I have seen these bugs before. They were really bad at a place I lived in back in 1986-1987, where I first noticed these carpet beetle/bow bugs. I did not know they were beetle larvae though. I had guessed they were some type of small moth larva.

I have not see these bugs as often after I moved out of that place back in 1987, but I still see them from time to time. I believe I have even seen them a couple times while living here at this new place (I have been here just a bit over 3 years now).

SO... I know they are here, lurking about somewhere! Creeping around in the dark of the night while I sleep. Just because I have not seen one in a long while does not mean that they all left. It just means that the smart ones survived. While the dumb ones that got caught did not. Well, unless I was really lucky and got the last of them a while back.

I have seen no evidence of these bugs getting to my bows yet, but I will be on the lookout for this now, for sure.

MACJR

Thinking back, I am not sure if I have seen bow bugs at this new place, or not. I think maybe, but if I did, it must have been more than a year or two ago. Maybe they all died out? There were no bows to eat here back then.

Of course, I know that bow bugs eat other things... like, believe it or not, rattlesnake rattles. I used to have one of those, but those bugs turned it into dust (we can call it dust, that sounds less disgusting). I found out too late what was going on. They also ate a dead scorpion I had kept as a souvenir. I had killed it with an unfolded paperclip (my coworkers at the fish hatchery thought I was nuts - they were probably right). By the way, I am less likely to kill wildlife now than when I was younger, but I will still defend myself and others from danger.

And a correction, not that it matters to anyone, but that place I first remember seeing these bugs was an apartment I lived in back in 1987-1988. A year later than I said before.

MACJR