Skip to main content

The terrible story of the carpet beetles



We recently discovered that we had an infestation of carpet beetles. Loads of them. It was horrific. We found a couple of individual holes in things, they looked like this:



Like someone had snipped a single thread. And then Leon started looking for the nest, and discovered it. What happened was, when we moved in three years ago Leon popped his old backpacking backpack under the bed. We usually take our hiking packs away with us, because we make hiking part of every trip these days. The cats had been sleeping on it, and it was covered in cat hair. It looks like the carpet beetle babies were living off those and a sheep skin we had under there. Leon spent a lot of time cleaning it out and vacuuming. We inspected all our knitwear and the only thing that was chewed up was a vest that Leon doesn't really wear. I wanted to re-use the wool, but when I tried to pull it out, I could not make it unravel. it's not felted or anything, it just wont go. Really odd.

Anyway, it looks like we avoided a very bad thing, and I thank Leon for his hard work getting the situation sorted. 


 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 

Linky Wednesday - 3/2024

  It's been a bit of a week. Because of my hand , I can't really knit, so I'm doing some charity crocheting:  It's quite fun, but also I'm halfway through a shrug for myself, and I'd rather be knitting. Oh well, we can't always get what we want! In reading, I'm reading Stargazy Pie , the next Victoria Goddard. This is a comedy of manners and  lots of things happen. I can't say I feel deeply  about any of them, but that's not the point. It's fun.   I'm listening to Elin Hilderbrand's The Five-Star Weekend . It's got a lot of characters, and it took me while to get into it, but now I'm invested. Women's fiction at it's finest. Next up is a review book Tidelines by Sarah Sasson. Great cover. It's Australian, and you know how I love a local book (although I think it's set, or at least starts in Sydney). It's described as a coming of age  novel, and I love those too, so it sounds like a winner.  I just re-read t

Linky Wednesday - the one that is less sad than last week

Thank you for your kind comments on last week's post.    I finished    Sweet Danger  a mystery / adventure book written in 1936. The plot just didn't make much sense to me. Now I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Under a Neon Sun , by Kate Gale. It's a pandemic book, and it's (unintentionally I think) very, very funny. I come from Melbourne the most locked-down city in the world. These Angelinos keep talking about how hard lock-down is, while visiting each other, getting their hair and nails done and having household help come in. The book centres on Mia, a poor orphan navigating the world of the rich and privileged. It's entertaining, and also a terrible indictment on a system with no meaningful safety net. Next up I really am going to read  What Happened to Nina . I seem to have been saying that for weeks.  In audio-books I'm listening to Kristen Hannah's  The Women , a novel about female nurses in the Vietnam war. It's very good, although it do