Have you ever seen little brown beetles in your houses? You might have noticed them on the carpet pile in your bathroom, bedroom, or living room. Meet your roommate! This is a carpet beetle. This insect is not such a rare resident on the homeowner’s carpet. But do carpet beetles bite?
You should know that carpet beetles don’t bite. You can be sure, that they never bite anyone in your house, starting from your kids and ending with your guests. Nevertheless, carpet beetles are dangerous for such things in your house: furniture, clothes, and rugs, of course. Besides, their larvae can cause severe allergies. To know more about carpet beetles, just continue reading!
What are Carpet Beetles?
I want to tell you a few words about carpet beetles, for you to know everything about your enemy. This type of beetles belongs to the coleopteran insect group. Their hairy body is about 12 mm long. It has an oval or round shape. As usual, carpet beetles are of brown or black color.
This little pest breeds very rapidly. And its larvae can stay without food for up to 5 years.
Carpet beetles often live outside your hospitable house. They eat the bones and wool of dead animals. But nowadays people put lots of effort to keep the streets and gardens extremely clean from dead animal products. So, carpet beetles have nothing to eat and they have to come to people’s houses and get animal products there. Fortunately for them, you have lots of such things at home: fur coats, leather jackets, hats with feathers, etc.
That’s why carpet beetles try to penetrate your house. But can they bite you?
Do Carpet Beetles Bite People?
Tell me if I’m right!
You’re visiting this blog post because you searched on Google for something similar to (if not exactly) “Carpet Beetle Bites”. Am I right?
And you’re probably searching for that in the first place because somebody told you that you have carpet beetles in your home and you want to see what you’re up against.
Maybe (just maybe!) someone tried to scare you a little bit by saying that Carpet beetles (black, varied, furniture… you name it!) are dangerous and you have to get rid of them as soon as possible.
Am I right again?
It’s something a lot of people ask every month. Especially during August and September (which are the two months of the year when these little and disgusting creatures show themselves more).
A lot of people are scared about the carpet beetle’s bite.
Let me let you in a little secret…
CARPET BEETLES DON’T BITE!
There is no such thing as a carpet beetle’s bite. The grown beetles don’t bite and their larvae don’t bite either. They simply don’t bite humans. If you’re experiencing some sort of itching on your skin you’re probably dealing with a different bug (bed bugs) or some sort of allergies to the larvae. But there’s no bite.
In this post, we’re going to talk about what are carpet beetles like, how they can harm you (or your stuff), and how to get rid of these unwelcome intruders.
Why Do Pest Control Companies Make Us Sure that Carpet Beetles Bite?
The truth about Carpet Beetle bites
So… why are so many people worried about Carpet Beetle bites?
In my experience, a lot of people are afraid of carpet beetle bites because a lot of pest control companies benefit from that fear. If you think that your family (small kids, or even babies) may be bitten by that nasty bug… you might want to hire someone right away.
Why wait?
If you realize that it’s a big problem (because they can cause a lot of damage to your clothes and carpet) but that they aren’t going to bite anyone, you might have time to ask for several quotes.
And that’s something that many pest control companies don’t want you to do.
Many pest control companies may use your fear of being bitten to make you hire them right away.
Is there any real danger?
Yes!
But not of being bitten. In the next section, we’ll be talking about how harmful these bugs are. They are a pest you have to get rid of. I just don’t want anyone getting ripped off because they were deceit by a half-true lie.
Are Carpet Beetles Harmful?
There is no evidence of any Carpet Beetle species ever transmitting any disease to humans (like mosquitoes do).
1. Damage to your house
That being said… Carpet Beetles are very harmful to your house and your belongings. The reason is that the beetle’s larvae are scavengers. They feed on dead animals.
So, anything made with animal-based materials such as feathers, silk, wool, fur, skins, leather, etc. could be potentially eaten by the beetle’s larvae.
That includes your sweaters, scarves, blankets, rugs, pillows, upholstery, taxidermy mounts… and of course… carpets. They are voracious eaters!
Even some synthetic carpets are vulnerable to carpet beetles! Why? Because many times synthetic carpets are blended with wool to make them softer.
2. Carpet beetle larvae “bites” (a.k.a. allergies)
There are, however, some people that are allergic to the larvae’s dead skin. Some people might be allergic to the larvae themselves. And they mistake these allergies with being bitten.
Talk to your doctor in case you think you may have allergies.
But as a rule of thumb, the allergic reaction to larvae is usually more painful and less itchy than being bitten by other bugs (such as bed bugs).
The following is a picture of someone allergic to larvae. As you can see, it’s very different from a bed bug bite:
And these are bedbugs bites:
What Do Carpet Beetles Look Like?
There are many species of carpet beetles, but the 3 most common species are the Black Carpet Beetle, Varied Carpet Beetle, and Furniture Carpet Beetle.
These are a picture of both the grown beetles and their larvae. And yes! The larvae are usually way bigger than the adults:
Carpet Beetles vs Bed Bugs
Many people have asked what the difference between Carpet Beetles and Bed bugs is, how to identify which one has infested your house, etc.So we decided to write a post explaining the difference between both: Carpet Beetles vs Bed Bugs. Check it out in case that’s something you might be interested in!
How to Prevent Appearance of Carpet Beetles in Your House?
Carpet beetles usually come to your house through open windows and doors. That’s why I recommend you get [amazon link=”B01ESSA9VO” title=”mosquito netting”/] for your doors and windows. Use it to cover the entrance to your house all the time during the summer weather.
Besides, never forget to clean your house. Keep in mind, that the only thing, which can frighten these beetles is the great vacuum cleaner and carpet powder.
It’s a good idea to vacuum not just the carpets and rugs in your house, but also other calm quiet places behind your curtains and between the coats and jackets in your wardrobe.
If you have a long-haired pet in your house, I advise you to be extremely vigilant about carpet beetles.
PRO TIP
I want to share the old homemade solution, which helps to get rid of carpet beetles fast. To prepare it, get in the nearest chemist’s boric acid. At home, you have to put on gloves, get the boric acid powder from the bottle and rub it thoroughly into the carpet pile. You may take the carpet rake to spread the boric acid more carefully. Then leave the solution for a night. Finally, clean the carpet with a powerful vacuum cleaner.
How to Kill Carpet Beetles, Larvae, and Eggs
We didn’t want to make this post too long. So we created an Ultimate Guide called: You can get rid of Disgusting Carpet Beetles. This is How! Check it out in case you have carpet beetles and would love to get rid of them yourself. Or if you’d like to know whether or not you need a pest control professional.
Getting rid of carpet beetles is not a hard thing to do and it’s way cheaper than hiring a professional. Although you will have to buy a couple of things. Here are some of the products that you’ll need.
[amazon link=”B003AYWEL6″ title=”Tempo Sc Ultra Premise Pest Control Spray”/]
[amazon box=”B003AYWEL6″]
[amazon link=”B00860X7R4″ title=”Gentrol Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) “/]
[amazon box=”B00860X7R4″]
[amazon link=”B01LRMN9ZM” title=”Powder Duster”/]
[amazon box=”B01LRMN9ZM”]
Conclusion
And that’s it! I hope that most of you are already convinced that there’s no such thing as “Carpet Beetle Bites”
But there’s a possibility that you might have a carpet beetle infestation that’s eating your clothes and carpet AND another infestation that’s biting you at night. If that’s the case, I hope you can get rid of both quickly and painlessly!
I advise you to fight all the insects you can find in your house. Even if they don’t bite either you or your kids, they may damage the precious things in your house, like expensive fur coats or leather jackets. You may get rid of the insects yourself, using various detergents, which you can buy online. Otherwise, you may hire an expert from a pest control company to help you with carpet beetles.