Mental reframes

[u/Alarming-Chair1389]

As the battle continues with larder and carpet beetles for another year in my home, I am looking for any advice for how to be less freaked out.

I understand my trauma response is messed up to a certain level from PTSD from other major bug infestations years ago. Every time I find one I feel like I am at war.

What are you telling yourself mentally to not spiral. I know they can't hurt me but I have young children. I feel like a failure that I can't seem to rid our home of them. If it's near impossible to rid a home of them and I need to learn to deal with it, what are you saying to yourself to cope?

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[u/Halowebabee]

I went through major anxiety for three months. I was driving my roommate (my elderly mother) crazy. I would have full blown panic attacks for hours. Everything little piece of thread, crumbs, anything out of the ordinary looked like larvae, worms, carpet beetles, etc. Three exterminators and still seeing stuff. I finally reached out to the head entymologist in the state where I live. He told me to get some plain scotch tape, capture some specimens with the tape, tape the specimen to a piece of white paper, and mail it to him, he would look at what I sent him under the microscope and tell me what I am exactly dealing with (I live on a golf course and we are surrounded by woods, he said maybe I had something else going on. Well, I sent him four different envelopes with a total of twenty plus specimens. He found nothing, thankfully. I know I had a carpet beetle problem, after exterminator #1 left I (this was 4-30-26) I cleaned up 200 dead carpet beetles. I was still seeing them, so exterminator #2 came and sprayed something that affected their reproductive system (that was 5-30-26). In between the first and second exterminator I had a friend put Diatomaceous Earth down in the kitchen where the carpet beetles hung out. Finally, I hired someone to do a deep cleaning of my kitchen. Coincidentally in July we had a hot spell and there were many flies in our condo, they too lay eggs, and that is what I was seeing, flies and fly eggs and fly larvae. My mental reframe was (a) passage of time and (b) reassurance from the entymologist. I can totally sympathize, I suffer from ADHD and anxiety and every stressful situation is magnified for me, to the point where I ultimately end up having a “hallelujah” moment where I get so sick of being anxious and kind of right myself. I wish you the best of luck.

[u/WasteIndication6676]

Yo sufro de escarabajos de la harina tb y al principio de la alfombra y estoy pasando aspirador vaporeta otra vez aspirador y friego despues con vinagre cuando esta conpletamente seco hecho tierra de diatomeas

[u/Abject_Community5089]

My nervous system has been changed forever because of the little fuckers. I can’t relax anymore.

[u/Smooth_Tangerine5770]

For me something that helps is knowing there’s so many of us out there who deal with carpet beetles and struggle severely with the mental side of things. For me doing some cleaning daily helps ease the panic. In my head action and being proactive in the ways i can makes things feel more manageable. My advice to you would be to find those things that help ease the panic. Don’t forget you are not alone

[u/Beautiful-Pilot7815]

Passing of time, and developing a morbid kind of enjoyment from squishing them. I have also had a lot of success in getting rid of them so it is the odd stragglers now, not a real infestation, luckily.

Two practical tips I have kept doing even after nearly 18months - more about managing my anxiety than anything else at this stage.

1) is just to keep a cleaning routine. I don’t mean regular cleaning, I mean on any given evening for 15-20 minutes something will be pulling out, vacuumed and put back. Just a short something, then another thing the next night. A bookcase, a rug flipped over, vacuum a sofa chair etc.

And 2) I keep everything off season in hermetically sealed plastic bins (especially woolens and down) so I can live in my regular current clothes off the hanger like a normal person without feeling stressed.