What Are Carpet Beetles? (and how to get rid of them)

What are Carpet beetles? Carpet beetles are members of the Dermestidae family of beetles, which also includes the larder beetle, hide or leather beetles and khapra beetles. There are two common Carpet beetles, the Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) and the Two Spot Carpet Beetle (Attagenus pellio). Carpet Beetles can cause serioust damage to your fabrics as well as other materials that contain keratin.  There is varied carpet beetle; however, the adult carpet beetles have brownish legs and they are also so black, they are shiny.  These adult beetles will grow to be 1/8 to 3/16th inches in length and they can easily be found outside amongst flowers, which mean that they are very common during early summer and spring. 

The larvae from these beetles are normally pests of insects and due to the fact that they are drawn to flowers it is very easy for them to get into your house during spring and lay their eggs.  The carpet beetle will begin laying their eggs anywhere from four to eight days after they have entered their adult life.  A female carpet beetle will lay roughly 50 eggs during a 3 week period and after she has laid her eggs she will die.  In your homes, these eggs will be deposited in places such as air ducts, where there is lint accumulated, and under baseboards and other areas such as this. 

After the eggs have been laid, they will hatch within 6 to 11 days during warm periods.  However, these eggs can be developed in various different temperatures and can therefore survive in temperature changes better than the clothes moths.  Carpet beetles tend to like the dark; therefore, you are unlikely to find them in areas that are well lit.  You will find them more in the lower areas of your closets and they can be easily found in woollen materials, in your upholstered furniture such as couch, and they can easily be found on the edge of carpeting underneath your baseboards. 

Due to the fact that the larger larvae tend to like to wander, they can easily be found all over your house in areas such as: your kitchen, your bathroom, and you will be able to see them crawling on the ceilings and the walls as well. The carpet beetles are as annoying as the fur beetle due to the fact that once you have them; they can be very hard to get rid of.

If you realise that you have carpet beetles, there are certain things that you can do to get rid of them such as: baiting them with fly paper and keeping your homes clean.  Do regular cleaning and you will see how easily these creatures come out of your home.

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