Carpet Beetles Back Again

Adamc

We had carpet beetles last summer after moving in. We put some treatment down but got the odd one or two afterwards. They disappeared after the summer and now have made a come back. As we have an old dormer it may be difficult to seal every crevice they could enter the property via. Anyone had a reoccurring problem with them? If so what did you do?

Woolsery

Adamc said:

Anyone had a reoccurring problem with them? If so what did you do?

I blessed my father, who in the early stages of dementia, went to war with ants in his conservatory and bought many puffer packs of ant powder. This was before the Powers That Be in the EU banned the active substance in the powder that actually worked, not only on ants, but carpet beetles too. When we inherited the stuff we  laughed at father's eccentricity, but his legacy enabled us to wipe out the little beggars in the one room that had a wool mix carpet.

And that's the clue to getting shot of them today in these 'woke' times. Simply get rid of wool carpets or employ someone who might still be allowed to use an active chemical that works. Either way it will cost, I'm afraid. I'm hanging on to the ant powder, just in case!

ka7e

It is probably last year's beetles laid eggs that have now reached maturity. It is the larval stage that causes damage by eating textiles etc. You may eradicate the new generation, but they may have already laid eggs to emerge next year! You can kill the adults with a insecticide smoke bomb, meticulously vacuum everywhere to remove eggs and larvae and next year apply diatomaceous earth earth to carpet edges etc to dehydrate the emerging beetles. You need to interrupt the breeding cycle.

Ergates

Woolsery said:

Adamc said:

Anyone had a reoccurring problem with them? If so what did you do?

I blessed my father, who in the early stages of dementia, went to war with ants in his conservatory and bought many puffer packs of ant powder. This was before the Powers That Be in the EU banned the active substance in the powder that actually worked, not only on ants, but carpet beetles too. When we inherited the stuff we  laughed at father's eccentricity, but his legacy enabled us to wipe out the little beggars in the one room that had a wool mix carpet.

And that's the clue to getting shot of them today in these 'woke' times. Simply get rid of wool carpets or employ someone who might still be allowed to use an active chemical that works. Either way it will cost, I'm afraid. I'm hanging on to the ant powder, just in case!

They were banned because they were highly toxic to things other than just ants - usually aquatic life, and quite often humans.  Literally nothing to do with "woke"ness.

Keep_pedalling

With the hot summer we have had the adults will have got in through open windows and doors to lay their eggs. I saw a lot of variable carpet beetles feeding on pollen in the garden in the early summer, so no don’t plenty got in ours un-noticed but we don’t have wall to wall carpets in the house so they don’t have too many egg laying options.