Question
QUESTION: Hello, I live in a high-floor condo in Hawaii where I usually leave the windows open. Since I moved in a year ago, I've been occasionally finding a little pile of what looks like insect eggs or possibly poop. The past three days, I have found a pile every day in the same exact spot on my kitchen counter, after cleaning it up the night before. They are little off-white specks, maybe about the size of coursely ground salt, and the pile is slightly smaller than a dime. I've only ever found them in my kitchen, either on the counter or the floor. I tried to take a picture, but I don't have a nice enough camera to take a good picture of something that small.

The "pests" I've seen in my condo include geckos and occasional tiny roaches, and I used to see silverfish but haven't seen any in a while. I haven't seen any evidence of termites, and I don't have much wood to begin with. I hope you can help me so I don't have to set up a hidden camera! Thank you!

ANSWER: Jamie,

Look closely at the "eggs", are they moving? You may need to use a magnifying glass. I think these may be grain mites instead of eggs. Also, is there anything visible DIRECTLY above where you are finding this pile of material? Post a follow up and tell me what you find.

Jack DeAngelis
http://www.livingwithbugs.com



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Pile of eggs   QUESTION: No, I have good vision and they are definitely not moving. Not to mention, they're still in the very compact pile I found them in this morning. I'm attaching the best of the (bad) pictures I took, so you can at least see the pile if not the individual eggs.

The only thing above the eggs is the ceiling, and that's a good 5-6 feet away. I don't think they could have landed in this perfect little circle if they fell from that far. I am perplexed!

Answer
These do indeed look like eggs, in fact they look like fly eggs. However, it does not make sense that the eggs would be laid in the same spot day after day. What normally occurs on this surface? Food prep? Meat cutting? Collect some of this material in a small vial of alcohol so that we can get it identified perhaps at the Bishop Museum at U of H. Also, place a piece of paper on this spot and see if the material appears on the paper. We'll figure this out.

Jack DeAngelis