Nearly everyone at one time or another has found a random slow-moving beetle carefully making its way across the living room floor. There is a good chance that they grabbed a paper towel and disposed of the offending bug quickly without giving it too much thought, not caring too much about where it came from or why it was there. Chances are, the bug was a carpet beetle. Though we might not give them much thought, it is a good idea to know that they are not there by accident.
The adult carpet beetle seems pretty harmless. They feed on pollen, crawl around, and generally just try to stay out of the way. However, finding an adult carpet beetle is bad news for a homeowner no matter how innocent they may seem. The problem isn’t with the adult itself, but with the eggs it leaves behind. In the insect world, it is generally the other way around. Adult pests cause all the damage to a home or business, but for carpet beetles, the adults are just looking for a spot to leave their offspring where they can find easy access to their main food sources as they grow to adulthood. The female carpet beetle lays up to 100 eggs deep within the carpet, dog bedding, or even some undisturbed dust under an out of the way corner.
The newly hatched larvae of the carpet beetle are squiggly looking pests covered in tiny hairs to help them get around, they even tend to be larger than their parents. As soon as the larvae hatch it is on the hunt for one thing; food. Their favored food is anything made from animal and plant based materials. That means dead insects, hair, pet dander, stored grains and processed food, leather, silk, feathers, and wool are all fair game. Then, when the larvae reach adulthood, they too lay their eggs and are gone. Over time, the house can be completely infested and no one really knows it until they start noticing the extraordinary damage to clothes, bedding, carpets, and furniture. By that time, there could be thousands of carpet beetles hidden around the home.
A homeowner’s best friend when trying to prevent carpet beetles is a vacuum cleaner. Adult carpet beetles will frequently hide their eggs in hard to reach places and spots that a lot of us ignore in our daily routines. Under the baseboard, under the furniture, and in registers. Vacuuming all those areas regularly can eliminate tons of eggs that may be there. Frequent vacuuming of all the pet bedding, washing clothes and shampooing carpets and furniture regularly can help eliminate the threat as well.
You can readily eliminate the threat of carpet beetles along with many other common household pests by calling Quik-Kill Pest Eliminators. Our team offers year-round pest protection plans that are designed for homeowners like you who want to make sure that common pests stay where they belong, outside.