Furniture Carpet Beetle

Anthrenus flavipes · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Dermestidae

Can damage your home. It can damage household fabrics.

Furniture Carpet Beetle — Photo: Udo Schmidt, CC BY-SA

The Anthrenus flavipes beetle is a tiny, round insect about 2 to 3.5 mm long, black with variable white and yellow spots and yellow-scaled legs. Adults feed on pollen, while the larvae eat animal-derived materials and can ruin carpets, upholstery, and fabrics such as cotton, linen, rayon and jute.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

It is black with mottled white and yellow markings and its legs are covered in yellow scales.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The beetle measures between 2 and 3.5 mm in length and has a round shape.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

It damages textiles, carpets, upholstered furniture and fabrics such as cotton, linen, rayon and jute.

Source: Wikipedia

How to get rid of it

Infestations are spotted by finding larvae, their shed skins, and obvious damage. Treatments may include dusts like diatomaceous earth, silica aerogel, sprays or emulsions applied around carpets and rugs.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It can live inside heated buildings even in cooler climates.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Adult beetles feed on pollen and nectar, especially from parsley-family plants. Larvae digest keratin and other animal tissues, which is why they damage household items.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Females lay up to 100 white eggs during a 30- to 60-day adult life. Larvae go through six to thirty molts over 2 to 3 months, then pupate for 2 to 3 weeks.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

The tiny adults are most common in the warmer months.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

It is found worldwide, having a cosmopolitan distribution.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

It resembles other carpet beetles, but its body scales are rounded or oval, unlike the longer, narrower scales of its relatives.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 10 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Kentucky, Illinois, New York, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, Arizona.

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Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Furniture Carpet Beetle photo 3 — Photo: Udo Schmidt, CC BY-SA

Furniture Carpet Beetle photo 4 — Photo: Kyle Smith, CC BY

Furniture Carpet Beetle photo 5 — Photo: er-birds, CC BY

Furniture Carpet Beetle photo 6 — Photo: Kevin Faccenda, CC BY

Questions people ask

What should I do if I find an infestation?

Look for larvae, their molted skins, and damage, then treat the area with dusts such as diatomaceous earth or silica aerogel, or use a suitable spray or emulsion around carpets and rugs.

Source: Wikipedia