Identify this bug? Chicago wood-munching edition

Post date: 2025-07-12 03:59:57

Yikes, over the last couple of days we've found 3 little beetles sitting quietly on the wall of our Chicago home. Could they be wharf borers, and if so how soon will our house fall down around our ears?

These are the critters in question: https://postimg.cc/gallery/tWNzvgY

They're about an inch long, or maybe a little less. They look an awful lot like wharf borers to my (very untrained) eye, but I guess they could also be soldier beetles or something of that ilk. They're alive, but have been completely still, and haven't responded in any way when I've scooped them up and disposed of them. Can anyone tell us one way or the other what we're looking at?

Couple of data points: there's a window frame on the same floor as where the bugs emerged that does have some old water damage, and I guess might make a delicious snack for a beetle. (It's been that way for years, though, with no recent damage, and this is the first time we've seen anything like this -- plus it was in a different room, not next to where we saw the beetles.)

The wall where we saw the bugs is also next to the front door, so I guess they could have just wandered in from outside. Also, we saw these bugs in the day or two after our youngest came home from camp (deep in the Michigan woods, in damp cabins next to a lake), while all her bags and filthy towels and things were laying around right next to the place we saw the bugs. So maybe they were just hitchhikers?

So, two questions: what are these bugs, and what (if anything) can or should we do in response? How much should we be panicking? Thanks so much, hive mind, you're the best!

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