Carpet Beetle Removal in Puyallup, WA.
Although carpet beetles aren’t particularly harmful to humans, they can cause serious property damage over time. This article will go over what carpet beetles are, their lifecycle, and what methods our team uses for carpet beetle extermination.
Adult carpet beetles are a type of pollinating insect, and usually spend their time flying from flower to flower. They can end up in your home if they come in through a window or door, or you bring plants inside. Once they get into your house, they will start laying eggs and you could end up with a full-blown infestation. Carpet beetles can fly, and so they can easily spread from room to room indoors. Although the adult individuals are pretty much harmless, the larvae of the species can be very destructive.
After hatching, carpet beetle larvae like to reside in dark, hidden areas of the home and eat organic materials that they have access to. This can include stored food (usually grains), wool, leather, fur, silk, felt inside pianos, taxidermy, and more. As you can imagine, they can destroy clothing and furniture. You can tell carpet beetle damage from moth damage because moths usually eat small holes all over the garment, while carpet beetle larvae eat a large area. A warning sign that you have a carpet beetle problem is if you find their molted skin sheds, which are bristly and brown.
Unfortunately, carpet beetles are one of the hardest indoor pests to get rid of. Their larvae aren’t picky and can eat pretty much any organic material, and can live throughout your whole building. To eliminate them completely, pest control needs to be thorough so that they don’t just come back again. At Independent Pest Solutions, we know how to effectively get rid of carpet beetles and prevent them from infesting your home again.
It’s important to eliminate the resources that the carpet beetles are using to survive. This means cleaning and thoroughly searching the home. A crucial aspect of preventing carpet beetle infestations is to clean your furniture, closets, rugs, carpets, and draperies often. These pests like to congregate and breed in those areas. You should wash clothing and blankets in hot water, or send them for dry cleaning. Pillows or mattresses stuffed with feathers can’t just be surface cleaned, they need to be completely cleaned because carpet beetles could be inside. Make sure to clean any taxidermy you have in your home, or place it in the freezer periodically. Any items that are badly infested with larvae need to be thrown out.
Anything that could serve as food for the beetles needs to be gotten rid of or decontaminated and properly stored away. This includes fur, wool, or leather clothing. Clean up lint, dead insects, spider webs, and hairs that the larvae could eat. One way that you can effectively clean up any organic material is to vacuum frequently, which should suck up potential food sources. Vaccuuming can also pick up carpet beetles at all stages of their life. After vacuuming, you should quickly dispose of the bag because it could contain carpet beetle adults, eggs, and larvae.
It’s important to properly store items to keep them safe from carpet beetles. The first thing you should do is check to make sure items are free of pests, and then put them in an airtight container. You should layer paper with moth balls or flakes or crystals that are labelled as being able to control carpet beetle larvae. Usually, these products contain a chemical called paradichlorobenzene (PDB), which is a type of insecticidal as well as repellent. It works as a vapor, and needs to have enough concentration to work correctly. This is why it’s important that the container is airtight, such as a garment bag, box, or trunk. Make sure to seal any openings or cracks in the container.
Carpet Beetle Control
Because carpet beetles are so difficult to get rid of completely, it’s important that you have a professional pest control service help you. Independent Pest Solutions offers excellent pest control services for a variety of types of pests, including carpet beetles. We know the techniques that are effective for eliminating carpet beetles and keeping them out of your home.
The first thing that we do when we get to your property is to carry out a thorough investigation to identify the issue and its extent. This includes figuring out where the beetles are entering the home, where they are sourcing food from, and where their young are living. This will help us put together a plan of attack that will work best for your home. There’s chemicals and traps that are specifically effective against carpet beetle infestations.
One of the most common treatments for carpet beetles is boric acid, and it’s fairly effective. However, it’s important that an expert is applying the boric acid so that it doesn’t cause property damage or bring harm to people and pets in the house. Insecticides can be applied in certain spots such as under furniture and rugs, floors and walls in closets, on shelving, in cracks, and more. Infested carpet areas may also need insecticide, especially if live larvae are discovered.
There are also traps that can be used to handle a carpet beetle infestation. The main one that is used is a pheromone trap. The pheromone chemical attracts adult males of the species and then traps them in the sticky trap. These traps are usually used in confined areas where the infestations are serious. There are also sticky traps that don’t have pheromones. They can catch adult carpet beetles on windowsills and other areas. They can show where the beetles are coming from, and how effective the pest control measures are working.
Reach out to Independent Pest Solutions for effective pest control services. We use effective, precise methods of pest control. We will break the carpet beetle life cycle so that they don’t come back again. Our pest control technicians have experience and training in handling whatever pest problem you have on your property. For carpet beetle pest control in Puyallup, you can rely on Independent Pest Solutions.
