Carpet beetles are deadly insects that eat linen, cotton, rayon and different types of food. Therefore, it is important to find out the best way of dealing with them.
Before you think about how to get rid of these pests, you need to know how they can invade your house.
Once they invade your house or property, carpet beetles need a mechanism that will enable them to survive in the absence of natural foods. This is among the reasons you will find them in different parts of your home.
These insects will start by invading your fabric and then food droppings on your carpets among other parts of your home.
In the discussion below, we have outlined how to identify them, whether they bite/fly and how to get rid of them using home remedies.
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Identifying Carpet Beetles
There are various species of carpet beetles that can damage your property. Some of the common types that you will come across are;
Varied Carpet Beetles
The varied carpet beetles are usually very small when it comes to size when compared to the black ones.
Furniture Carpet Beetles
This beetle occurs on pieces of furniture because they can easily feed on hair, padding and feathers among other things in your home.
Common Carpet Beetles
The common carpet beetles are usually yellow, black or yellow bugs. Carpet beetle larvae normally attack carpets. They can also eat feathers, furs, silk and woolen among other products
Black Carpet Beetles
The black carpet beetles are very common in most homes and they can cause great damage to your fabric.
These animals also feed on hair, bugs, woolen products, plant materials as well as dead animal material just to mention a few of them.
Simple Preventive Measures
There are simple preventive measures that you can adopt when infested with carpet beetles. Some of the best and effective practices include.
19 Best Home Remedies for Carpet Beetles
It does not make sense to waste a great part of your hard earned income all in the name of hiring a company that will help when it comes to controlling carpet infestation within your home because you can do it yourself.
Here are some of the best home remedies that you can use to get rid of these pests from your home without digging deeper into your pocket to pay for the same.
Before you apply any of them, ensure that you take your time to know more about the same.
1
Vacuuming
To start with, you can vacuum your pieces of furniture, curtains as well as the carpets.
Carefully examine your floors and then remove all things from the floor. You can wash everything using warm water.
2
Boric Acid
Boric acid is yet another effective way that you can use to control the widespread effect of carpet beetles within your home.
Spreading boric acid on your fabric and different pieces of furniture will help you to do away with these insects’ larvae completely.
3
Hot and Soapy Water
You should wash them with hot and soapy water over the weekend. Hot and soapy water will help you in getting rid of the pests as well as their eggs from your house.
4
Setting Up Traps
You can use Sticky Strips to combat the spread of carpet beetle larvae. These traps are readily available on the market. You can buy glue traps that can detect these pests.
Glue traps can also help you in killing moths, flies, cockroaches and silverfish among others. However, when they are full, they will lose their adhesive strength. The other types of traps on the market are the pheromone traps.
The traps attract these pests thus helping you to combat them. To remove them, you need to heat and steam clean the traps immediately you complete the process.
5
Neem Oil
Neem tree is among the most popular plants that you can use for medicinal purposes.
Neem oil is alleged to be an effective anti-feedant for carpet beetles among others insects that can damage your property when you fail to take the necessary action in good time.
6
Cedar Oil
Cedar Oil is also a proven way of preventing the widespread of carpet beetles. Many gardeners wipe their plants using cedar oil in order to drive away these pests from their investment.
Cedar oil is not only effective but also safe for the carpet beetles. In addition, it has a soothing aroma that makes it a perfect home remedy for carpet beetles.
7
Homemade Mint Spray
Despite the fact that carpet beetles keep digging plants, they do not love minty fragrances. With this in consideration, there are various natural mint sprays that you can use to control their growth.
You can use these sprays on curtains, clothes and carpets to remove these pests from your home. You can decide to plant various mints types in your home in order to protect plants from being damaged by these pests.
8
Cedar Vinegar and Mint Herbs
Cedar vinegar and mint herbs is yet another strong repellant when it comes to dealing with carpet beetles. This mixture is also a good repellent for other insects such as bugs and ticks because of its properties.
You only need to apply the mixture in the infected areas and you will drive the carpet beetles away within a few weeks without going through much hassle.
9
Dryer
You can also use a dryer to get rid of these pests from different parts of your home. Place all the items that you feel have carpet beetles in your dryer for about thirty minutes before removing them. You can do these frequently to get rid of them completely.
Dryers can also kill their eggs before they become adults.
10
Plastic
Do you know that you can reduce the chances of attracting carpet beetles by keeping your items in plastic bags? You can buy various plastic bags for storing clothes as well as scratches among other things instead of throwing them here and there.
11
Installing Lights In Your Closets
Carpet beetles tend to feed when in the dark. Therefore, installing lights in the closets will prevent them from feeding frequently.
In other words, a building with less light is less attractive to carpet beetles thus reducing the chances of being infested with these pests.
12
Cleaning Your Furnishings
It is good to clean your furnishings more frequently including your upholstered piece of furniture, rugs and draperies.
You can clean them on a weekly basis to reduce the probability of being affected by these insects.
13
Cleaning Fabrics
Perspiration stains and food are some of the things that attract carpet beetles into our homes without our knowledge.
You can protect your property by cleaning all the fabrics within your home more regularly.
14
Use of Synthetic Materials
Carpet beetles feed on organic materials only. Therefore, you can fill your room with carpets, rugs, interior fabrics and furniture among others.
Fabrics made from synthetic will drive these pests from your home because they will not have something to feed on.
15
Cedar Chest Oil
Cedar chest oil has properties that enable it to kill carpet beetle larvae. Nonetheless, this oil is not very effective in killing larger specimens.
In addition, you need to note that as cedar becomes older, it loses the power of the applied oil over time making it less effective for driving the beetles away.
16
Seal Broken Screens
It is important that you make it a routine to clean your windows as well as air ducts in your home to reduce the entry points for these insects.
You can organize for weekly routine cleaning so that you control the larvae from becoming the adult carpet beetles.
17
Mothballs
In the process of storing your clothes in plastic or any other container, you need to place mothballs inside them in order to protect them from the effect of carpet beetles. If you are worried about the smell, then you can read this article on how to get rid of mothball smell.
18
Outdoor Maintenance
Adult carpet beetles thrive outside. Therefore, the best way to regulate them is outdoor maintenance. These pests feed on nectar and pollen grains but the lay their eggs in bee, wasp, rodent, bird and old spider nests.
To drive them away, you can clear these areas together with highly pollinating flowers around your house.
19
Inspect Flowers
At times, carpet beetles can enter your home through flower bouquets. This does not mean that you should stop buying flowers but instead you should do so carefully.
Adults feed on pollen and nectar from fabric during their early days. Some of the flowers that can attract these insects include carpet myrtle, buckwheat and spirea among other pollen producing plants.
You look at the flowers carefully before taking them to your home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Do Carpet Beetles Come from?
Do you have a carpet beetles infestation in your home? Well, carpet beetle infestation is likely to be brought about one or two beetles once they find their way into in your home.
Because they adult carpet beetles tend to feed on pollen, these insects can come to your home because of the flowers you are going to bring into your home especially if you like doing so more frequently because of one reason the other.
Therefore, it is important that you take your precious time to inspect everything you want to bring into your home before doing so. Inspection is very important especially if you live in an area that is insect-prone.
Do Carpet Beetles Bite?
Unlike other harmful insects such as bed bugs, carpet beetles do not bite human beings as many people allege. Their hair is likely to irritate your skin as well as mimic the irritation caused by bedbug bites among other insects. However, these bites can damage your woolen fabric, fur garments as well as silk fabric among others.
Do Carpet beetles fly?
Many people keep wondering whether carpet beetles can fly or not. Yes, these insects have the ability to fly from one point to another. They are normally attracted by the bright colors of flowers within your home.
Because of their small size, they can easily enter your home through different entries including doors, windows and other pints of entry without your knowledge. They are normally attracted by specific scents and odors.
Where can you find carpet beetle larvae?
Carpet beetle larvae occur in different areas of your home. Some of the common areas where you can find them include but not limited to the following
Keep Carpet Beetle Away From Your Home
Dealing with carpet beetle larvae can be among the most daunting experiences especially if you do not have adequate knowledge on how to go about the same.
When it comes to larvae, these insects can be very dangerous unless you take an action as soon as you can for your own good.
You can find larvae in different areas of your home including the following;
Conclusion
In conclusion, carpet beetles were commonly attributed to coastal and northern but now they are almost found everywhere. Most studies allege that the great changes in climatic conditions have driven pests from their natural habitat.
Because of this, you should not be surprised to see carpet beetles in different areas of your home. Carpet beetles enjoy colder weather conditions and they can be found in windowsills, carpets as well as edges of the couch just to mention a few of them.
If you are going to take long to drive carpet beetles out of your home, these insects can damage your property.
Larvae of these pests can survive for up to three weeks before they turn to become adults later on. Therefore, it is wise to control them during the larval stage before they become adults’ carpet beetles.
Some of the best home remedies that you can embrace include Neem tree, vacuuming, vinegar, homemade mint spray, and cedar among others.
With these remedies at the back of your mind, you will not spend a great part of your income hiring someone to help you in controlling these pests around your home.
“Deadly”? How, exactly, are carpet beetles “deadly”? I think you jumped the shark in the first sentence of your article. We are hardly talking about rabid animals.