Odd query about an odd experience

Jane10 - you can't do this to us! We need to know if there's anything in there. Pretty please don't leave us in limbo.

Jane ignore everybody, listen to the voice of reason and bin it nowhere remotely close to your home.

Ah come on Jane they can’t be larvae AND rubbing their legs larvae don’t have legs I think these thoughts and fears have legs though I think you are spooking yourself Do it outside and I bet you a pound to a penny there’s no insects in there

BlueBelle the increase in temp leads the larvae to hatch. That's when the leg rubbing happens.
DH is off to the dump with it! Sorry everybody.

Using a flame thrower is the only proper response, I think!

Last summer, when the house was very quiet, I could hear a high pitched noise in the living room. OH couldn't hear it all; he's partially deaf and the noise was too high a frequency for him to pick up anyway. It went on for days and I couldn't track it down at all. This went on for more than a week and then, late one evening, whilst sat reading, a large yellowy/orange insect flew right past my head and latched on to the back of the living room door. It was well over 2 inches long and it clung there, flexing its wings and pulsating. It knocked me sick! I vacuumed it up, at arms length and forgot about it. The next day, 3 more flew around the room and clung to the walls, window shutters and door. I ran to grab the Dyson again and that when I saw that insect no. 1 was still alive, flying round and round inside the dust box and it and almost doubled in size. His mates quickly followed him up the long tube to oblivion! It was then that I realised that all of them had flown from the same spit in the room; the log pile at the side of the wood burner. Unknown to me, one of the logs (the one at the very bottom of the pile, naturally) had got an infestation of Wood Wasps and the noise I'd heard had been them grinding their way out of the log, ready to hatch. They were truly monstrous! The whole delivery of logs were dumped because I had no way of knowing if any more logs were infected with them. And just having one in your house can cause immense damage to wooden furniture, joists, beams and floor boards.

Never want to see another Wood Wasp as long as I live!

Ohhh I'd have to burn it and disinfect the bedding as I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to things like that after having spent lots of time in Australia where things do " creak and make noises in the night ". Like possums on the roofs etc.

Good grief, Chewbacca!. I'm suddenly feeling very itchy and paranoid.

Aaawww possums!
We're in a 4th floor flat. Only thing above us is our very inconsiderate nieghbours.
The mattress has gone. The noise has gone. Hope it stays that way!!

It was absolutely horrible SueDonim. Imagine 3 of these flying around your living room! I was shaking so much, I couldn't point the extension hose on the Dyson properly! And when the went up the pipe, I could hear them banging around inside! It took me several days to pluck up the courage to empty the dust box, in case they flew back out at me!

OMG Chewbacca you must have been so glad to get rid of them. Well done for being brave enough to empty the dust bag.

I've just looked up wood wasps, Chewbacca. They're most unnecessary, imo, like spiders, and should be done away with.

I've done my best SueDonim! 4 were sucked up into the vacuum, and the ones who were busily gnawing there way out were thrown on a bonfire. But it taught me a lesson; never buy logs from a forest because they've probably been lying around, just waiting for things to burrow in, lay eggs and hatch out in my living room. Now I pay more to have kiln dried logs. I figured that 3 days in a kiln is long enough to kill anything!

Oh good grief Chewbacca, I'd have died a thousand deaths

Jane10 I would definitely be inclined to bin the mattress, but please have a look inside first - we are all itching (literally!) to know what's there!

But Chewbacca, I meant to ask, what did you do with the four that were inside your Dyson? You said the first one was still flying around inside the drum , so presumably the three others survived the journey up the tube and into the drum as well. Did they just beat each other to death inside the small space? I can scarcely bear to think about it, ugh

Bathsheba...... Large black plastic rubble sack, shaken wide open. Loosen the top of the dust box, but definitely not opened fully. Put dust box into the rubble sack, holding it through the sack itself, with one hand. With the other hand, snatch off the lid of dust box, shake dust box violently to shake contents to the bottom of the sack and whip out both the box and the lid as quick as you can. Grab the sack around the middle, knot it and throw it in the bin as quick as possible. Don't use the dustbin again until its been emptied. Just in case.shudder

Do you remember that programme where contestants were urged to "Open the Box!" and see what was in there?(Can't think of the name of it right now...compered by Hughie Green, or Michael Miles?)

This is the "Open the Mattress" equivalent!

I can understand your getting rid of it Jane but for a moment there it was like we all had the suspense of an extra mystery/surprise Christmas present to open

Well, at least tell us where the dump is!

at three days in a kiln.

We used to get huge cockroaches when we lived abroad. They give me the screaming abdabs.

Day6 Christmas presents are supposed to be nice or at least acceptable! Maybe 'The Mystery of the Chirruping Mattress' could be the next best selling thriller? In the film of it I'd want me to be played by Meryl Streep (or Jo Brand) DH would have to be played by Charles Dance (or Mr Pastry) DGS by Prince George of course. The detective could be that chap from 'Shetland'. He always seems so kind yet competent. Oh no. I've got carried away again. Dratted mattress!

Jane10 it would be a block buster

Day6 that was Take Your Pick, with Michael Miles. Hughie Green hosted Double Your Money. Gosh, that was a long time ago - I used to love both programmes

Chewbacca . Not sure I could have been as brave as you!!!

I’ve had the best giggle with this thread. Made my morning!!

My son had a lizard when he was young. He fed it crickets among other things. The inevitable happened and some escaped. We would lie in bed at night listening to the chirping,it drove us mad. We would hunt the house for these crickets and only find them when we weren't looking.
Some had went through floorboards and fallen down between wall. Horrendous!

Oh that does sound worrying, my mind is in overdrive as to what the creatures were.
I once found the most enormous cockroach on the study floor, so big it sent shudders down my spine, and I have worked night shift in old buildings. I googled to find a picture of the cockroach and it said it was of Chinese origin, I think it must have been carried in a large box that surrounded a dolls house, sadly an expensive toy that I believed had been made in Britain.