Tiny crawling bugs in kitchen/bathroom

[halfpint]

We're trying to figure out what the heck these bugs are and why they're attracted to these two rooms.  Bear with me, they're pretty nondescript.  

So they're small, like to the point where until you see them moving around, you think it's a crumb on the counter.  Where I see one, I usually can quickly spot out a few more in the area.  They are either black or very dark brown, and they do not fly or jump that I can see (so not fleas or fruit flies).  Six legs, so not spiders or centipede like.  No visible colored markings.  

We only see them on the kitchen counter and then in our master bathroom, usually in the shower, or they appear on the floor, crawling away from the shower.  

We keep our house relatively clean - wipe down counters regularly, don't have any food out - I thought at first they might be attracted to the crumbs that sometimes fall from the toaster, but that doesn't explain why they love our shower (upstairs).  They aren't in any other bathrooms.  

Any ideas?  And if so, further ideas on how to make our house less attractive for them?  They aren't really getting into anything, you'll just see 2-3 of them crawling around, I kill them, and then the next day I'll see a few more.  They aren't biting us or the dogs.  They seem to be confined to just the two rooms - kitchen and master bath, but I don't really want to host them anymore!  

[agnes]

What kind of shape are they?

[halfpint]

They're kind of almond shaped? I'll have to take a picture when I'm home - Google is useless so far, it keeps finding things like weevils and beetles, and it's definitely neither. They are "matte", so no shiny carapace or anything like a beetle.

[sporky]

I have these too. I have spent many a google search trying to figure out what they are and the best I've come up with is some sort of mite. They usually only last at our house for a couple of months and then we won't see them again for a year or two.

[fiveoclock]

Are they carpet beetles? They can be black or dark brown. We have someone's belongings at our house and he stayed in homeless shelters previously. As soon as I saw a bug I panicked thinking they were bed bugs. I didn't even consider possibly getting something from the stuff we're storing until then. In a panic I googled the bug and came up with carpet beetles. They're harmless, thank god!

[Deleted]

We had something the exterminator said were clover bugs or beetles or something like that?

They liked water and they were gone after the exterminator's visit.

[halfpint]

Jun 24, 2013 19:49:21 GMT -5 fiveoclock said:

Are they carpet beetles? They can be black or dark brown. We have someone's belongings at our house and he stayed in homeless shelters previously. As soon as I saw a bug I panicked thinking they were bed bugs. I didn't even consider possibly getting something from the stuff we're storing until then. In a panic I googled the bug and came up with carpet beetles. They're harmless, thank god!

Nope, too shiny, too round...

[halfpint]

Jun 24, 2013 20:25:01 GMT -5 @kcpokergal said:

We had something the exterminator said were clover bugs or beetles or something like that?

They liked water and they were gone after the exterminator's visit.

Closer, but wrong color.  Gah, what are these things!  

Maybe we just need to call a bug guy...

[Deleted]

Definitely just call the bug guy:)

[MrsBean]

Book lice?

www.orkin.com/other/psocids/

[nomad100]

Bird mites?

Sorry, had to put that out there after all the "bird mites are the worst" posts.

[katb]

I was going to guess carpet beetles as well. When we had ours, our were more brown than black. My DH took a few into his office and when the exterminator came for the building he asked them. I never found them on the carpet, on the walls and the counters.

[sarahsas]

Could they be silverfish?

[kittycatlove]

Jun 24, 2013 15:09:36 GMT -5 sporky said:

I have these too. I have spent many a google search trying to figure out what they are and the best I've come up with is some sort of mite. They usually only last at our house for a couple of months and then we won't see them again for a year or two.

It sounds exactly what we've had too.  I haven't seen them in 2 years now, but when we did have them they were in the windows and on the kitchen counter.

I could never figure them out either.

[starryfish]

Are they really small, and look like a tiny oval? Do you have them in your pantry? I have those...they start in the pantry (from boxed food products) and then crawl on the floor in my kitchen and hallways

[halfpint]

They are really small - maybe more of an ellipse than an oval? They haven't shown up in our pantry - just on the counter, and then mysteriously in our master bath, in the shower and on the floor.

Definitely not fruit flies (no wings) or silverfish (wrong color, not enough creepy appendages, too small).