetle who's lost his way. Not to mention both its wings and wing cases.

It looks too circular for a tick. Put it into one of those small sealable plastic bags, then you can turn it upside down and count how many legs it has - 6 for an insect, 8 for an arachnid (including ticks).

Insect ID forum is a good idea. Deep down I don't think it's a tick either. Dealt with a lot of them in my time.

Off to hunt for clear sealable bag...

Bed bug?

It does look similar to a bed bug but not exactly the same. Bed bug/tick hybrid? 🤷‍♀️

ag.tennessee.edu/bedbugs/Pages/biologyandID.aspx