Larvae - Carpet, Larder, or other beetle?
Hello!
I am located in Canada. My family moved into a 20yr old house in September 2025. A month or two in, we noticed orange-ish larvae in the basement on some beds. At the time I identified it as larder beetle larvae based on other images on Google. I have only ever seen 1 adult larder beetle last fall. My husband and I have vacuumed frequently and saw the orange larvae on furniture/beds much much less. I think the last time was around Christmas.
Last month, we moved our bedroom to the basement and have noticed the larvae in the attached photos on the carpet and primarily climbing up the walls(!?). These are darker in colour than before. I see 2-3 every day. I have never seen any adult beetles. We vacuum regularly and have sticky traps down. Not many of the larvae end up in the sticky traps.
Could someone help identify the larvae? Is it carpet, larder, or some other type of beetle? Thank you for your help! There is the tip of a Q-tip in the photo for scale.
To Note - the house stood empty for a few months prior to our possession. The prior owner was a BIG hunter and likely had skins/taxidermy in the house. He also processed deer in the garage. We have not been able to identify any sources of food such as rodent carcasses. We have not seen any bugs in our pantry.