The white translucent bugs are the most deceptive bugs that your home can ever have.
Not only are these bugs difficult to spot due to their tiny size, but they also bring a host of potential allergies, health risks, and damage risks to your home.
However, this guide will make you an expert at detecting these small clear white bugs.
It’ll also arm you with the knowledge necessary to eradicate them.
So, buckle up and keep reading.
Dust Mites
If there is one species of small, clear bug that can turn your existence into a sneezing, itching nightmare, it’s the dust mite.
These tiny, white arachnids only grow to a maximum size of 0.012 inches or 0.3 mm.
These bugs are not just difficult to spot because of their microscopic size; their transparent, white bodies render them nearly invisible on your bed mattress or carpet.
However, dust mites quickly make their presence known.
They enter our respiratory system, causing allergies such as sneezing, coughing, a runny nose, and itchy eyes.
Furthermore, dust mites feed on the dry skin that humans shed and crawl onto our skin to access this food source.
This feeding can cause intense itching and create red rashes that resemble bed bug bites.
The worst part is that many homes face this dust mite menace without much recourse.
These allergens can infiltrate homes through the smallest cracks, latch onto items such as clothes, and even enter via open doors and windows carried by the breeze.
Therefore, the best way to rid your home of dust mites, and prevent their return, involves regular vacuum cleaning in areas where they’re likely to hide.
The things that you need to target are bed mattresses, carpets, rugs, upholstery, and other furnishings like drapes and curtains.
However, dust mites also rely heavily on moisture for survival.
They can hide in moist areas, such as your bathroom, where they settle on damp floors, walls, counters, and fixtures.
Therefore, keeping your bathroom well-ventilated and reducing excessive household moisture, ideally through a dehumidifier, can prevent dust mite infestation.
Fixing the leaking pipes in the house also reduces the dampness levels in the home. And it makes unattractive for dust mites.
Grain Mites
Grain mites are kitchen and pantry pests that infest stored foods such as grains and flour.
These bugs are also white and clear (translucent) until they feed, at which point they turn brownish.
Grain mites can trigger allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.
So, if you’re coughing and sneezing after handling food in your kitchen, grain mites may be the culprits.
Grain mites are also microscopic, measuring between 0.013 and 0.018 inches (0.33 – 0.43 mm).
They aren’t visible until their population explodes in your home.
Under room temperature and kitchen humidity, grain mites can spread quickly.
These mites thrive in household conditions, sticking primarily to your kitchen until their numbers increase.
And when their numbers shoot up, they spread to places like bedrooms and bathrooms.
When their numbers rise, grain mites appear like a brownish or white layer of dust on surfaces like kitchen cupboards, shelves, and countertops.
If you examine this dusty layer under a magnifying glass, you can observe them crawling.
Grain mites can damage food, so you need to discard any infested food items to eliminate them.
You should also thoroughly clean your entire kitchen.
If there are water leaks in your sinks or faucets, fix them, as these leaky pipes increase your kitchen’s dampness, making it more habitable for grain mites.
Grain mites exist in most grocery stores and large grain houses, so when you bring home packets infested with them, you introduce them into your home.
Therefore, avoid purchasing food packets with holes or a dusty layer, as this dust may indicate the presence of grain mites.
Baby Bed Bugs
Baby bed bugs, the tiny white creatures that survive solely on your blood, are also known as bed bug nymphs.
These pearly white, transparent, clear, miniature bugs have the same body shape as their adult counterparts.
Bed bug nymphs are 1/20th of an inch in size. The nymphs can camouflage well with light-colored bed sheets because of their small size and transparent, white bodies.
Unlike dust mites, baby bed bugs are not microscopic.
You can see them with the naked eye. They bite and do so more often than adult bed bugs.
Baby bed bugs need regular bloodmeals to proceed further in their lifecycle and to mature into adults.
After feeding, the bloodmeal is visible through their bodies. And baby bed bugs appear as a tiny red dot.
The presence of bed bug nymphs in your home indicates a growing bed bug infestation.
It’s a clear sign that many adult bed bugs are hiding in your home, feeding on your blood.
Baby bed bugs hide near their hosts. They lurk in cracks on bed frames, headboards, mattresses, pillowcases, and box springs.
If you notice baby bed bugs in your bed, couch, or any other area of your home, call a pest controller immediately.
These baby bed bugs will soon mature and worsen the infestation.
Most DIY methods of getting rid of bed bugs fail unless you catch the infestation early.
However, noticing baby bed bugs is not an early stage of infestation; it’s a clear sign that you require a professional pest controller’s assistance.
Booklice
Booklice, also known as psocids, are tiny bugs that enter homes seeking mold and dampness.
These soft-bodied bugs, less than 1 mm or 0.03 inches in size, have elongated, see-through bodies.
Booklice can be whitish or light brown. Regardless of color, booklice are translucent bugs that glitter on damp surfaces.
People often confuse booklice with bed bugs, headlice, and body lice. This confusion increases when booklice appear on beds.
Booklice are harmless bugs and do not bite. However, they pose some damage risks.
Being mold bugs, they target anything moldy.
Moldy books, stored grains, walls, floors, and furniture can serve as feeding grounds for booklice.
Although booklice can damage stored grains and books while feeding on molds, they don’t pose an existential threat to these items.
To get rid of booklice, scoop them off the surface using a vacuum cleaner.
Control the dampness levels in your home to deter booklice by fixing leaking pipes, installing a dehumidifier, and removing molds with a mold cleaner.
Seal the gaps and cracks on walls and windowsills to prevent them from entering from outdoors.
Wood Mites
Wood mites are another moisture bug that feeds on molds, but they target damp wood.
These tiny white transparent bugs grow under 0.02 inches in size.
They have oval or round bodies with eight legs and a tough turtle-like shell where they can tuck their legs.
Wood mites gather on damp, moldy wood pieces.
Individually, they are hard to spot, but a large group of wood mites looks like a layer of white dust on the wood.
It’s common to find wood mites on damp firewood, decaying wooden blocks, damp garden furniture, and even indoor damp wooden furniture.
Indoors, you’ll find wood mites mostly on damp wooden furniture in the bathroom, kitchen, and basement.
Sightings of wood mites are most frequent on windowsills, which are damp because they absorb moisture from both outdoors and indoors.
Wood mites are not a menace to wood like termites. They don’t feed on wood, only the molds on it.
To get rid of wood mites, wipe the wooden surface with soapy water and remove any molds on the wood.
Always keep the wooden items in the house dry to prevent molds and fungi.
White Springtails
Springtails are jumping bugs that dwell in places like wet soil beds and decaying organic matter.
During summer, when the weather outdoors is hot and dry, these jumping bugs can sneak into the house through the windows.
They then hide in damp places like bathrooms.
Springtails come in different colors: white, brown, gray, black, amber, and even bright green and blue.
The white springtails are small clear bugs, shiny white and transparent.
Springtails are 0.04 – 0.08 inches (1-2 mm) in size and have long bodies with a pair of antennae.
They have a spring-like organ, known as furcula, tucked under their abdomen.
Springtails use the furcula to push themselves to jump, enabling them to hop from one place to another and escape predators.
They are one of those bugs that jump when you try to kill them.
However, there’s no need to kill springtails in the house because they are harmless and don’t bite.
You can easily remove these bugs with a vacuum cleaner.
Removing damp decaying waste outdoors can prevent springtails from entering the house.
Insecticide sprays aren’t necessary to get rid of springtails, but you can use them if the infestation is heavy.
Fungus Gnat Larvae
Fungus gnat larvae are small white transparent worms that you find on the damp soil beds of your potted plants.
These worms are less than an inch in size, clear, and have a tiny black dot at one end, which is their head.
Adult fungus gnats, are small black flies that look like mosquitoes. They have an erratic flight pattern.
Adult fungus gnats enter homes through open windows and lay their eggs on damp soil beds of potted plants in the house.
If there are no potted plants in the house, they target the waste in dishwashers, kitchen trash bins, and even sink drains to lay their eggs.
While the fungus gnat larva doesn’t pose any threat to humans, these larvae can feed on plant roots, weakening the plants.
If you wonder why fungus gnats keep coming back, it’s because you haven’t eliminated the fungus gnat larvae.
Fungus gnat larvae mature into adult fungus gnats quickly, ready to breed and lay eggs soon after maturing.
This can quickly spike the infestation if you don’t eliminate these larvae.
The best way to get rid of fungus gnat larvae on the soil is by drenching the soil in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution.
Mix equal parts of hydrogen peroxide solution and water and spray it on the soil.
This solution will kill the fungus gnat larvae and removes the molds and fungi that form on the soil.
Summary of Small Clear White Bugs in the House
So, there you have it. A list of seven small clear white bugs in the house.
Other transparent white or whitish bugs such as mealy bugs, pharaoh ants, and whiteflies exist.
But those bugs are either plant pests that you find primarily outdoors or are not white.
You are more likely to find these seven small clear white bugs in the house than other clear bugs.
- Dust mites
- Grain mites
- Baby bed bugs
- Booklice
- Wood mites
- White springtails
- Fungus gnat larvae
Have you noticed any other transparent white bugs in your house? What did you do to get rid of them?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Dr. Thomas Orbert is a PhD in Entomology with extensive research experience in ectoparasites and microbials. He has also worked in the spaces of ecology conservation and has multiple years of experience in field research and scientific publishing.
Thanks a million for helping me to identify my pest. I searched high and low on the Internet. Your page was the first one I found that mentioned white springtails based on my description. Thank you!!!
I really do appreciate the people who take the time to learn thing Like this so that people who live in old houses this wood floorsAnd damp areas could know what the h*** is biting them when they are coming back lives in an house
And start getting bug bites every where. Thank you