# What are these Satan mites and how do I destroy them?



## Fix'n it (Mar 12, 2012)

i'm not looking, post the pic/s here


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## dj3 (Apr 27, 2020)

What have you tried so far?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Those appear to be beetles, which are the single largest most diverse group of animals on Earth.

They're eating something. The bugs you're seeing are the adult stage of little grubworms eating something somewhere. 

What are you storing, @DrOmg ? I'd start by looking in ALL stored foodstuffs, again for starters. Look, in particular, for "frass" i.e., powdery or teensy pellets of fecal material left by the larvae. You might also find pupal cases. 

Sometimes beetle larvae eat taxidermy, stored leather, feathers, etc. Anything organic is a possibility. 

11


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## DrOmg (Jul 27, 2021)

So the problem is accessing them. They appear to be up in the attic but the space is SO small it’s not physically possible to get into it. They also crawl out from under the baseboards. 

I sweep them up every day. When I wake up in notice them at the baseboard edges, coming through one extractor fan, and behind a light plastic covering.

I sprayed Ortho home defense. Sprayed raid under the more populated baseboards and then put glue traps around.

I have a large pantry and I haven’t found a single one there. Not in the cupboards or floors. They are attracted to light which led me to set up this contraption in the pictures.

The attic space that we can get into did have a rat snake skin shed with some poop which we cleaned out. That’s the only part we can reach. There’s still a section behind some dry wall that we can’t access.


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## Fix'n it (Mar 12, 2012)

do you go on FB, or maybe the twit ? (i don't do the twit, so i can't say for sure) 

search for a page that is for your town or area. then ask there. i'm sure there are others local that have had your problem and have a DIY fix for it.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

DrOmg said:


> So the problem is accessing them. They appear to be up in the attic but the space is SO small it’s not physically possible to get into it. They also crawl out from under the baseboards.
> 
> I sweep them up every day. When I wake up in notice them at the baseboard edges, coming through one extractor fan, and behind a light plastic covering.
> 
> ...


Those are beetles for sure. Based on your description of where you're finding them, they've bred and pupated somewhere in your house. Not finding any in the pantry suggests they're not the kind that eat stored stuff, or at least not what's in your pantry.

As previously noted, beetles are seemingly infinite in their variety. That they're coming out of the baseboards, etc., suggests that there's a food source of some kind in your house. Is there a crawl space? Cellar? Those beetles, most likely as larvae, are, or were, feeding on something. If you can find out what it is, you can possibly get rid of it, and the bugs too.

Most insects are seasonal; they do their thing for a while then disappear, sometimes till the same time next year, though others reappear more often.

I'm going to invoke @de-nagorg and suggest that you put some of those beetles in a jar and take them to your local state ag office, which will have entomologists on staff, paid for with your tax dollars. Provide them with details of where and how you're finding them. I suspect they'll jump to the initial conclusion that they're pantry beetles, too.

Please tell us what they find. I'm really dying of curiosity, and it will help other readers, too. Those look just like the common pantry beetles that seem to bedevil everyone else.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

DoomsDave said:


> Those are beetles for sure. Based on your description of where you're finding them, they've bred and pupated somewhere in your house. Not finding any in the pantry suggests they're not the kind that eat stored stuff, or at least not what's in your pantry.
> 
> As previously noted, beetles are seemingly infinite in their variety. That they're coming out of the baseboards, etc., suggests that there's a food source of some kind in your house. Is there a crawl space? Cellar? Those beetles, most likely as larvae, are, or were, feeding on something. If you can find out what it is, you can possibly get rid of it, and the bugs too.
> 
> ...



I'm glad that my "PREACHIN" about the Ag office, has set in at least once. 


Yes get advice from your employees at the Ag office.


ED


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Oh!

And one more thing.

Your local ag office has taxpayer paid personnel there who might be able to ID your bugs . . . .


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