Discovering a new pest roaming around inside your home can be a jarring experience, especially when you realize that your new home guests love eating carpets. Just this fact alone has probably got you wondering, “what other problems do these tiny pests pose?” Fortunately, our experts at Pest Pro Pest Control can help. So without further adieu, here is everything Davis and Weber County homeowners ought to know about carpet beetles.
What Are Carpet Beetles?
Carpet beetles are small, hard-shelled, winged pests with a propensity for invading homes and eating things they shouldn’t. More specifically, it is the larvae of carpet beetles that consume carpets, fabrics, and animal products. Often, carpet beetles are mistaken for bed bugs due to their small size and oval shape.
A single female carpet beetle can lay anywhere between 25 and 100 eggs in her lifetime. These eggs are typically laid within the carpets of homes or on a piece of fabric. They take two weeks to hatch. Once eggs have hatched, larvae will consume whatever they can around them to help them grow including fabrics, wool, silk, feathers, leather, and dead insects. It can sometimes take over a year for larvae to turn into full adults. At this point, their tastes change and hunger draws them back outside in search of seeds, plants, and flowers.
Carpet beetle infestations often go unnoticed for months or even years at a time. The difficulty in detecting a carpet beetle infestation is due to these creatures' incredibly small size and the way they keep to themselves. Your first indicator will likely be carpet beetle damage. You'll notice chewed fabrics and bald spots throughout the rugs in your home. Furthermore, adult carpet beetles pose less of a threat than their larvae making identifying an infestation early difficult.
How Do Carpet Beetles Get Into Homes
Carpet beetles can live inside and outside. Most often, these pests will find their way into homes by simply flying through an open door or window. Rips and tears in window and door screens, damage to door sweeps, along with gaps, cracks, and holes in the exterior of homes are common entry points for carpet beetles and other unwanted pests. Finally, carpet beetles can sneak inside in the form of eggs hidden on used furniture, old clothing, or other fabric-based products.
How You Can Prevent Carpet Beetles
As a result of their small size, it may be difficult to keep carpet beetles out of your David County home. However, there are a few precautions you can take to keep these pests away:
- Use liquid cement or a caulking gun to seal up cracks, holes, and gaps around the exterior of your home.
- Repair or replace damaged window and door screens.
- Make sure all of your exterior door sweeps are in good working condition.
- Do your best to keep unscreened windows and doors closed as much as possible.
- Keep exterior lights off at night or invest in insect-repelling bulbs.
- Thoroughly check used furniture and other fabric-based items for eggs and larvae before bringing them into your home.
The Best Way To Deal With Carpet Beetles
Whether your home has an active infestation of carpet beetles, or you are looking for a reliable way to keep these destructive pests out of your home, we have options for you here at Pest Pro Pest Control. With several pest control options to choose from, you should have no problem finding the right option for your home. To make things simple, we recommend going with our general pest control plan. This option deals with carpet beetles as well as a wide variety of other common Utah pests.
Contact us today to find out more about our pest control options or to schedule a service visit for your Davis or Weber county home.