Beetles

[Rhubarb]

For months now we have been getting these horrible little beetles in our bedroom and we have no idea what they are or where they are coming from! They're definitely beetles as they have wings, and are about oblong shaped - about 1cm long at their biggest.

They are over the walls, on the floor, in our clothes (if left on the floor which they always are!) on the windowsill, and some get into the bathroom. They're not really in any one place, just all over the bedroom really. I've sealed all round the window and I don't think they're coming in from the floorboards, but I can't be sure. Does anyone else have experience of them? What are they and how do I get rid of them? They are very annoying, especially when they get into your clothing. And I now have little splats everywhere where I've whacked them!

[Tissy]

Rhubarb, call environmental health, and get them looked at!

Don't know what they are (I'm a bit squeamish about creepy crawlies)but I wouldn't tolerate them in my bedroom!!

[Demented]

Rhubarb, at first when I say this, I thought you meant VW Beetles!

I seem to remember someone recently on Mumsnet talking about carpet beetles in their bedroom, if I remember rightly they are harmless but obviously not very nice. I wonder if this is what you could have here. Agree with Tissy, call environmental health, I think I would want rid! All the best!

[SoupDragon]

here's a lovely little site! And, here's another one to help with pest identification.

[Philippat]

Don't really want to admit to being a beetle expert, but it does fall to being part of my job, I'm afraid...

If they are definitely oblong rather than oval it's likely to be a furniture beetle or a biscuit beetle (although these are only normally max 5mm) rather than a carpet beetle. Furniture beetles (obviously) eat wood, carpet beetles eat silk, wool and cotton and biscuit beetles eat (yup, you've guessed it) dried food.

If you can find a hole in something and describe what the hole in in and the size and the frass (the sort of sawdust made from the hole), I can probably do a better job of identifyng it. I haven't looked at Soupdragon's links, but bear in mind US beetles are different from UK ones!

In museums we tend not to use chemicals because of the damage they can do to people and other objects so our technique is to track where they are coming from and solve the problem this way. We do this with sticky traps around the room. You can buy them from preservation equipment ([email protected]). Anything that's been infested (furniture, clothes) you then have to isolate as it's probably got larvae in it. Wrap it in plastic and if possible put it in the freezer for 7 days. All insects like the dark so strong lighting will often get rid of them, but you have to remember to light under the bed, in corners too!

If you want to spray insecticide yourself Ficam or Empire 20 are possible sprays but still pretty nasty for a bedroom - I'd certainly want to move out for a few days.

You can get chemical sprayed by the environmental health dept of your council, usually for free, but it is nasty stuff and they spray a lot. You can identify a specialist in your area from the British Pest Control Association at www.bpca.org.uk. They will be able to idenify the insect definitely and shoud be able to spray a small amount, just targeting that particular insect.

Cedarwood, lavender, bay, rosemary and wormwood oils are all good at repelling insects but be careful as some are very poisonous.

HTH!

[Chinchilla]

PhillippaT - Wow, you might be able to help me. We get these little beetle things which are similar to Ladybirds, but smaller, and they have brown and cream stripes. They seem to grow from these little stripey tiny caterpillar thingies which I have also seen in my house. Also, we get these tiny (less than 1mm) aphid type bugs in our bathrooms. They are either pale green or sometimes a browny colour. Could these have come from our wooden floor, as they only appeared after it was laid? The first ones I mentioned we also had in our old house.

TIA

[Rhubarb]

Sorry, I've just realised I put 1cm in my first posting, that's wrong! More like 1-2mm. They are brown and if you look closely you can see darker patterns on them, like stripes. There aren't any holes around that are obvious, or sawdust, but we have wooden floors so it's hard to say. Having just looked at one, it's more oblong than oval, with loads of really tiny legs. I'll go Soupdragons site to see if I can identify them, I don't fancy having our bedroom fumigated!

[Philippat]

Chincilla, the ladybird thing sounds like a carpet beetle to me. They like to eat natural fibers so you might have noticed some moth-like holes? Then tend to particularly like wool so if you have a wool carpet they could be gently chewing away on that. The larvae are particularly long-lived (as much as a year sometimes) and they are the ones that do the real chewing, I think the beetles prefer plants.

You might want to consider steam cleaning your carpet (or even replacing it for a non wool one), checking all your clothes and freezing any with the beetles/larvae on as decribed in my other post, using essential oils or lavender bags or cedarwood hangers in your wardrobe, getting rid of indoor plants for a bit. Letting the house get really cold at night helps too if you can bear it. If you had them in your old house too, you might have brought them with you!

The aphids I'm not sure - sound like greenfly! Do you have a lot of house plants?

[Philippat]

Rhubarb, the stripes are normally fairly conclusively carpet beetle (there's actually a sort of diamond pattern). See the varied carpet beetle piccie on Soupdragon's site (looks a bit more bright than ones I normally see, but that's Americans for you!)

[Rhubarb]

Right, just looked at the links and the closest I can find are carpet beetles, but I'm not 100% convinced. Could you describe the beetles you mentioned Phillipat? To help you more with mine, the biggest ones are the size of the nib on a standard bic pen. These tend to be darker with a shiny appearance and darker mottled patterns on them. There are smaller ones which are rounder and lighter, not as shiny and with a hairier appearance. They look like they have lots of tiny legs, but I can't be certain. And they have a v type ending on their tail end where the wings meet.
As ours is an old house, with floorboards, there are plenty of cracks and holes and it would be impossible to fill them all. So how can I get rid of them without getting the council in?

[Rhubarb]

Sorry Philippat, must have posted at the same time!

[Philippat]

Rhubarb, definitely carpet beetle. The smaller hairy ones with lots of legs are the larvae (they're called woolly bears). They particularly don't like light so probably disappear down the cracks in your floorboards, although I am actually surprised they are living down there as they much prefer to live in natural fibers - like clothes (might you have a lot of dust bunnies under the floorboards? if extreme you might have to get them up and get that out).

You can try and catch the beetles during the mating season (spring, early summer) to stop them laying more eggs, for this you need pheromone traps. You can order them from www.pestcontroldirect.co.uk. They also sell a spray specially targetted at carpet beetle, but I'd be careful spraying in the room you sleep in.

[Chinchilla]

PhillippaT - THANK YOU, I think that you have hit the nail on the head. And, thanks to SoupDragon for providing the link to the site.

Phillippa - In our old house, we must have had a total of about 20 beetles over 2 or 3 years, and the same amount of larvae/caterpillar thingies! I used to find the furry ones on the kitchen wall most often, and would dispose of them. Does this sound right? Since moving, I have only found one furry thing in 2 years, and no beetles. Does this sound like I need to take things further? I have not found any holes in fabrics. I must admit that I am not the world's best duster...

Thanks very much, and sorry for hijacking your thread Rhubarb! It's great having all these experts on Mumsnet.

[Philippat]

Chincilla, I wouldn't bother at all if there aren't enough to gross you out and they're not eating anything. They're not in any way bad or nasty, they just like to eat your clothes! They've obviously decided they don't like your new house and gone off somewhere else!

[Enid]

Are you sure they aren't baby flies/wasps? Is that at all possible or have I been deluding myself all these years...

[kkgirl]

Hi

I'm really fed up, we had this problem with carpet beetles starting last october, they ate holes in my cashmere jumper and we nuked our wardrobe and also put round tablets in the drawers supposed to deter them.
Yesterday I noticed two holes in my knickers and today a small hole in my tights I thought I had snagged them.
Tonight my husband has found one on the kitchen wall.
What can we do in the kitchen, we can't really put any chemicals in there and why hasn't the deathlac stopped them in the wardrobe

Help!!!