What Are Signs of Carpet Beetles?

 

Ever heard the phrase “know thy enemy”? When carpet beetles or other similarly stubborn pests try plaguing your home, you’ve got to get to know them to eradicate their presence and prevent them from returning.

Learning the signs of carpet beetles will help you choose the most effective and convenient approach to banish them from your house. It’ll also help you be more confident and less anxious about their presence before you get rid of them!

Whether you’re a homeowner who’s one of our local customers or our online readers throughout the Southeast, our team—Vulcan Termite and Pest Control of Birmingham, AL—is proud to provide this cost-free, comprehensive, and educational online resource about the signs of carpet beetles.

Without further ado, let’s get started; please keep reading!

What Are Carpet Beetles?

Carpet beetles are tiny bugs that love to eat your clothes and other organic fibers while in the larval stage of their metamorphic life cycle and development. They LOVE fabrics like wool, silk, bristles, feathers, fur, and even fallen hair.

Fortunately, carpet beetle larvae, which do all the damage, cannot fly, but their imago family members can. And unlike bed bugs, they won’t try to get on you, bite you, or drink your blood. Carpet beetles cannot hurt you, your pets, or anything in your home made of inorganic or hard material.

They also do not eat wood like termites and don’t usually like paper like booklice. You may find adult carpet beetles taking a tiny nibble of the pollen from your flowering houseplants, but they won’t damage them. For the most part, though, they don’t eat after pupation, so they don’t want your clothes like larvae.

Carpet Beetles’ Appearance

• To the naked eye, imago (the scientific term for “adult insect”) carpet beetles sort of look like ladybugs if they were 4-5x smaller (carpet beetles are about ⅛ in. long) and had black coloring with yellow/tan stripes on their backs instead of the classic red with black spots.
• However, carpet beetles aren’t in the coccinellid (ladybug) family at all; they’re actually in the Dermestidae family. Nonetheless, both ladybugs and carpet beetles are classified as members of the Coleoptera (beetle) order. 
• Up close, carpet beetles look more like dark-colored sand fleas with their six long, slender, and brown legs.
• Carpet beetle larvae look like maggots (which are just the larvae of another insect, anyway) with tiny, segmented, worm-like bodies. They also have bristles and sometimes a grey/brown undertone.

Spotting Signs of Carpet Beetles

You’ll likely see adult carpet beetles flying or crawling toward light sources like lamps, candles, and sunlit windows because they’re ectothermic (cold-blooded) creatures that need warmth and light to mate and reproduce.

You won’t find the larvae in conveniently well-lit spaces, though. They do their damage, munching on their favorite organic fibers, in dark, covered areas, burrowing in deeper as they chew their way through. 

Usually, carpet beetle larvae find and eat fibers in closets and dressers, furniture stuffing, on and under rugs, carpets, dusty air ducts, and behind baseboards.

Before you send hordes of carpet beetles to purgatory, try to find their nests, which will be in stray tufts of soft, organic fibers covered in or full of larvae and egg castings.

Likewise, the cast skins of rapidly growing larvae, striped and bristly in shades of tan and rust, are a tell-tale sign. You’ll want to avoid touching them with bare hands, as the bristles can irritate people’s and pets’ skin.

Try This at Home

Block Entryways

Your first move should be to find the small entry points the pests crawled through to get into your house. If it’s the entryway, seal it shut. Otherwise, you can use caulk to seal cracks in the wall. If you don’t, keeping the insects from returning will be difficult. 

Insecticides

If you find a carpet beetle nest or have seen them frequenting a particular area, here’s a list of products you can use there—please always follow the directions to a “T”:

• Drione Dust
• Suspend SC
• Gentrol IGR Concentrate

Vacuuming: It’s Crucial

Sure, dust and liquid insecticides will kill the mobile adults and larvae. But these treatments won’t do much for the orphaned eggs left behind, at least not immediately. For now, you must start consistently vacuuming everywhere and seal cherished items at risk (like nice wool coats) in airtight bags or containers.

A first blast will rid you of most of the living critters. That is, until the eggs hatch. If you’ve done the whole shebang correctly, as the larvae hatch, the babies will eventually croak. That’s why regularly taking out your vacuum will make your dreams of carpet beetle eradication come true.

Seriously, you must vigorously vacuum the house. You’ll want to do this before applying insecticide products like sprays or dust. Then, once you treat the place with insecticide, vacuum things up again and make it a regular habit. Every couple of days, go over rugs, carpets, furniture, and curtains with the vacuum.

Call Local Pest Experts

Call your local pest control experts to guarantee the successful, long-term banishment of carpet bugs from your home. Professional-grade pest control prevention methods are more thorough and effective than the store-bought kind you can try. 

Only experienced pest control technicians have the equipment, training, and clearance to handle chemical pesticides and treat your home without creating a safety hazard.

Experienced Pest Control Agents in Birmingham

If stubborn carpet beetles or other pests are burdening your home, call Vulcan Termite & Pest Control!

For over four decades, our integrative pest control specialists have dedicated their days to giving Metro Birmingham families the effective, lasting, and safe solutions they need to stop pests from plaguing their property.

Call (205) 663-4200 or contact us online today, and we’ll gladly perform a FREE evaluation and create and implement an effective strategy using our tried-and-true methods so you and your family can enjoy a pest-free home.