Question
Mystery bug
Almost every day I find one or two of these tiny (3-6 mm) insects in our bathroom, usually around the skirting board and the door-jam. At first sight, they look like they are black with a brown horizontal stripe across their backs, but upon closer inspection, the "stripe" is just their articulated bits in the middle (sorry, not a bug person, don't know the right words to use). They squish very easily, and look almost like moth dust on the tissue after. We scooped a couple into the bathroom sink to look at them closely, and they really moved around in there a lot, although most of the time they just move slowly. Our bathroom is accessed through our walk-through closet, so I'm concerned that these little fellows are going to eat our clothes! I can't tell how many legs they have, although they appear "hairy" when we looked at them close up with the camera (picture attached).
We live in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada (greater Vancouver area), and our home is a second-floor condo. There are no apartments below us. The floor is year-old laminate in most of the apartment and newish linoleum in the bathroom.
AnswerSarah,
This looks like a dermestid beetle larva, sometimes called a carpet beetle (see http://www.livingwithbugs.com/carpet_beetle.html for a close-up picture). The larvae feed on all sorts of dry foods (pet food is a favorite) as well as natural fabrics. See the page cited above for control info and post a follow up if you have questions.
Jack DeAngelis
http://www.livingwithbugs.com
