carpet beetles

[primer]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here could offer me any guidance or help, We have had a carpet beetle problem in our house for quite some time, for more than a year, we only noticed them due to identifying something we found towards the late end of last year, which was a wooley bear, prior to that we had been finding many garments and materials damaged but not finding any insects.

We have had a pest control company in, and they have sprayed some of the rooms, as well as putting down insect monitors, which have yet to catch anything, we have booked them for a return visit as we are still finding damaged clothes on a regular basis, a few months ago we were seeing wooley bears every so often on carpets and skirtings, but now this appears to have stopped, all we are seeing is the damage.

What is all the more concerning is that clothes etc can be left out or on a bed for only 2 hours, and in that time they get holes in, with no visible sign of bugs around or in the items.

Has anyone else here had/has this problem? I'm really at my wits end with it, they have damaged so many clothes, even shoes or anything material based seems to get targeted. We have inspected for birds nests up our chimneys as well as vacumming often but to no avail.

Many Thanks

[Paul mabbott]

I've never heard or read of carpet beetles working that quickly. Indeed, although I've often found them, sometimes in big numbers, we've never had any damage at all (presumably they come from bir or mouse nests).
Could it be that you have another pest as well as the beetles? Perhaps moths? Although, in that case one would expect to see the caterpillars ......
Sorry - have no useful suggestions.

Originally Posted by primer

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here could offer me any guidance or help, We have had a carpet beetle problem in our house for quite some time, for more than a year, we only noticed them due to identifying something we found towards the late end of last year, which was a wooley bear, prior to that we had been finding many garments and materials damaged but not finding any insects.

We have had a pest control company in, and they have sprayed some of the rooms, as well as putting down insect monitors, which have yet to catch anything, we have booked them for a return visit as we are still finding damaged clothes on a regular basis, a few months ago we were seeing wooley bears every so often on carpets and skirtings, but now this appears to have stopped, all we are seeing is the damage.

What is all the more concerning is that clothes etc can be left out or on a bed for only 2 hours, and in that time they get holes in, with no visible sign of bugs around or in the items.

Has anyone else here had/has this problem? I'm really at my wits end with it, they have damaged so many clothes, even shoes or anything material based seems to get targeted. We have inspected for birds nests up our chimneys as well as vacumming often but to no avail.

Many Thanks

[Dogghound]

I can only echo what pauls has said, im the fact that there may be something else aswell as the beetles, the damage does seem quite intensive. Also its mainly only woollens that the larvae damage.

[Venger]

Actually its any natural fibre - they've been munching through some of my cotton t-shirts
You might also want to check your wash basket - they prefer to munch on worn fabrics (think sweat).
They don't always leave a hole, but will have weakened the fabric so holes can appear very quickly (say, as you put it on)
You just have to keep up with your vacuuming, check all the dusty places.
Be aware of where the adults appear from in the summer and make sure those areas are well vacuumed.
At least you'll be able to get it to a manageable level.

[No.9 Spider]

Vapona blocks would have been a possible solution and very effective but I'm not sure that they are still available. Something similar may do the trick, or perhaps a natural insecticide such as clove oil could be used?

No. 9 Spider

[Venger]

It use to be the case of people using cedar wooden chests to store their clothes in (the cedar oil is a repellant to moths and carpet beetles and such) so maybe some cedar wood incense?

[Kayleigh]

We have wooden floors and so have no problem with carpet beetles. It might be a final solution for you..

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Venger

Actually its any natural fibre

ok point taken

[primer]

thanks for the advice everyone, much appeciated

I'm sure we just have the beetles, I don't think we have seen anything else, we were finding quite a lot of them in oct-nov, but now sightings are none existant, possibly some are in hibernation? We have only found one of the adults, which was found under a carpet amongst some debris, it looked to be already dead, although these things seem to be very deceptive. We have had a few in a plastic cup that we have caught at various stages to show to the pest control people, we have now had them in the cup since Oct, and they seem still very much alive!! are these creatures related to the cockroach by any chance?

The pest control company checked all the traps, there were around 20 in total laid down, not one caught a wooley bear, we caught spiders and woodlice but no beetle larvae. Very strange as we are still having so many problems. I think we need to monitor the laundry more, this could be where they are heading/residing, when we were seeing them they were in nearly every room, esepcially rooms where we have open floorboards we would see them running up and down the gaps!

Yeah I've read that they will eat anything material based that has protein content, eg: footstuffs on it, sweat etc, I don't know if thats true, but many of my t-shirts have holes in now unfortunatley, It's very irritating, especially when your'e favourite stuff gets damaged.

We have some residule spray from the pest control company, and we're getting some of the rooms in the house done in laminate flooring, which will give us chance to look under some of the carpets, I can't help but thinking there is a stash of them all hiding somewhere lol


Many Thanks

[stripee]

Primer, you could keep your clothes in those large plastic containers with clip on lids. Also as Kayleigh said have bare floor boards. I have mats that can be taken up and washed and an artificial fibre carpet (nothing woolly), furniture with washable cushions, no upholstery. I had insects in the last sofa, it had to be burnt. Also we get a lot of moths and little field mice sometimes, so anything with natural fibres is kept in the containers