If you've never looked at a woodlouse up close you might not notice how interesting and pretty they can be! I was particularly drawn to this one (admittedly a strange phrase given the subject) as it looked more colourful and patterned than the usual woodlice that I see, which are just a uniform grey. It also seemed to run about three times faster than woodlice I'm familiar with.
As usual with these things I feverishly looked it up, expecting to find that I had unveiled an exotic invader or even a whole new species, only to find that it is the "common woodlouse". So how come I haven't noticed these patterned ones before? I think the usual ones that sneak across the carpet must be the common rough or common shiny woodlice.
Did you find out how they come to be on our carpets? Or, as in my house, upstairs in the bathroom? Nice little things, I think, though perhaps not in the house. My son was scared of them right up into his mid-teens!
They come up through cracks in the floorboards from the space under the house, which is usually just soil a foot or so beneath those boards – at least on the ground floor! Even with fitted carpets they seem to find a gap in the skirting or the carpet edge to wiggle through. Either that or they just waltz under the front door if there’s a gap. I’m not sure how they get upstairs, though I have found one climbing the stairs once so maybe it’s as simple as that.