To ask you to make me feel better about carpet beetle larvae

[Creativebee]

Okay so we have found a few carpet beetle larvae, all in different rooms (two in the kitchen, one alive, one dead, one in the living room, 5 -6 in the bedroom, all dead bar one and one in DS’s bedroom, dead). DH thinks this isn’t an infestation but I am freaking out, I can’t really afford to call out a professional but did buy some spray of Amazon. Please make me feel better and tell me that for once my DH is actually right 😂😂😂. He’s saying that because I’m looking for them that is why I’ve found them, if I start washing all the clothes, bedding and towels we own, I’ll still be washing and drying when my DC (aged 19 & 13) have their own children 😂😂.

I used to work as a cleaner and I found them when I was deep cleaning an ancient sofa. I tipped it over and hundreds of the larvae fell out! I think it was stuffed with horsehair or something. Google 'how to make glue traps for carpet beetles' and buy some double sided duct tape

www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-properly-use-carpet-beetle-traps

OMG 😮 that has totally freaked me out 🤢

Thank you for the link though

We were plagued with them. You can get ‘smoke bombs’ from Amazon quite cheaply. It was a while before we realised we’d got them and they had a fair old chomp on our dining room carpet ( under furniture) .
Not a problem anymore as we have opted for no -wool carpet ( they love wool) which is also bleachable and also wood flooring.
Good luck OP.

So do you think seeing as many as we have means we have an infestation? We only have carpets on the stairs, the rest of the house is laminated but we do have an attic bedroom and I’ve read that they love breeding in the enclosed areas of the attics.

At least it's not bedbugs

The thing is OP, we don't exist in a vacuum or a bubble - we're surrounded by 'nature' and the bugs don't know the difference between outside (where we expect them) and inside (where they freak us out).

In previous houses I've had; slugs coming out of the skirting boards (very old cottage), silverfish in a kitchen (Victorian house) and a bathroom infested with book lice (1920s house). Also, years ago a student house was infested with some kind of mites which required proper fumigation.

Bugs like these are everywhere. Exterminator told me she that almost all houses have populations of various kinds of pests, but they normally go unnoticed. The fact you've noticed them might mean the population has increased for some reason but I wouldn't call it an official infestation.

Look for the cause, use the spray, vac a lot etc but try not to let it drive you mad. I guarantee it won't be as bad as slugs coming out of the skirting boards (not envy)

I know you’re absolutely right NotTheMrMenAgain, I personally think this is something that “freaks” me out because of the fact my daughter is extremely immunosuppressed and I feel that if there’s anything in the house that is t meant to be in the house it’ll be detrimental to her health. I know this more a “psychological” issue with me than the actual reality. You’ve made me feel better though, I need to give the house a good hoover and maybe this isn’t an increase but because we’ve decorated we’ve disturbed them and they’re just showing up more.