New building infestation

[buildup]

Within the last week I have noticed an insect infestation in our apartment. The insects are tiny, slow-moving beetles about the size of flaxseeds and seem to be widely distributed around the apartment's floor.

This downtown condo tower is less than a year old. As a renter, I am reluctant to name it out of consideration of fellow owner/investors.

Anyway, the "super" suggested these insects are somehow emerging from fresh-laid concrete. Sounds strange. Has anyone else encountered these critters in the last week?

 

[building babel]

Concrete beetles. How exciting. A new species.

 

[DarkKnight75]

Could be 905'ers.

 

[buildup]

Come on this is cyr-yus!

 

[adma]

Concrete beetles. How exciting. A new species.

As opposed to asphalt

 

[bizorky]

Cement termites.

 

[BuildTO]

I find this fascinating as one of my interests is entomology. I've never heard of anything that can "emerge from concrete". Can you post a picture? I have no idea how big a flaxseed is.

 

[Chuck100]

Insects can not grow in, then emerge from, concrete itself. I suppose that there is a remote chance that the wood formwork was infested, and then the insects eventually spread. But even that is unlikely.

 

[adma]

I've never heard of anything that can "emerge from concrete". Can you post a picture?

 

[bizorky]

^Hey, John Edwards!

I didn't know he emerged from concrete - or Breck.

 

[adma]

His hair did. That's my point...

 

[building babel]

Perhaps steel beetles? They eat the rebar first, fatally weakening the structural integrity of the building, then emerge to chow down on the interior - concrete floors, drywall, carpets, furniture and eventually ... the occupants.

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[adma]

Well, not until they turn on their building-destroying laser beams

 

[Degnaw]

Do high-rise buildings usually have insect infestations? (of any kind, i.e. ants)

 

[BuildTO]

My apartment (15th floor of an approx. 30 year-old building) has had ants for about a year. The small, brown ones - pretty inoffensive, and not in the food or anything. I've heard from a number of other residents that everyone seems to have them, and only around the kitchen and/or bathroom sinks. I have not seen this in the two other highrise buildings I've lived in.