Carpet beetles can severely damage your carpets, clothing and any other fabric.
Getting rid of these persistent pests is a challenge.
You must use correct procedure and tools to eliminate carpet beetles in your house and avoid their come back.
You can start by thoroughly vacuuming your upholstered furniture and carpets.
Look for towels, linens, and clothes that may be eaten away;Discard those items to avoid infiltration from spreading.
It is essential to wash non-infested linens with soapy and hot water.
If the beetles continue, try to spray your upholstered furniture and carpets with insecticides especially designed to kill beetles in the carpet.
Identify the Beetles in Carpet
Identify communal clues that specify a potential presence of carpet beetle and increase your awareness about the look of carpet beetles.
Shed skins and faecal pellets are common indications of infestation. You may expect carpet beetles in larvae and adult forms.
The adult beetles are a little larger than the head of a pin and over-shaped. They may come in different colours, but many have black and brown or grey and black patterns. Some have white or yellow lines on the back.
Carpet beetles roll over and drift when you touch them. The larvae of carpet beetle have specific brown bands on their body with hair-like extensions toward both sides.
Finding the source of a problem
Look for faecal pellets, cast skins, and carpet beetles because these are a clear sign that carpet beetles are around in a heavy concentration.
Carpet beetles like fabric so you can find them in carpet, especially in a dark location or closet. They like items made of feathers and fur, upholstered furniture and clothing. They also get attracted to paintbrushes, fresh flowers, dog food, and food cabinets.
Check undistributed and dark locations like attics, baseboards, and air ducts.
Indoor Treatment
You can treat carpet beetle with several indoor treatments, such as steam cleaning carpets, throw away any infested garment, wash the fabric, set traps and apply an insecticide.
Vacuum Your Carpet
Vacuum carpeted locations in your house thoroughly.
Pay attention to the primary source of the infestation, but vacuum your house to remove all beetles.
Vacuum upholstered furniture and any other area covered with a fabric difficult to wash in your washing machine.
Use Insecticide
Use dust or spray that is labeled to kill carpet beetles and carefully follow the instructions of the product.
The insecticides for carpet treatment contain allethrin, bendiocarb, and chlorpyrifos.
Other than full carpet treatment, you can apply spot treatments in crevices and cracks. Add insect growth regulator (IGR) to standard insecticide during application. It acts as the birth control for beetles and prevents their reproduction.
You can put glue traps around crevices, cracks and other areas where you suspect the origin of infestation.