Believe it or not, the internet can be a force for good.
Take Kelli Tarin for instance. She faced a possible pest problem and turned to Facebook for assistance. The mother of three got thousands of comments from people wanting to help and others just curious about her situation.
she discovered the answer but not before having a good laugh.
Keep reading to find out what that mysterious pile was.
In August 2023, Tarin posted in the Homemaking Tips Facebook group seeking advice from other members.
She and her family had just moved into a rental home in west Texas when they found something that made her constantly reach out to the landlord and every pest control service she could think of.
“Does anyone know what this could be? I’ve found two piles of these only in my daughter’s room. I clean it almost daily. This happened REALLY fast,” she wrote with a picture showing what looked like “coffee grounds.”
Her post attracted lots of attention as many tried to figure out her issue.
“Set up a camera and see how it’s getting there,” one person suggested.
“I’m not sure but if there are little ‘flying ants’ they might be termites. I had them at my first house as an ‘adult’ and they would show up, I’d vacuum them, then they’d come back,” another user said.
Meanwhile, someone else simply guessed it was “rat poop.”
As suggestions kept coming in, Tarin updated everyone on her original post.
She mentioned that for now she wasn’t letting her daughter sleep in that bedroom.
“We called TWO pest control companies yesterday. Both said they’ve never seen anything like this before,” she wrote. “If it were termites, they claimed the droppings would look different. What’s left is crunchy—almost seed-like! It’s really odd.”
As Tarin considered various pests – bats, roaches, mice – she explained logically why none fit. Although finding mice as the cause seemed possible; those brown bits weren’t mouse droppings.
Even after having pest control check things out along with her landlord’s visit; it wasn’t until reading one comment on Facebook that made her rethink everything more closely.
“I read [sic] someone say their kid’s lavender bear burst open and this was inside! Sure enough when I picked up toys from there; there was indeed a lavender plush [sic] bear among those bits.”
Tarin grabbed the bear and tossed it away thinking it was “infested.”
But then curiosity got to her so she took another look at the stuffed animal which had a hole in it!
“I poured out its contents & these beads were inside!!!
I laughed for 30 minutes straight! Imagine my relief.”
Oh wow! What an unexpected story!