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what are these little insects on soft toys?

i've just been cleaning out my room and have found little bugs of some sort on a couple of soft toys. There were only 2, but when i was also cleaning some boxes that had been stacked on top of each other, I found a few more (dead). They're really small, I'd say about 2-3mm, they're brown and if you look closely they have darker brown stripes and obviously little tiny legs. I was just wondering what they are and if I should be wary of them.

Public Comments

1. Please make absolutely sure they are not bed bugs, and if they are (or you're not sure they're not) remove any contaminated material *immediately* or your life will quickly become quite miserable.
2. They could be a number of things, and since you didn't give too many details it is hard to say. Could you tell how many legs there were? Antennae? They sound a bit small to be bedbugs, like another used suggested. My best guess is dermestid beetles (also called skin beetles or carpet beetles). They are tiny beetles that are scavengers and can live off natural fibers and fit the description you gave. My next guess would be some sort of mite.
3. Sounds like they might be dermestid larvae - the juvenile form of carpet beetles or larder beetles. Here's some pictures of them http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=dermestid+larva&search=Search They will eat pretty much anything organic, and like to hide inside the fibres of carpets, and in the plush fabric of stuffed toys. Unless the toys are made of wool, they won't do much damage to the toys themselves. To get rid of them, the most important thing is to figure out what they are actually eating, and get rid of that (it could be something like pet food, crumbs in the cracks around the baseboards, or even dead flies on the windowsill). Here's a page that has more details about common dermestids, and how to control them http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/Stored%20food%20and%20fabric%20pests/carpet_beetles.htm