Where are these bastard carpet beetle larvae hiding?

[calmakameleon]

In March we saw carpet beetles in our bedroom and then a couple of larvae on headboard and windowsill, went crazy steaming, washed pillows and bedding, deep hovered everywhere and steam cleaned carpets. Pet safe spray used liberally. Saw a dead one in kitchen, live one in conservatory.
Deep hoovered every week for two months, checked religiously. Then nothing for ages.
Today I saw a larvae in our bathroom which has nothing for them to eat and zero cracks to get in. Where are these suckers coming from? The larvae give me the serious ick and spark a fair bit of ocd although I know they are harmless.
One pest control told me to treat house, another one said the odd one is normal and he wouldn't recommend spraying.
Do we just keep deep hovering forever? Surely it's impossible as they could be fucking anywhere and I'm a bit drained by it. No wool anywhere or anything for them to eat really as it's been hoovered up.

Just to add we emptied drawers, wardrobes and hoovered behind furniture in bedrooms and under furniture everywhere else

I keep finding them in the bathroom too, it's weird! None anywhere else, they must be but I can't find them

Honestly, if you can, just ignore them. So much work and effort for no reason. They are completely harmless. We have always had a few, they come and go and cause no issues. You could just collect them up and pop them out of the window. Why are you washing everything?

@KnittedCardi
The pest control guy said they could be attacked to feathers in our duvet and pillows and to wash them as well as the hovering
Ah ok if you've seen a few and not had an infestation then..everything I read seem to suggest if you didn't deep Hoover they would multiple rapidly

@SpikeGilesSandwich
None else here is good. The larvae crawling on our bed is what freaked me out about them. Conservatory no probs but while I'm sleeping

Have you checked your airing cupboard? I found them chomping away at my Nan's old wool blankets. When I caught them in the bathroom I figured they were coming from the towels from the same cupboard. I used to use the flea spray atomiser thingies everywhere once a year. I even used to do the loft. It took a good few years but eventually got it down to one or two beetles a year on random windowsills.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404635710454?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xlr1mdpsqee&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=zH14sntdSgK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Also used to spray indorex behind wardrobes and difficult to reach places. I read you need permethrin together with the growth inhibitor to break the lifecycle. Both flea spray and indorex have it. Good luck. X

The tiny, tiny gap between carpet and skirting board, so you can't see them at all. And possibly underneath the fridge.

I steamed along the edges very slowly with a crevice nozzle in my old flat and never saw another one.

@NeverDropYourMooncup
DH has done that, I check a lot too!

Yes we've been looking but there are lot of gaps there, but none into bathroom.
All that's in there are cotton towels which are washed at 60 and put in dryer. Now I'm wondering if I need to take them all out and check.

In the bathroom they are commonly in the fan duct or air ducts. They feed on the dead bugs they got caught in the fan/light. Also saying a few carpet beetles are harmless is like saying a few small leaks in your boat is harmless. If not gotten under control in a timely matter especially in areas with lots of food for the larvae they will become a major infestation. Took me 6 months to finally positively identify. They were in my body and just as I identified they became a major problem. Fumigation with pyrethroid in combination with an Igr will work. Proper PPE a must. Respirator at a minimum. You can buy a decent fumigator online for $100-$200. Fumigation along with vacuuming like crazy and washing or dry cleaning all fabrics that can be washed and steaming curtains etcwill do the trick. Very important to be 100% thorough. I was 90-95 for months to no avail.

Mine used to start to show in the bathroom, as soon as the weather hit a certain temperature-around April/May time. I lived in an old house (built 1900). It took me years to figure it out. I was a single parent with ‘ordinarily’ messy kids and a bad back, I could never move furniture myself to vacuum, so clearly I wasn’t vacuuming enough. I found them breeding under my sons’s (new) divan and mattress, in his sock drawer and actually feeding on nylon football socks. They are so hard to spot to the untrained eye. My daughter’s bedroom seemed to escape the worst, as did mine, but this year I found a hatch in her room by the window. I had a trained eye by then and I think it’s just the gaps in old houses that they get into, coupled with old carpet that for me, I’d ignored and left in situ inside fitted wardrobes, that they probably need in and I also found a moth infestation in those carpets. I will never. have old wool carpet anywhere now. Son’s carpet was polypropylene but they clearly hid down the tiny gap between the skirting boards and carpet as a PP has mentioned. I’m not squeamish but the sheer physical effort of removing them was huge. I’d describe them as small grey, ladybirds. They look like a speck of dirt and one or two used to helpfully announce their arrival into my white bath, so were easy to see.
Council pest control didn’t have a clue!