this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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What is this thing?

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It looks like it came from some form of pest, but there are no obvious holes or material above it. It's between glass and a screen with no obvious openings or holes. None of my other windows have it. We did have the house re-insulated recently, but I don't think it looked like this. Any help identifying what's going on?

I'm geographically located in Northern NJ I'm the US in the suburbs.

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[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 63 points 1 month ago (4 children)

My guess is a carpenter bee, and there is a hole somewhere you didn't notice

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Or a very shitty carpenter gone rogue

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, are bees able to spec into rogue?

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Depends on which ruleset you follow

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago
[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Could also be carpenter ants, no?

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 41 points 1 month ago (3 children)

My guess is it could be The Carpenters. Look for any signs of a Californian soft rock band.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Possibly carpenter pants, look for big side pockets and denim loops.

[–] gws@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Nougat@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

I'm a Dickies Man, tyvm.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Rainy days and mondays, am I right

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

When I was young, I listened to the radio, waiting for my favorite song.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Carpenter ants tend to create little pellets in my experience.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

https://whatsinmyyard.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/a-home-for-bees-part-2/

Does look like the shavings are similar to this image of shavings from a carpenter bee, to my layman's eye.

[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This the pollen of the sawdust tree! Quercus alunima. It thrives in moderate, humid climates. It releases pollen that, when aggregated, looks like piles of sawdust. This used to confuse early settlers when they first colonized America. The puritans used to call it 'the devil's sawdust' since it appeared out of nowhere like magic. But the tree is perhaps most famous for not actually existing because I just made all that up.

[–] Linktank@lemmy.today 11 points 1 month ago

Maybe the hole is under the pile?

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Maybe carpenter ants. At one point I discovered them by a pile of sawdust like that on my coffee table.

It turned out there was enough of a roof leak to cause some rot despite no visible leak symptoms, the ants were following that, and happened to discard the sawdust out a tiny hole in the ceiling above my coffee table. It sucked because that was the signal to replace the roof

[–] kertain@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have has that with fireants and the foam in alot of windows and doors. Is it foam bits perhaps?

[–] loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It does look like foam to me.

[–] kertain@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Opps sorry for late reply.

Yah if its foam then something is digging it out.

Those piles look like what ants pile up outside their nest, and I have seen fire ants do this several times in the past. Hope you figure it out!

[–] Hello_there@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

It doesn't look much like termite droppings to me:

https://www.orkin.com/pests/termites/termite-droppings

What Do Termite Pellets Look Like?

Drywood termite pellets are tiny, oval-shaped capsules with six concave sides and rounded ends. These pellets, which are about 1 millimeter in length, can form small mounds beneath kick out holes. The mounds may look like small piles of salt or pepper.

termite-droppings

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Is there a tree outside the window