What You Need To Know About Carpet Beetles | American Pest

The Big Takeaways:

• Carpet beetles are often hard to spot because they prefer dark and undisturbed areas, which allows them to feed on fabrics, carpets, and other animal-based materials without being noticed.
• The larval stage causes the most damage since larvae feed on items like clothing, blankets, upholstery, and stored fabrics, and their shed hairs can trigger allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.
• Regular cleaning, proper storage, and early detection can limit carpet beetles, but professional pest control provides the safest and most reliable solution when an infestation grows.

Are you seeing these creatures in your home? Carpet beetles are found inside homes, warehouses, museums, and other buildings.  Once inside they may cause serious damage to clothing, furs, carpets, and other stored fabric items.

What do Carpet Beetles Look like?

Carpet beetles are little round bugs that are up to 3.5 centimeters long, black with a yellow and white mottling of scales on their backs, and thick yellow scales on their legs. Most carpet beetle larvae are elongated with hairs all over their bodies.

They look a lot like mini ladybugs but are black with yellow spots, and their larvae look hairy and brown in color.

Signs of a Carpet Beetle Infestation

Carpet beetles do the most damage while they are in the larval stage. You will usually find the first signs of a carpet beetle infestation in windowsills where you may find adult beetles.

The larvae can cause holes in carpet and fabric. You may see piles of larvae skins that are cast while molting. If you have people in your household with sensitive allergies, the cast skins may cause allergic reactions and dermatitis.

How are Carpet Beetles Harmful to Belongings?

Should you be worried about carpet beetles? Well, consider the fact that the larvae of these beetles are known to feed on a variety of animal-based items.

They will consume a wide range of items in your home, including silk, fur, wool, leather, and animal hair. Because of this, they are typically found in carpets, blankets, comforters, woolen items, clothing, pillows, and furniture.

On top of that, since both the larvae and the adults of these beetles prefer to feed in dark, undisturbed areas, they often go unnoticed for a long period of time until the infestation has grown into a large problem.

Are Carpet Beetles Harmful to Humans?

Not only are these tiny bugs damaging to the items in your home, but they can also cause harm to some humans.

These beetles can leave little red bumps on the skin that look like bug bites, but they are actually caused by an allergic reaction.

These bumps and rashes appear when an allergic person comes into contact with the hairs, or bristles, on the abdomen of carpet beetle larvae, or to the insect’s blood.

An allergic reaction to carpet beetle hairs may result in itchy welts that can become infected if scratching is not controlled.

If you are seeing them, there is a good chance you’re wondering if they’re harmful. Sadly, the answer is yes. They can be very harmful to your belongings. And, if you have an allergic reaction, they can also be harmful to you as well.

What Causes You to Get Carpet Beetles?

The reason why you are being stalked by carpet beetles is their diet.

Your house has all the types of products carpet beetles love such as skin, silk, wool, hair, etc. 

It’s hard to tell if there’s a specific reason why you are dealing with carpet beetles but most of the time they find such products because of poor cleaning, stained carpets, and/or mishandling of animal-based products.

Is There Any Way to Prevent Carpet Beetles?

Yes. Here are a few things that you can do to try to keep carpet beetles at bay:

• Dry clean all your clothes or run them through the dryer in the hottest setting.
• Dust your home and thoroughly vacuum carpets, furniture, and pantry shelves on a regular basis.
• Keep your rooms brightly lit and use bright fabrics. This will help keep larvae away.
• Check flowers and plants for pests before bringing them inside.
• Store all food in the refrigerator or in plastic containers.

Professional Pest Control to Get Rid of Beetles

Here at American Pest, we are educated in the habits and habitats of carpet beetles, and we know that intensive and preventive treatment is the best defense against carpet beetles and their larvae.

We will keep these pests out of your home using our expertise and equipment to safely and fully exterminate these bugs. And, if you have questions regarding carpet beetles, we can assist with that as well. Simply give us a call or fill out this form. We have both residential and commercial pest control programs designed to keep your building free from pests.