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This caterpillar crawled out of my library book

EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
in Wildlife gardening
I suspect that it crawled in there from our sitting room, not that it’s actually a native book-dweller. But I’m surprised to find one in late November. It’s about half an inch long. Do you know what it is?

Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


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  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    🤣
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    I love PF's reply but suspect it may be a clothes moth larva.
    Revenge of the clothes moths as numbers boom can they be stopped Insects The Guardian

    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    Looks like one of those tree moth caterpillars that you see hanging from a branch on a silk thread. Easy to pick up in your hair or on your clothes.
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    It looks like a clothes moth larva to me too.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    If you have wool carpets get some spray quick, and check all the corners and under furniture.  Pest expert in sheffield do a room bomb to fumigate a whole room. 



  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    @Emerion have you seen clothes moths in your house, flying about?
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    Hi @Ladybird4, @StephenSouthwest, @fidgetbones and @fire, thank you. Yes we have got clothes moths. I’ve even doing battle with spray and sachets for years. We’re just about to get rid of the last wool carpet in the house because of them. I’ve seen the moths and also the larvae when tiny, but never seen them looking like this, so thanks for that. I’ll be pulling all the furniture out in the sitting room to spray this afternoon.  I put that one outside yesterday, so I expect it didn’t survive the overnight frosts 😁
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    O howl. I have just found a corner of a rug crawling with moth maggots. I thought I was being so careful, but there was a corner of a rug under a table that must have got missed from vacuuming. It was my mum's rug and it's very sad to find it so chewed up and crawling. I put it down to lock down laziness.

    😩


    I might try rolling up the rug and putting it into a large bag and spraying into that. The rooms are open plan without doors so I can't really spray the room efffectively. Some years ago I found that all my stash of knitting wool was crawling and composted the whole lot. I thought I had been super careful since then.



  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    I feel your pain @Fire. It only takes one tiny slip in the constant vigilance. 
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited November 2021
    .... and as I take up the rug I find I might have woodworm in the boards below. I thought it was mostly a grub that likes cold temperatures and damp.

    Good grief....
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