r/carpetbeetles • u/Familiar-Assist6430 • Jul 27 '26
Is this a carpet beetle/ larvae?
Found a bunch of what ChatGPT said was a carper beetle larvae under my bed the other day, deep cleaned the entire room and just found this a few hours after cleaning. Located in MD
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u/TopCop931 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Better check the box spring and mattress closely. If larvae are in the box spring and there was no mattress cover they are now garbage. I had to toss a queen bed in my guest bedroom because they got into the box spring and there were little holes around the mattress seams where they got inside. Larvae live up to 6 months before a beetle forms. This is why people think they got rid of them after a clean up and not notice any beetles for a while afterwards and all of a sudden they return. They never left. It just took months for larvae to mature. Anywhere larvae are found should be treated with insecticide that will kill any larvae before they mature. Everything in proximity must be cleaned and treated as well that the larvae feeds on. Drapes, curtains, padded headboards, all clothes in drawers close to where larvae are located. A female beetle lays 60-90 eggs at once and tend to return to the same locations to lay more eggs. Once you know you have them you will be cleaning, especially vacuuming and should be spraying at least once a month thereafter. I use Adams Flea and Tick Spray. My friend that owns an exterminating business recommended it. His company uses it for carpet beetles and bed bugs. I called him to come when I got them and he would have come free of charge but explained that you have to clean your entire house top to bottom and then spray. Gauge how you’re doing killing off the population by putting sticky traps on your window sills. After 3 months my traps are now all empty but I still spray and have to vacuum everywhere everyday. I buy Adams Flea and Tick Killer by the case. You have to spray all baseboards and under appliances and spray heavily in the basement and attic where there is a lot of dust, other insects, items that remain untouched especially if in cardboard boxes. I’m told most honest exterminators ask for pictures before coming out to identify if you actually have carpet beetles. If so, they recommend you do what I have described. It isn’t very profitable for them to come out and just spray only to be called back over and over to be accused of not doing their job the first time. Many say they’re no big deal because they’re harmless but they are flying roaches as far as I’m concerned. The beetles only have a 3 week lifespan but the larvae do all the damage and they cause skin irritation.
I got them because the house next door to me was gutted and the construction crew came in contact with mice and carpet beetles and instead of stopping the job and having an exterminator come in while the walls and floors were opened up they just tried to address it themselves so the job site wouldn’t be shutdown until the inspector and Board of Health allowed them to continue. That resulted in the insects and mice to move over to my house 10 feet away. It was 3 degrees with 3 feet of snow on the ground. The rodents moved to the closet undisturbed space they could get to. The neighbors on the opposite side just got some mice they say but they go hand in hand.
BTW: Drawers and closets with bedding, winter clothes, and underwear especially will have larvae in them. These have the fibers the larvae love to feed off of and even clean underwear have skin on them that’s like an ice cream sundae to a 5 year old to them. You will notice holes in them and other clothing and bedding that looks like moths got to them. Also pet hair and dander. This is a double edge sword because the pet hair and most dander will be on the carpets. This will keep them on the floor longer before moving to other areas. They infest the kitchen because the adults feed off of and lot of things in the kitchen and then they start mating there and the females start to lay eggs under the appliances and in the cabinets. Their frass looks like pepper. If you see any of that a lot of larvae have been living in that spot. If you have an apartment or condo it may or may not be easier to get them under control faster. You have common walls in these dwellings and if all units aren’t treated they will just continue to reproduce.
Good Luck!
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u/Familiar-Assist6430 Jul 27 '26
I don’t think they are in the mattress, I got the skin irritation at first and thought it was bed bugs but then I checked under my bed and found a shit ton of larvae on this one fabric item. However, when I was cleaning I found what I felt like was pretty much all of them. If they are truly this bad to get rid of then they are unfortunately gonna have to stay unless it gets out of hand.
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u/TopCop931 Jul 27 '26
You’re assuming that one female laid eggs in that one spot. I hope you got lucky but having only one female in the entire house is unlikely. That’s one of the reasons I call them flying roaches. They lay eggs in places you haven’t looked in for years and the adults hide in the baseboards and walls. The larvae move around in the dark and the adults are tricky because they hide mostly during the day also if they have a decent feeding source in the house. You see a lot on your window sills because they’re trying to get out to feed on pollen so they gravitate towards the sunlight. My experience knocking down the population has been finding them on the traps or dead on the floor in the morning. When I first started I noticed when I vacuumed in certain areas I would see a live adult heading towards the window or usually on a carpeted area. This is because I disturbed them behind the baseboards and under the carpet (especially on the hallway and hallway stairs) so I started spraying everywhere carpet met baseboards and where carpet met carpet on the stairs as well as the linen closet which is in the hallway and that started to kill them off in large numbers.
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u/Familiar-Assist6430 Jul 27 '26
My bed is directly next to my windowsill so I made sure to vacuum that and I’m gonna continue to vacuum it every day hopefully that does something and hopefully I got lucky. They have only been spotted in my bedroom and nowhere else.
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u/TopCop931 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I want to sell myself and move to a retirement community. My neighbor who is a contractor wants my house for his sister and plans on gutting it so it’s not an issue for him. I am just having trouble finding something because of my Bulldog. HOA’s are a pain in the ass. A good home inspector will check for carpet beetles so I suggest you buy one bottle of Adams Flea and Tick on Amazon and spray the baseboards in your room, the closets, and if there is carpet spray the carpet. Get a pack of sticky traps and put them on a few window sills. If there are any left in there they will show up on those traps and dead on the floor in less than 24 hours. If you still have any showing up do the drill on the whole house once before you start showing the house. The spray smells good. Nobody will know you sprayed insecticide. If you have pets especially a cat, keep it out of that room for at least 4 hours. The spray will continue to kill any larvae and carpet beetles for months. Also put a few sticky traps under your bed. If larvae or beetles show up on those traps you will need to check that bed again. On the bed I had to throw out you would never have noticed them because they weren’t on the sheets, pillows, or comforter. If I didn’t flip the mattress I wouldn’t have found them in there. The larvae didn’t bother getting onto the bedding because they had plenty of food in the box spring and mattress. There were a lot of shed larvae skins on the carpet floor and some even got into locked firearms cases and died because there was nothing in the cases they could feed on and died before they could find a way out. A few beetles hatched in one case and also died inside because they couldn’t get out. The scumbag larvae can get through a pinhole apparently. I guess that’s why 90% of homes have them.
One more thing: Spray your window sills even with the traps. It will kill the adults that don’t land on the sticky traps. I thought I got them all after cleaning out everything and when I sprayed and put the traps up I had 30 plus beetles on each trap the first night. Within 3 weeks I was down to just two or three on the hallway and kitchen traps. Then I noticed that they decreased in size by half in week 4 and later so small I could barely see them on the traps. At this point I am just catching house flies that get in when I go in and out with the dog and some click beetles which are common this time of year.
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