Carpet beetles are a tiny yet troublesome pest that may cause significant damage to your Plano home. It is important to understand and identify this insect to take the proper prevention steps.
Identifying Carpet Beetles
There are a few different types of carpet beetles in the Plano area that you may commonly see around your home:
- Common Carpet Beetle: Also known as the black carpet beetle, this beetle species is either shiny black or dark brown in color. It may commonly be confused for a bed bug.
- Furniture Carpet Beetle: The furniture carpet beetle has black spots with white, yellow, or dark orange areas on its wings. True to its name, it prefers to feed on upholstered furniture.
- Varied Carpet Beetle: The coloration of this beetle is a mixture of white, brown, and dark yellow, with older beetles being a more uniform dark brown color.
Understanding Carpet Beetle Dangers
Even though they are small insects, carpet beetles can bring a serious risk of destruction to your Plano home. While the carpet beetle larvae infiltrate and destroy certain fibers around your home, the adult beetles are the main culprits for invading your home and laying eggs in the first place.
A carpet beetle may enter your home through cracks or gaps in windows, doors, and foundations. They may also use the space between utility outlets to enter. This insect typically enters your home in search of food and shelter, and once they get into your home, carpet beetles will seek out upholstered furniture, carpet, or other fabrics and get to work laying eggs and feeding on fibers.
Because carpet beetles are so small, it can be tough to detect the adults when they move into your home. Before you know it, eggs and larvae will be all embedded in your fabrics, making it challenging to eliminate an infestation at all of its life stages entirely. Even positively identifying a carpet beetle infestation can be difficult due to this insect's small size and elusiveness.
What’s more, some carpet beetles will feed on dead human skin cells and the oils in human hair – this can leave you with red marks or itchy areas on the skin due to mild allergic reactions or bites from the insect. This often confuses individuals with a bed bug infestation and may leave the true culprit of carpet beetles undetected for some time.
Simple Carpet Beetle Elimination
Carpet beetles can be a tricky pest to eliminate, especially if you aren’t sure where the true source of an infestation is. If you believe that you have seen carpet beetles moving around your home or are showing other signs of a carpet beetle infestation such as itchy skin or red marks on humans, damaged carpets, and ruined fabrics around your home; don’t waste time with do-it-yourself (DIY) removal methods and potentially toxic over-the-counter (OTC) remedies – reach out to All-Safe Pest & Termite.
The easiest and most effective way to handle a carpet beetle infestation is with professional assistance. The experts at All-Safe Pest & Termite will evaluate your problem and provide safe, targeted solutions that eliminate any carpet beetle problem you may be experiencing.