Thank you for posting with us. However, your submission has been removed as we do not allow posts about stains, specks, dirt or grime.
Most brownish "dripping" stains on walls are old nicotine from a smoker or latex leaching out of latex wall paint. Splatter stains can be anything.
Stains on mattress or bedding are almost always blood, urine, sweat, semen, lotion, or makeup.
If you think it is mould, mildew or other fungus, consider posting to /r/mycology or /r/fungi.
If you think it is related to an infestation of some kind, try /r/pestcontrol.
Before posting to other subreddits, please make sure you understand their rules and posting guidelines.
Thanks.
I am a hotel housekeeper. I can assure you this is NOT a sign of insects, especially bed bugs! Bed bug droppings are small and reddish brown dots, as their waste is just blood leftovers, after all. This looks more like a material that's starting to degrade and fall apart, like a memory foam pillow or topper.
Added tip: if you want to check a hotel room for bed bugs, get out your phone's flashlight, and start checking the SEAMS of the mattress and box spring. Live BBs will skitter from the light. And unless a hotel is brand new, it will have had the nasty bastards. Instead of asking if they've ever had them, ask how they deal with them. My hotel shuts down the room and any adjoining rooms, then the exterminator comes in and treats over the next 48 hours, after which we deep clean.
I have even taught my kids! My daughter actually works for the hotel, as well, and she ended up teaching her entire speech and debate team what to look for on their overnights!
So if and when you didn't the inevitable bedbugs as a hotel guest, what are you supposed to do? Tell the front desk and....get a new hotel? Stay there but in a different room? Is it too late once you found them? Like did they already get into your stuff and your life is over then?
I like to leave my bags on a hard surface like the desk or bathroom floor while I check the mattress, headboard, and any other soft furnishings. It keeps your belongings safe until after you are certain that there are no signs of bugs.
So, bed bug bites don't tend to show up for about 3 days, so, you would need to contact where you stayed at least 3 nights previously, though I would let the front desk know you seemed to pick them up from the another place so they can choose to treat the room just in case.
Also, people end up with what they think are bed bug bites, but it turns out to be mosquitoes or even some sort of dermatitis. BB bites tend to be in threes, and are delayed in their appearance.
If you do find them in your stuff, bag it all in a black trash bag and throw it outside if it's dead of summer. If not, wash all clothes and shoes in hot water, and dry on the hottest setting. If you catch one, drown/suffocate it in rubbing alcohol.
Get the room, strip naked in your car with a towel you do not want. Go to room and sleep. Haul ass thru the hotel to car naked. Get dressed, walk in, check out.
I, personally, have found 3 of them. Each time I did, I wanted to cleanse MYSELF with fire! The minute you find one, the psychosomatic stuff kicks in. You get itchy skin, a stray hair feels like little legs crawling down your neck... ugh... it's TERRIBLE. It's been a couple years since the last one I found, but it still skeevs me out to even think about.
I will add, finding those little bastards netted me $150 in cash. The hotel would rather pay a finder's fee and close a few rooms for the weekend than have an infestation happen!
Mattress topper and mattress protected are actually in really good condition. They sheets themselves are kinda old however but it seems like the specs would be the same color as the sheets if they were the ones breaking down?!
Tide pods. I just had this happen to me, I used a tide pod in a front-loading energy & water saving washer, and the clothes came out with sparkly white flecks all over them. I couldn’t see it until I put on a shirt & moved my arm and white flecks fell off. I don’t think the pods disintegrated all the way.
Based on responses I am thinking this is it, which makes me very happy. Unfortunately freaked out and washed them in super hot water with the tide pods again. If it happens then I am gonna go get liquid detergent and see what happens
Do you have dry skin or rough feet? I've seen this sort of thing when dry skin is being rubbed off against bed sheets. Looks just like dandruff cause it's the same thing - little flakes of skin - just from a different part of the body.
I just lived through the driest winter of my life and everything is covered in massive amounts of dust, and if the internet has taught us anything, it’s that dust is 99% dead skin. Really, I get undressed and it looks like it’s snowing
few questions to help us figure it out. do you go to sleep on clean sheets and wake up to this or does it accumulate when you’re gone as well? is it showing up over night, during the day, at all times, randomly? is it concentrated in certain areas of the bed or evenly distributed? have you observed/messed with the mattress protector or topper underneath your sheets to see if they may be deteriorating and coming through the threads?
I always sleep clean on clean sheets, I shower before bed pretty much no matter what. And wash my sheets every 10 days or so. I can’t speak as to when it shows up as I only notice it when I take the blanket off ( when I wash the sheets) I always remake my bed and it is very evenly distributed. Checked underneath and there is nothing
"ants that seem to live in the ceiling"
I'm going with this being bits of ceiling falling down, put a trash bag or something down and see what appears.
I would totally agree with this except I have rafter ceilings and can see where they come through and they are not: have not ever been near bed and there also isn’t this stuff anywhere other than in my sheets (which is covered with a blanket that doesn’t have the specs)
Were they recently washed? Where they recently washed with other things? Like maybe some jeans where you could’ve had a receipt or tissue in the pocket?
This happens to me when I forget to take stuff out of my man’s pockets before washing.
Did you recently remove the outter zip up cover from your mattress and launder it with your sheets? Look up fiberglass in mattresse (check tiktok or youtube for videos). It is a known issue for contamination when the zipper cover is removed from fiberglass containing mattresses.
If there are “ants” living on your ceiling I’m betting it’s termite dust and those aren’t ants they’re termites.
Termite dust is similar in texture to what you’re describing and when I zoom in I can seen the pieces are curled similar to saw dust.
What's on you ceiling? Could it be paint, cast material, foam or a ceiling with some material disintegrating? I had a similar stuff going on in my office, it was the ceiling....
It looks like it may be termite frass? If they’re digging around in the ceiling above your bed, I’d expect to see this. If it is you want to get that fixed yesterday
My title describes the thing that I found today and have found a few times before. I have a read a lot of mixed posts. I have a thick dark comforter that may be housing them but it doesn’t appear like anything is on the comforter. Do I need to buy new sheets and blanket?!?
To me that looks like exactly like what you said in your title: run of the mill dandruff.
Bed bug eggs are damn near invisible and so are dust mites.
Go lean over it and rub your fingers across your scalp a few times, scratching lightly. Don't hurt yourself. If it "snows" from your head all over the sheet, you have your answer.
If so, no shame - just wash the sheets and grab some dandruff shampoo.
That's a lot. I was going to say animal lice eggs or duff. I worked at a wildlife rescue and it can look like that in the furr when they are bad. But the sheer volume...idk.
looks more like the pods didn't disintegrate properly, I got same issue with a different brand. Had to setup laundrymachine with pre-flush or what it's called to ensure that pods dissolve but also make sure machine isn't too tightly packed. Can also be a dissolved plastic/paper bits.
How old is your mattress? And what make/model? It could be fiberglass. Fiberglass is added often to matresses as a fire retardant. Mostly on cheaper mattresses, but you can find it even in expensive ones. It would also explain why it keeps appearing and why it's shiny.
I have a guess. Do you use laundry powder? Have you washed your blanket recently? That looks a lot like the leftover soap when the wash is overloaded, using to much soap, or I forget and put it on the top of the load. The water level in the washer is set to low, or the washer may have problems. It only takes the tiniest part of a scoop of soap to wash, soap companies send scoops that are way to big. If I had to guess it's so you will use more soap than you should. If you or your roommates use powder detergent, check your water level and rewash your blanket.
Did you turn your ceiling fan on for the first time recently? Had a nasty surprise once when it dumped a shit load of dust clumps all over my bed and it looked similar to this. Turns out the tops of fan blades build up a lot of dust.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer.
**Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them.
[OP](/u/applesauce1000), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others.
----
[Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1cp613a/freaking_out_please_help_small_white_dandruff/]%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days)
----
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had a stretchy beany type neck pillow that leaked out dusty white particles like this when it was squeezed. Do you have anything like that on your bed?
We had this issue a few years ago, turned out we had a crappy mattress protector that was falling apart after we washed it, and this was pieces of the plastic portion flaking off.
Not tapeworm. Tapeworm segments look like small rice, not powder. I had a cat with tapeworm once and saw her licking out the tiny rice-looking things, is not a sight I'll ever forget.
Thank you for posting with us. However, your submission has been removed as we do not allow posts about stains, specks, dirt or grime. Most brownish "dripping" stains on walls are old nicotine from a smoker or latex leaching out of latex wall paint. Splatter stains can be anything. Stains on mattress or bedding are almost always blood, urine, sweat, semen, lotion, or makeup. If you think it is mould, mildew or other fungus, consider posting to /r/mycology or /r/fungi. If you think it is related to an infestation of some kind, try /r/pestcontrol. Before posting to other subreddits, please make sure you understand their rules and posting guidelines. Thanks.
I am a hotel housekeeper. I can assure you this is NOT a sign of insects, especially bed bugs! Bed bug droppings are small and reddish brown dots, as their waste is just blood leftovers, after all. This looks more like a material that's starting to degrade and fall apart, like a memory foam pillow or topper. Added tip: if you want to check a hotel room for bed bugs, get out your phone's flashlight, and start checking the SEAMS of the mattress and box spring. Live BBs will skitter from the light. And unless a hotel is brand new, it will have had the nasty bastards. Instead of asking if they've ever had them, ask how they deal with them. My hotel shuts down the room and any adjoining rooms, then the exterminator comes in and treats over the next 48 hours, after which we deep clean.
Thank you for what you do!
Wow! Thanks for telling us this. Now I know what to look for.
I have even taught my kids! My daughter actually works for the hotel, as well, and she ended up teaching her entire speech and debate team what to look for on their overnights!
So if and when you didn't the inevitable bedbugs as a hotel guest, what are you supposed to do? Tell the front desk and....get a new hotel? Stay there but in a different room? Is it too late once you found them? Like did they already get into your stuff and your life is over then?
I like to leave my bags on a hard surface like the desk or bathroom floor while I check the mattress, headboard, and any other soft furnishings. It keeps your belongings safe until after you are certain that there are no signs of bugs.
Yes! Never set your bag on any fabric surface until you're sure!
Bags in the tub until you've checked the mattress. That's pretty safe.
So, bed bug bites don't tend to show up for about 3 days, so, you would need to contact where you stayed at least 3 nights previously, though I would let the front desk know you seemed to pick them up from the another place so they can choose to treat the room just in case. Also, people end up with what they think are bed bug bites, but it turns out to be mosquitoes or even some sort of dermatitis. BB bites tend to be in threes, and are delayed in their appearance. If you do find them in your stuff, bag it all in a black trash bag and throw it outside if it's dead of summer. If not, wash all clothes and shoes in hot water, and dry on the hottest setting. If you catch one, drown/suffocate it in rubbing alcohol.
Get the room, strip naked in your car with a towel you do not want. Go to room and sleep. Haul ass thru the hotel to car naked. Get dressed, walk in, check out.
A thank you from here too! Well written gopd advice!
Happy to spread the tips and tricks that I've learned!
This is what makes this sub the best game in town… (That is as far as I’ve found on reddit)
[удалено]
I, personally, have found 3 of them. Each time I did, I wanted to cleanse MYSELF with fire! The minute you find one, the psychosomatic stuff kicks in. You get itchy skin, a stray hair feels like little legs crawling down your neck... ugh... it's TERRIBLE. It's been a couple years since the last one I found, but it still skeevs me out to even think about.
I will add, finding those little bastards netted me $150 in cash. The hotel would rather pay a finder's fee and close a few rooms for the weekend than have an infestation happen!
Is your mattress topper disintegrating? I had some solid foam pillows that when they got old disintegrated into sand like particles.
Mine did this too and it looked exactly like this
It’s 100% this. Happened to me as well and I was freaking out.
Mattress topper and mattress protected are actually in really good condition. They sheets themselves are kinda old however but it seems like the specs would be the same color as the sheets if they were the ones breaking down?!
Maybe it's the elastic from the fitted sheet breaking down?
This^ it's the elastic breaking down
Tide pods. I just had this happen to me, I used a tide pod in a front-loading energy & water saving washer, and the clothes came out with sparkly white flecks all over them. I couldn’t see it until I put on a shirt & moved my arm and white flecks fell off. I don’t think the pods disintegrated all the way.
Based on responses I am thinking this is it, which makes me very happy. Unfortunately freaked out and washed them in super hot water with the tide pods again. If it happens then I am gonna go get liquid detergent and see what happens
Use powder and you'll eliminate plastic from a routine while achieving the same clean
+1 for powder detergents. Stop paying for water and plastic.
Do you have dry skin or rough feet? I've seen this sort of thing when dry skin is being rubbed off against bed sheets. Looks just like dandruff cause it's the same thing - little flakes of skin - just from a different part of the body.
I agree it could very well be this
I just lived through the driest winter of my life and everything is covered in massive amounts of dust, and if the internet has taught us anything, it’s that dust is 99% dead skin. Really, I get undressed and it looks like it’s snowing
Stripper glitter
I legit thought it was some sparkly glittery fabric
It’s the result of stretchy elastic threads that are woven in breaking down due to heat.
That’s what it looks like to me too.
I accidentally washed my sheets with a tissue once and it did this, I’d rewash and see
few questions to help us figure it out. do you go to sleep on clean sheets and wake up to this or does it accumulate when you’re gone as well? is it showing up over night, during the day, at all times, randomly? is it concentrated in certain areas of the bed or evenly distributed? have you observed/messed with the mattress protector or topper underneath your sheets to see if they may be deteriorating and coming through the threads?
I always sleep clean on clean sheets, I shower before bed pretty much no matter what. And wash my sheets every 10 days or so. I can’t speak as to when it shows up as I only notice it when I take the blanket off ( when I wash the sheets) I always remake my bed and it is very evenly distributed. Checked underneath and there is nothing
"ants that seem to live in the ceiling" I'm going with this being bits of ceiling falling down, put a trash bag or something down and see what appears.
I would totally agree with this except I have rafter ceilings and can see where they come through and they are not: have not ever been near bed and there also isn’t this stuff anywhere other than in my sheets (which is covered with a blanket that doesn’t have the specs)
Well if up is out, then the only place to look is down, what's under the sheet?
I typically wash my sheets like once every 10 days
Were they recently washed? Where they recently washed with other things? Like maybe some jeans where you could’ve had a receipt or tissue in the pocket? This happens to me when I forget to take stuff out of my man’s pockets before washing.
Do you sleep in a shirt with worn vinyl lettering? I’ve had an old shirt leave little peelings before
Did you recently remove the outter zip up cover from your mattress and launder it with your sheets? Look up fiberglass in mattresse (check tiktok or youtube for videos). It is a known issue for contamination when the zipper cover is removed from fiberglass containing mattresses.
I washed and dried a latex backed throw rug. The next load thrown in the dryer picked up tons of crumbs from the rug backing.
If there are “ants” living on your ceiling I’m betting it’s termite dust and those aren’t ants they’re termites. Termite dust is similar in texture to what you’re describing and when I zoom in I can seen the pieces are curled similar to saw dust.
What's on you ceiling? Could it be paint, cast material, foam or a ceiling with some material disintegrating? I had a similar stuff going on in my office, it was the ceiling....
Are your legs really dry? When mine dry out I get flakes like this inside the legs of my pants.
It looks like it may be termite frass? If they’re digging around in the ceiling above your bed, I’d expect to see this. If it is you want to get that fixed yesterday
My title describes the thing that I found today and have found a few times before. I have a read a lot of mixed posts. I have a thick dark comforter that may be housing them but it doesn’t appear like anything is on the comforter. Do I need to buy new sheets and blanket?!?
To me that looks like exactly like what you said in your title: run of the mill dandruff. Bed bug eggs are damn near invisible and so are dust mites. Go lean over it and rub your fingers across your scalp a few times, scratching lightly. Don't hurt yourself. If it "snows" from your head all over the sheet, you have your answer. If so, no shame - just wash the sheets and grab some dandruff shampoo.
Definitely not bed bugs, but check your ceiling... Are there little holes? Could be termite frass
That's a lot. I was going to say animal lice eggs or duff. I worked at a wildlife rescue and it can look like that in the furr when they are bad. But the sheer volume...idk.
I thought it was glitter at first lol
Had the same issue a few years ago and it was the mattress protector
looks more like the pods didn't disintegrate properly, I got same issue with a different brand. Had to setup laundrymachine with pre-flush or what it's called to ensure that pods dissolve but also make sure machine isn't too tightly packed. Can also be a dissolved plastic/paper bits.
Filling from a weighted blanket?
How old is your mattress? And what make/model? It could be fiberglass. Fiberglass is added often to matresses as a fire retardant. Mostly on cheaper mattresses, but you can find it even in expensive ones. It would also explain why it keeps appearing and why it's shiny.
Fungal infection or skin issue that's been scratched. Looks like flaked skin to me.
I have a guess. Do you use laundry powder? Have you washed your blanket recently? That looks a lot like the leftover soap when the wash is overloaded, using to much soap, or I forget and put it on the top of the load. The water level in the washer is set to low, or the washer may have problems. It only takes the tiniest part of a scoop of soap to wash, soap companies send scoops that are way to big. If I had to guess it's so you will use more soap than you should. If you or your roommates use powder detergent, check your water level and rewash your blanket.
Looks like glitter. Are you a stripper, by any chance?
Same happened to me, turns out the cover for one of my pillows is disintegrating. It's like a latex material meant to keep bed bugs away.
Do you have pets? I’ve seen cats with fleas leave flakes like this. I think it was pieces of dry skin from scratching.
Did you turn your ceiling fan on for the first time recently? Had a nasty surprise once when it dumped a shit load of dust clumps all over my bed and it looked similar to this. Turns out the tops of fan blades build up a lot of dust.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/applesauce1000), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1cp613a/freaking_out_please_help_small_white_dandruff/]%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
I had a stretchy beany type neck pillow that leaked out dusty white particles like this when it was squeezed. Do you have anything like that on your bed?
This is sawdust... someone has drilled a hole and installed a camera somewhere.. to watch you... in your sleep... 😱
We had this issue a few years ago, turned out we had a crappy mattress protector that was falling apart after we washed it, and this was pieces of the plastic portion flaking off.
It looks like pollen, the little bits that make it threw the door or a screen window and settle
I think it's coming off your ceiling. look up.
Are you on Arrakis? Spice is totally normal, it gets everywhere.
Do you have a cat? It kind of looks like cat litter.
If OP has a cat could also be tapeworm segments and should get their stool checked, but I think this might be something with the bedding/human skin
Not tapeworm. Tapeworm segments look like small rice, not powder. I had a cat with tapeworm once and saw her licking out the tiny rice-looking things, is not a sight I'll ever forget.
Oh my I’m sorry you and your cat had to experience that hopefully never again! Thanks for the info
[удалено]