What Carpet Beetles Eat

However carpet beetles tend to eat a single large area of a fabric whereas moths create tiny holes all over garments.

What carpet beetles eat.

Carpet beetles don t usually eat cotton linen or other plant based or synthetic fabrics but they may eat fabric blends or fabrics stained with animal products. Carpet beetles like to gather in dark low traffic places in your home like closets storage areas your attic in air ducts and of course underneath your carpet. You may occasionally find carpet beetles in your pantry feeding on grains. Carpet beetles can actually eat any animal product that comes into its contact.

Their feeding creates large isolated holes in the fabric. Unlike moths carpet beetles typically feed on one portion of fabric at a time. Additionally carpet beetle larvae leave cast skins while molting which may cause allergic reactions and dermatitis in some highly sensitive individuals. Carpet beetles are the most dangerous type of beetle to most homeowners.

Common carpet beetles that eat clothes are the variegated black and common carpet beetles. These are solid or splotchy black with specks of white tan and yellow. For example fur feathers wool silk leather and bed. Unlike other species like wood beetles that only eat wood carpet beetles will eat almost anything.

Carpet beetles have a wide variety of things that they eat and interestingly enough sometimes they won t even eat carpet. They all are destructive towards fibers and only differ slightly in their appearance and lifecycle. Verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an. And almost anything else they might encounter.

The varied carpet beetle anthrenus verbasci is a 3 mm long beetle belonging to the family dermestidae they are a common species often considered a pest of domestic houses and particularly natural history museums where the larvae may damage natural fibers and can damage carpets furniture clothing and insect collections. Clothing furniture wool sisal jute carpets leather blankets pet food pet hair crumbs dead insects. The pests can also proliferate on bird nests animal carcasses and dead insects cluster flies lady beetles stink bugs wasps etc which tend to be associated with attics chimneys basements and light fixtures. Today s carpet is made from synthetic materials that carpet beetles won t eat.

These beetles may also eat synthetic fabrics if they are soiled with food or oils. Obviously carpet beetles will also eat through the fabrics in your home. Typically they like to feed off of animal based products. They love to eat away the material that carpets are made out of i e.