Bugs That Look Like Carpet Beetles

Both adult carpet beetles and larvae can infest your home but the larvae do the most damage by eating organic materials like wool leather and silk.

Bugs that look like carpet beetles.

Although you may see the terms carpet mites and carpet beetles used interchangeably these two pests are actually quite different. Carpet beetle is one the most common look a like. They tend to live inside fabric furniture or deep inside carpets so look for damage to area rugs around the edges and to carpets along base boards. Carpet beetles look very very different from bed bugs when they are larger.

Several types of carpet beetles are found in the united kingdom. Carpet beetles often confused with bed bugs are small pests that can cause a large amount of damage if left untreated attracted to natural fibers carpet beetles can damage carpets furniture and clothing. Larvae typically are light brown to black and covered in dense sometimes barbed hairs. Because of the similarities many professionals have ended up treating the wrong bugs for bed bugs.

The carpet beetle and bed bug not only leave similar looking bites but there are other similarities. Bed bugs and carpet beetles are both very small. Black white and yellow patterned coloration some species of carpet beetle may also exhibit orange coloration. Most species of carpet beetle measure 1 to 4 mm in length as adults.

To know where to focus the brunt of your cleaning first look for the primary source of the infestation which will be the area with the most signs of damage and beetles. Differences between bed bugs and carpet beetles. The carpet beetle is referred to as the anthrenus verbasci that grows from 1 7 mm to a maximum of 3 5 mm. For more information about clothes moths see university of kentucky entomology entfact 609.

The most prevalent and popular one is however the carpet beetle. They have a round spherical body. However the carpet beetle is the smallest of the two and averages 1 8th of an inch in length while the bed bug is about 1 4th of an inch long. Carpet beetles are common in dwellings and their damage is often mistaken for that of clothes moths.

Carpet beetles like to live out of sight and feed on the natural fibers in fabrics even living off carpet fibers that are 90 percent synthetic. Bed bug larvae look like little worms while carpet beetle larvae look like fuzzy bugs with little spines all over them. They look like tiny furry caterpillars whereas the bed bug larvae look a lot like the larger versions but just very small. Carpet mites is a term which generally refers to a type of house dust mite which measures about one fourth of a millimeter.

The truth of the matter is that these similar insects only differ at their physical features and perhaps the. Carpet beetles will also feed off the felt under furniture and lamps and inside musical instrument cases.