I am concerned that my house may be infested with beetles that my crawling baby is finding and eating.
Asked by
drhat77 (
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February 16th, 2010
I live in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. Every once in a while, these large beetles get into the house. They are brownish, angular, about an inch long, and buzz really loud when they fly.
The other day, I heard my rugrat (15 months) crunching on something in the living room, and when I went to check up on her, she presented me two pieces of one of these desiccated beetles. A large portion of it was missing (YUCK! GROSS!).
Well despite all the snow we’ve been having, I’ve found a live one in the house last night. I’ve just assumed they’ve been coming from outside, but now I’m worried they’ve colonized my house (although where big buzzing beetles hide is a mystery to me).
I’ve tried google searching to find a name, and I didn’t see it today (I wanted to snap a picture, but no such luck). Does anybody have any clue what I’m talking about. I don’t think they’re dangerous or poisonous or anything, just gross.
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29 Answers
You’re most likely dealing with water bugs. click here for a guide to get rid of these pests.
Good luck.
Does this look at all like your guests? Members of this bug family (Coreidae) will seek refuge in houses in the fall, then begin to re-emerge at around this time. They produce a characteristic buzzing noise when they fly.
As bugs go, their lifestyle isn’t too nasty. I’d much rather discover my kid eating one of these than a cockroach.
thanks @Harp i think this is exactly what i’m dealing with. I know they’re not dangerous but both me and my wife hate when they buzz right into our heads, and find it disgusting that our kid could be eating it. Is there like a colony in our house? Would it be in particular place? can I forcibly relocate them? Thanks
Beetles are a good source of protein
@drhat77 They don’t reproduce in the house, so they don’t form a colony, per se. They’re just over-wintering. They usually enter via attic or roof vents andwork their way down into walls and other crannies. They’re harmless to the house itself, and really just want to be on their way when it gets warm enough to survive outside.
Honestly, anything you’d use to get rid of the beetles could be more harmful to your child than the beetles themselves. If they are the beetle that @Harp linked to, they feed on plant juices. They won’t hurt you, damage your home, contaminate your food supplies, or make your child sick.
If they were in my house, I’d catch them and throw them outside. If you have a fly swatter around, that would work too. This article might help reassure you, but it concludes by suggesting you just toss the bugs outside.
Why do you think that your child is eating them?
@davidbetterman Because she caught her son in the middle of chowing down on one! And besides, little bitty kids will attempt to eat anything they find on the floor. And that includes dog poo.
From the answers above, it doesn’t sound like a pesticide would work anyway, since they aren’t colonizing in your house. Maybe just wait them out? They won’t hurt the baby, but I’d be more vigilant about sweeping and vacuuming for a while anyway because the thought of it is gross!
@val Maybe you used to eat stuff like that as a child, but I never did.
@davidbetterman LOL! Well, I’m just betting you don’t really have any memories from when you were 0 to the age of about 18 months, which is the age when kids do stuff like that. And even if you did eat a bug, at that age it wouldn’t be any different than eating a cheerio. At that age you don’t have a sense of gross. I dare you to check with your mom over what you might have put in your mouth as a baby!
@val I did check with her. She is right over there She says that the cheerios were far worse for us than any bugs, so she fed us bugs for breakfast…
AGGGGGHHHHHHH
@davidbetterman And that. AND mostly fat free too. Why didn’t we all think of this before? :)
@Val123 Why indeed? Perhaps with the world economy slumping slightly as it is, we will be eating said bugs sooner than later…
@davidbetterman Back to the good old days, when we existed in the wild, on grubs and bugs and whatnot, aye!
@Val123 Apparently those days are being thrust back upon us!
they eat anything, don’t they?
@drhat77 Oh! Yes, I did! I got it. Sorry. :)
@Val123 no offence it was just funny because they were flaming up the taboo feminism thread yesterday and the approriateness and societal acceptablity of male caretakers of children was frequently referenced to no enduring consensus, and here I see it in action, and from someone of the pedagological persuasion, too. Tsk, tsk.
speaking of pedegological that was like the longest run on sentance EVAR
@drhat77 Hm. I must have missed that thread. Anyway, I find it’s usually women who post questions regarding their kids.
@Val123 true but after that i strapped on my “man-pants” and talked about finding the colony and exterminating them.
@Val123 i’m just humorously observing I’m just as likely to make the same mistake as you. Re-reading my posts I see it can be taken as an attack and I TOTALLY don’t mean it that way.
@drhat77 S Ok. But hey, I got man pants too. I’d totally talk about destroying them especially if they were roaches! Why do I so have the urge to say, “if I’d read your user name, I would have realized you were a male, being Dr. and all”....no. Not going to go there!!! I just have these destructive urges sometime!
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