What Are Those Grey 'Pumpkin Seeds' on My Wall? (Plaster Bagworms)
Seeing flat grey 'seeds' climbing your walls? Those are Plaster Bagworms (Case Bearers). Learn why they eat spider webs and how to vacuum them away.
If you live in Florida or the Gulf Coast, you've seen them. A flat, grey, watermelon-seed-shaped thing stuck to your white drywall. It looks like lint, but then you see a tiny worm head poke out and drag it an inch higher.
That is a Plaster Bagworm (or Case-Bearing Moth).
It's Wearing Your Dust
This larva is smart. It spins a silk sleeping bag and covers it with whatever it finds in your house—sand, paint chips, lint, and spider legs. It carries its house on its back like a hermit crab.
Why You Have Them
They don't eat plaster (that's an old myth). They eat spider webs.
If you have these on your walls, it means you have cobwebs in the corners of your ceiling that you haven't cleaned in a while. They are the clean-up crew for your other bugs.
The Vacuum Fix
Don't spray them. The chemicals won't penetrate their armored shell.
Just vacuum them up. And more importantly, vacuum the spider webs out of the corners. If you take away the food (the webs), the Bagworms starve or leave. Lowering the humidity with AC also helps, as they hate dry air.