Brown beetles - little uninvited house guests

Little brown bugs in your apartment? Do they scare you by crawling in the closet, on the curtains and on the windowsill? Meet your roommate, this is a carpet beetle. This insect is not such a rare guest. You will have to fight the pest.

The face of the enemy

The carpet beetle is a coleopteran insect. They are black or brown in color, with a body up to 12 mm long and elongated or round in shape. The bug is covered with hairs or scales.

This little parasite multiplies rapidly. And the larvae can live without food for five years.

In nature, skin beetles play the role of a recycler of dust, wool, feathers, and bones of dead animals. These are natural cleaners. Since humans are actively destroying their natural habitat, they have to move into apartments.

Uninvited guests enter houses mainly in the summer through open windows and vents. Also, household members can bring them themselves along with some things - books, carpets, furs, upholstered furniture. The parasite can also hide a newly purchased flower pot.

Carpet beetles are not at all harmless. They are harmful to human health. One bite of a small bug, and the household members have picked up some kind of viral infection or become infected with helminths. A bite can also cause an allergic reaction - unbearable itching in the bitten area.

The parasite must be removed as soon as possible. It is necessary to destroy not only the bugs themselves, but their caterpillars and all larvae.

What does a beetle eat in an apartment?

If there is a parasite, it means it is feeding on something.Despite its self-explanatory name, skin beetles have a very varied diet. There is nothing that is not edible for this insect. The beetle will like synthetic fabric, glued cardboard, plaster, plastic, etc. But still, animal materials remain the beetle’s favorite treat. The exception is the fur coat beetle, which still prefers bread products and Hercules flakes to furs. Therefore, this representative of beetles results in the most minimal material loss.

First of all, household members should be wary of things made of fur, leather, wool, silk, felt, feathers, horns, down, etc. in the kitchen with small brown beetles. In the kitchen, the carpet beetle will stop at cheese, meat, milk powder, dried or smoked fish, some cereals.

A special treat for the bug is glue, which it finds everywhere, for example, in the binding of books. This list can also include asbestos, rubber, cardboard. Plastic cables are also at risk.

Living insects in the neighborhood

It often happens that no one notices the presence of parasites until the beetle accidentally crashes into someone’s forehead during its flight. It's better to find insects before they destroy things.

These insects love warmth and dryness. Therefore, you need to look for them in precisely these places: radiators, window sills, cabinet drawers, under mattresses and carpets, in sofas, etc. Of course, you also need to inspect the kitchen. Housewives often find lifeless bugs on the stove with their paws raised up.

Bugs are not that easy to spot. There are actually much more of them than might seem at first glance. Most of them are still in the state of larvae. They are the ones who chew valuable things.To get rid of parasites and destroy the outbreak, you will have to rack your brains about what nutritional value attracts them to the house.

Sometimes it happens that there is simply no specific focus. Here you will have to focus on the type of bug. Carpet individuals love places where dust and dirt accumulate, which are rarely cleaned. These include spaces under furniture and carpet. Their larvae feed on small particles of various materials - dust, lint, hair, paper and other organic debris. Such food is available even in the cleanest apartment, as it appears a day after cleaning. But Smirnov’s leather beetles adore windows and lamp shades.

Carefully check the sofa upholstery and baseboards. Sometimes insects simply have nowhere to hide but there.

Types of skin beetles

There are more than 600 of them in nature, but only 7 of them are especially dangerous. And in order to get rid of an unpleasant neighborhood, it is necessary to find out its “pedigree.” Apartment conditions are not suitable for all individuals, which is good news. Only five species will be comfortable at home, but they can do just fine without fur and leather.

1. Carpet beetle. These are dark brown individuals that feed on house dust. Often found in everyday life. Only the larvae are dangerous, since the adult beetle does not feed on anything; it uses up its previously accumulated reserves.
2. Ham bug. Loves human houses; this is the most common species in the European part. It can be distinguished by its oblong body shape with black coloring and yellow areas on top.
3. Carpet beetle Smirnov. This individual loves windows, window sills, and lamps. Brown bug 3 mm long.
4. Museum and house beetle. It is rarely found in residential conditions, despite its name. Hiding in flower pots.
5. Fur beetle. This is the most harmful type.In the apartment he eats mostly food. It is distinguished by its black spotted color.

The most common species are the Smirnov's leather beetle and the carpet beetle.

Risk area

Insect larvae require food. Some homes have more of it due to risk factors.

• Living a long-haired animal in the house. The wool that remains everywhere is an excellent breeding ground.
• Availability of book collections. Then you will have to take care of a safe binding for your treasures.
• The house is decorated with stuffed animals and birds. They will 100% be a hotbed for the spread of parasites.
• The cabinets are full of furs. If the bugs have not yet made themselves felt, it means that the house is damp and cool, the eggs are simply developing slowly.

Fighting methods

In terms of their purpose, carpet beetles are similar to moths. They have similar behavior, so the methods of dealing with them are similar.

Start with cleaning, vacuum the worst places. In winter, you can expose some things to the cold. It is advisable to freeze the entire house, but this is not always easy to achieve.

If all this does not help, it’s time to move on to a chemical attack on the parasite. Remember the old recipe with boric acid. Its powder must be thoroughly rubbed with a stiff brush into all possible habitats of the parasite. For hard-to-reach places, you can purchase aerosols, gels and other suspensions. The manipulation will have to be repeated twice a week for the entire month. Don’t forget that a day after the attack you need to rinse and clean everything thoroughly.

Clothing should also be sanitized. You can freeze it, boil it, or use pesticides. For each fabric, choose your own method so as not to spoil the item.

The beetles simply cannot withstand such a complex offensive on all fronts and will liberate the territory.

If you don’t want to do all this yourself, you can contact a special service. But it will cost money. But the pests retreat immediately after the first treatment. There is another plus - professionals give guarantees for their work.

The main thing is not to start a war with insects that have settled in the house for later. This is fraught with the fact that subsequently you will have to not only treat the apartment, but also make full-scale repairs to it. Save your belongings, nerves and health before the little brown bugs take over your entire territory.