Tiny Dirt Piles Coming In Carpet

In the last few days lots of little piles of soil have appeared all over my block paving.

Tiny dirt piles coming in carpet.

Baseboards and windowsills can collect small amounts of dirt over the normal course of daily life. If you look closely directly above the sawdust piles you may see the slits where carpenter ants push out their sawdust or you may see the round exit holes left by powderpost beetles. I take the tiny piles of black course dust and when removed it leaves what looks like a burn mark that is difficult to clean and take out of a nice box. Unfortunately if frass is kicked out of a termite burrow in the ceiling or some other place it can fall unto the floor wooden or carpet where it is unlikely to ever be detected.

The powder can be white or yellow. Carpet beetles like to live out of sight and feed on the natural fibers in fabrics even living off carpet fibers that are 90 percent synthetic. Product description keeps 160w power strong while at a low noise level 65db quickly picks up pet hair cheerios cat litter from hard floors or carpets. Pretty scary what can be lurking under the carpet.

However if the dirt appears to be coming out from within the window frame or from behind the baseboard you re likely looking at something more significant than just what the wind blew in. It was about the size of a quarter. It might be boric acid. An insect repellent often added beneath carpet and inside walls to prevent cockroaches and ants.

As they leave the infested wood they push the sawdust out. Thanks for any further help. I cleaned it up but by the next morning a new pile was being formed in the same place. You can see the termites crawling in the dirt areas.

These are subterranean termites. That looks like reddish brown sand had appeared on my floor the other day. This is especially true for homeowners who have know clue what frass looks like. The exact location of the dirt pile can also be an important clue as to the culprit.

Look for holes in clothes and fabric woven furniture to begin identifying these critters. After the larvae pupate and turn into adult beetles the adults bore tiny round exit holes in the wood. If they d appeared in the summer at the front of the house where it s sunny then i d assume it was ants but these have just appeared round the back of the house where it s shady and we never see any ants.