I came to this as I was wondering if our carpet beetle problem could have caused a couple of bites on my daughter’s arm, but I am amazed by the advice here that it is fine to just leave carpet beetles!!! NO it definitely is not!! As some other comments have made clear they are prolific breeders and it’s an infestation you need to get rid of if they are biting you or not. We haven’t suffered from the bites, but they are called carpet beetles for a reason, they are eating our carpets! That’s a very destructive and expensive problem, plus they can also eat clothes too (like moths) they like the softer, more expensive clothes of course. We are in the UK, so I don’t know the comparison, but I can tell you my treatment here has been lengthy and expensive. 4 sprays at 7-10 day intervals where I have to move everything possible off the carpet, particularly from the edges where it meets the wall (they are shy, if you are seeing them walking around you have a major infestation on your hands) and leave the house for 5 hours afterwards. Plus also a heat pod treatment where all my clothes, textiles, duvets, pillows, etc were placed in a specially built heat pod and heated to 65 degrees. This kills all stages of the beetle, the spray just kills the adult and larvae, which is why you need 4 as you need to catch hatching eggs/larvae, etc. Likely source is birds nests under our eaves, so further cost was getting those removed, sprayed and gaps meshed over!

I have been living with carpet beetles for over a decade and haven’t got bitten once. They are harmless and just stay in the carpet for me. Good luck to you guys out there as the ones I have seem to leave my clothing and bedding alone.

thank you so much, this may be my issue, but it’s in my cane.I have a dreadful reaction and I think I came from the yellow stains on my nighty after sleeping on the lounge suit.Strange thing is,no stains on lounge fusions, wonder if it’s because they have been sprayed when new with scotch guide.Thank you so much for your post.Sandy.

I have been battling black carpet beetles for over a year now. I am certain they came from my old apartment. I moved in January and ended up bringing them to my new place. I finally got fed up and called orkin. They will come and do a free consult to verify what type of infestation it is and how bad. He put down pheromone traps and glue traps. Then came back a week later for follow up and treatment. He said my infestation at my new place is still in the early stages since hardly any adults have been found. He did catch a larvae in a glue trap leading to my closet. I found maybe 10 larvae on the walls and in various places since Feb. I haven’t found any on my clothes or noticed any extensive damage. They seem to be only in the carpet, and dark hidden areas. I have extensively OCD cleaned everything and vacuumed every inch twice daily. I was horrified to find a rag top mop (that was here when I moved in) COVERED in larvae. There were hundreds. I have bagged all my clothes and placed them in plastic storage bins. Make sure to take all the drawers out of your dressers and vacuum everything inside and out. I bought a mattress cover and food grade DE at lowes today. The pest guy said as long as you stick to food grade, it’s safe for humans and pets. He seemed very knowledgeable on CB and gave some good recommendations. I am keeping a small bit of hope I can win the battle. I have never been bitten or had any type of reaction. I am shocked what I have read on here. My heart goes out to those people. If I have any success in my efforts (And if not) I will re-post with my results. Hopefully some piece of info can help someone else. If the pest guy doesn’t help, they guarantee if you see any CB activity between treatments they will come back and re-treat free of charge. They are a big corporation so I am sure they will hold up that promise. Good luck to everyone that has posted on here. Hope someone will have good news one day. This is def psychological and physical hell dealing with these creatures. I hate them. Who in their right mind would wish for them. Let them see a batch of the larvae eating something of theirs and rephrase that response…

Hi,

We’re having exactly the same problem. Every morning, I wake up with a few more bites, while my partner doesn’t have any. We have blitzed the room, hoovered the mattress, hoovered the carpet, dusted. We didn’t find any blood spots or excrement. No sign of any insects apart from a few tiny black insects under the furniture which appeared to be dead. We’ve just found one of them crawling across our wooden floor in the lounge so I have taken a photo since reading this article. I think it may be a carpet beetle as described in this article. Would it be possible to send you the photo?

Just knowing what it is would make me feel a bit better as then we can figure out how to deal with it.

Many thanks,

Emma

I haven’t been on this site in awhile…but I still have these bugs in my home 2 years now. I think they are dermesids beedles (or mites) not sure anymore. sent samples to entomoligists and nobody could tell me what exactly they are. they think I am delusional. I am so allergic to them. I can feel them crawling on me constantly. I cannot lay down for a nap in the daytime as they are all over me. I bought a new mattress encasement for my bed today, actually I bought two, double and queen size, wasn’t sure if double would fit my mattress as they make them so high/deep now. put the queen size on bed. looked for bugs an hour later and found 5-6 laying on new encasement.
then I looked at double encasement which I had on kitchen table to take back to store and found a live one on it.
I bought a really nice shower curtain, checked it all over. tonight I find threads pulled out in a few spots. so sad
I have been using sticky rollers (not very big) on my hardwood floors, its a long process.
I can feel the crawling on me most of the time, especially at night.
I wash my sheets every day, but I still feel these bugs crawling on me at night. have to take sleeping pills to sleep.
I have itchy/sore bumps on me especially arms and legs, now in private areas.
sometimes it feels like they are trying to bite through my skin, very persistent.
the daytime seems a lot better, but every night I go out as they seem to be worse.
they bite through plastic bags where I keep my clothes in. I cant seem to get away from them. they are in my car as well.
I went to florida for 5 weeks. could feel them a bit, but when I came home it was/is like I am a host and they stick to me like glue. Its really bad when my children don’t believe me. I have no one to talk to, then again it wouldn’t make a difference. I really don’t know how to get rid of them. I catch so many but they are endless. what a miserable life this is living with this problem.
its funny, people say you read the internet too much and so your making up stories. so untrue. I feel its good to read up on this so I know I am not alone and there are other people experiencing the same problem.
I have put all the powders on floor and baseboard, but they are still here. had the house sprayed 4-5 times to no avail.
I don’t know if they are worse than bed bugs,but they are right up in that category.
i just retired a couple years ago approx. am turning 66..the golden years..
where is this all gonna end. i just don’t know whats gonna happen if i get older and cant gt out of the house..how will i cope…on that note i am trying to stay positive.

i also put neem oil on my arms and legs…funny thing i guess i had an allergic reaction because i got bitten more

hi heather c…was wondering how u made out with your cb.
I had orkin come out. they said it was carpet beedles…they sprayed three times and then said I was delusional. I still have the problem…I am allergic to them and can feel static electricity when I where long sleeve shirts or jeans. I get marks on my body, guess its the allergic reaction. this is truly horrifying. when I first got the cp I had the powder all over…plus all over car. didn’t work…killed a few I guess. finally cleaned it up and my son thought I was crackers.

I agree with you susan..I lost everything I owned and I am now 65. I moved to a different city, but they came with me as I still worked (which were there as well) plus they were in my car. I put dust powder in car, all over new home. had house sprayed three times. nothing worked. have most of clothes in plastic bags, but they chew through plastic. they are in my bed (bought protective cover for mattress) actualy went through two mattress in 2 years, but they are still on top around cover. this is truly a nightmare. they are in my new shower curtain (which I finally decided to put up. I use sticky roll tapes all the time to get these carpet beedles. I could do it 100 times a day, but they keep coming back. they are in my purse, shoes, clothes..they wont let up. I don’t know what the answer is. my kids come over and don’t feel a thing. I must be a host for them. they inbed in my skin as well. sometimes I feel like they are biting me to the point they wont let go. also I can feel static on my legs and arms. I am lost at this point. if I had the guts I would get rid of my car. move around from place to place and take nothing but the clothes on my back. very scary. I never heard or new about these bugs before I got them. what a nightmare. please let me know how u r doing?

Hi everyone,

Figured I would give an update on my progress. I am still finding larvae and now adults. DE kills the larva very quickly however it does not kill the adults quickly. Once they go through it, it take days for them to die. Just enough time i’m sure to lay eggs and re-infest. I am still working with orkin to try and resolve it. They have been here quite a few times. Last time last week and they used a product called IGR. He said that should do the trick. Call back in a week if the activity does not decrease. I am thinking it didn’t work because I found 5 larva today and a dead adult. They stated in order for this to be successful, they must find the source. He said there is always a source. Could be under the floors, in walls, the baseboards or in-between the floors between my place and my neighbors. Next step will be to rip up the floors and start drilling into the walls in search of the CB. He stated they have treated many homes with CB. Some have been eliminated with two to three treatments and others are going on a year or two. It is crucial to identify the exact species. I though I had black CB but they think not. He said there are over 70 species of these things. Mine look like the black ones but are too small. Could be a close relative. I have been saving everything I catch and giving it to them attempting to help identify. I kept squishing them so it didn’t work out well. I have moved to picking them up with packing tape thanks to this blog. If I didn’t provide samples, I am sure they would think i’m crazy. I’m so sorry they didn’t help you homeless cat. You should call them back and save anything you find. The guy said they must establish their presence before they can help you. After reading things on this blog I tried to ask as many questions as I could. I’m sure I will leave many things out prob won’t pop in my head right now. All of my furniture is wrapped in plastic, my couches and bed. They found evidence of larvae in my couch : (. They said it isn’t natural fibers so they wouldn’t eat it. Whatever what are they doing in there then?? They said I didn’t have to throw them out but I am going to anyway. Who wants to keep a couch that could have larva all in it. Just waiting until they are gone before I buy anything. I still haven’t found them in my clothes but I have placed all of those on plastic bins with a garbage bag over just in case. Very frustrating this isn’t working. Hope they find the source soon to eliminate them. I am wondering if everyone on here is experiencing one of these 70 or so species that attacks humans. If they have no research on some of the lesser know species then how can anyone say they don’t bite or attach to people. Save samples everyone!! Hope everyone is doing well

hi Heather C.
I am so glad to hear from you. you are really lucky that don’t have them in your clothes. they are in everything i own it seems.
if i put my clothes in plastic bags ..they bite or eat through the plastic. i shake clothes out before wearing, and still i find them crawling on my skin. they eat threads out of my shoes and clothes, get into my purse, car, u name it. i use a sticky roller on hardwood floor, window sills as much as i can. even sticky roll my counter top and find them. sticky roll my new shower curtain and i find them.
they seem to be in all my papers in my desk. they are all over. i seem to fighting a losing battle. i have taken samples to different entomologists but they don’t know what they are. everything i have read leads to carpet beedles (destimade) spelling?? i find these insects in my bed. wash sheets every night. they say cb have a hard shell and that causes the bite marks. i go without bites for weeks at a time, then boom i get a bunch of them. they seem to cause a lot of static especially on my legs and arms. i have put body/hand lotion on my legs and it feels like they are on my skin, trying to jump out. sometimes black specs fall on floor after the lotion. sounds absurb i know, but i am like you Heather, no reason to make up such a horrendous story. check your purse, empty content and shake it out in the bathtub to see if they are in there as well. crazy but try it. keep me posted..

Hi homelesscat and everyone,

The exterminator came and confirmed carpet beetles, gave me glue traps for monitoring, and told me he would come back and spray if many beetles were found in the traps. It has been a little over a week, and each windowsill glue trap in four rooms has two or three dead ones, I see a few more dead ones outside the traps. The carpet beetles I found on my bed sheets are probably from my window because my mattress is right below it. The good news is the exterminator has never seen a carpet beetle infestation in my area (NYC suburb), so I am wondering if infestations are more prevalent in warmer climates, I only starting seeing them when the warmer spring weather started in NY last month. The exterminator checked my house inside and out, gave me some tips on how to improve some things to avoid unwanted pests, and will come back to spray for bees/yellow jackets at my request. He said I was very lucky not to have rodents, termites, etc. I was very impressed with him wanting to monitor the carpet beetle situaion slowly, and not pressuring me to pay for treatment. Uh, ho, I just plugged in my tablet in the surge protector and a carpet beetle crawled out from under it, the protector is on my wood floor, maybe I should get sprayed to avoid more of them coming in.

“these guys pop up all over the place and they usually munch on some fibers and take off. You won’t notice holes in clothing or anything, the amount of they eat is practically microscopic”

Is this definitely the case with the stripey ones? Those are the ones that have infested my house, I find them everywhere and kill loads every day and vacuum but they still keep coming back. And I’m worried that all my clothes will get eaten by them

Hi homelesscat (and everyone):

I had them identified by an expert, he says it’s the stripey carpet beetle (so not lice/fleas/bedbugs/black carpet beetles).

I am at my wits end – I got a new vacuum cleaner, moved the bed that was so heavy, saw no sign of any infestation underneath but vacuumed it anyway, and guess what? They came back. The expert I spoke to said that they can’t hibernate for long so they would only have gotten into the house recently – but I don’t believe this because there’s no way they could have got in – I would have noticed – and I have always cleaned the place, the previous people never did.

I read online that if you wash clothing at 140 degrees farenheit (which is 60 degrees celsius) then it will kill any trace of them that might be on your clothes. Is this true? Because I am considering washing everything I own and then bagging it in zip-locked plastic bags. Could anyone please advise if this is a good idea?

Lastly, given that these are the adults, what will happen once summer is over? Do the adults lay larvae and then that could be easily vacuumed up? Cos it seems no matter how many adults I vacuum and kill, more appear, and I was wondering when this will stop and I just don’t know anything about their life cycle

Miranda, the larvae stage can last from 60 days to a year according to what I have read. Usually landlords are not responsible for pest control unless the situation is severe; depends on your lease, regulations on housing in you area, etc. Once I rented a house from a builder who was in the process of building a new house for me. The first night I slept there, I woke up with itchy legs. When I turned the light on, my legs were all covered with black spots and red bites, I was absolutely mortified! It turned out the house was infested with fleas! There was no lease, so I left the house immediately, and the builder did some work on my new home for free to compensate me.

Maybe your landlord will work with you to alleviate your carpet beetle problem, but if he doesn’t, consult an attorney to see what your options are. Good Luck!

Maybe your landlord will work with you regarding the carpet beetle problem, like my landlord/builder compensated me for my inconvenience with the flea problem. Good Luck!

hi ladies,
I have these buggers on my windowsill as well. but as I said before I believe they are birdmites which can infest home and are supposedly hard to get rid of. do you have black specks around your house? I have been put clear plastic tape on bugs that I find on mattress cover. have another exterminator coming tues june 17/14 to identify again and look after the problem, so he says. he has dealth with them before. I must admit sometimes these pest companies don’t know what they are talking about, not for everybody, but it happened to myself.
clothes I don’t know, I think u can wash them but the bugs will go on them again. I had put de powder in clothes in bags, actually they are still there.
I will ask the pest co. when he comes.
did the pest co. spray already for the carpet beedles?
I went to wallmart in Canada and bought hartz ultra guard flea & tick carpet powder to try..put in my couch and underside of it. I swept up the powder and there was a lot of black bugs mixed in with the powder. I am not sure about inhaling this stuff though. I tried calling to company, but not open today 1 800 275 1414. this powder seems to work for the mites…hooray…but it’s not over yet. don’t want to put it on my bed yet.
I have put de dust in between the baseboards, as I have lots of space, they hide in there and the undersides of furniture, plus computer.
if you feel static on your legs, get a sticky lint brush and roll it on your legs and bottom of feet and see if anything is there. with mites it’s hard to see, so try it wont hurt.
dollar store has them for $1.00
my lips are swollen and I have found some mites on them and in my mouth.
friends said go to hospital and get it checked out…so I went…the intern on call said bites could be mosquito, which I know there are not. they really are quacks. they just don’t know anything about bugs.
also I mentioned to him should I see a shrink, as my son doesn’t believe me and has pressured me to go. I talked to a nurse in the crisis centre for an hour about problem. she talked to dr. and said yes. I know in my heart that I am not delusional, but it seems that no one wants to believe that something like this can happen to us and u really cant talk to anyone as they do think your nuts. have an appt july, also they have a crisis centre where you can go and sleep I think up to 10 days to get relief. I don’t know if that is the same in your area. getting no sleep really affects your health
I do know that carpet beedles do not bite, but the skin or something can rub up on you and it feels like a bite. do u have any bite marks?
do they swarm on your legs and feet, hair at night?
going to the gym, I find it’s the only way to keep my sanity.
keep me posted and stay positive!!!! I know its difficult..don’t let them get the better of you.

same problem
a year ago i had carpet beetles
both kinds black and striped
i am exhausted as i live 3 stories up
i dragged down all clothing and injured my legs
washed dry cleaned etc

have wood floors have a cat

didnt want bad poisons llord got an exterminator//sprayed the least toxic good control poison without residue
i vacuumed like crazy put all craft stuff in garbage or in freezer for 3 weeks
they were in spices, in crafts , and in my conversion van..exterm wouldnt do my van i sprayed it with cedar from wondercide nothing has worked..i had it detailed…
they are BACK a year later

I put my bed mattress up against the wall every morning and leave a light on in corner in lamp at nite
they congregate there and i kill them …I spray them with non toxic VETS BEST spray and that immobilizes them// i then pick them up with a tissue
i vacuum alot
I threw out 2/3 of my clothes

i am petrified they are in my storage unit
i pick up my blankets and put in container during day and i am not bitten at nite anymore

entomologist said they are almost impossible to kill
wrap precious items in muslin, put in ziploc,and put in freezer for 3 weeks thats what he said
i had craft items of value that i did this with //any important feathers etc
but now they are back
they got into the strings that hold beads together
thats how bad it was

everything is bagged
i vacuum thecat hair asmuch as i can and if you rub your sheets down with alcohol that works
spray vets best around on the floor and they hate that and stay away
hope this helps

G…..not sure what to say, if pest has been identified I guess u at least know what your up against. being on the third floor kind of seems impossible (but I know its not) to have carpet beedles..as far as I know they are around bees/wasp/bird nests. maybe u need to have your place sprayed again.
I feel sorry for all of us, life is tough enough at times without living with something like that.
the only thing I can suggest is moving, making sure they are not in your skin or your hair, clothing, shoes, leaving everything behind/garbage, get rid of the car.
i would stay in a few different places to make sure they don’t hitch a ride with you. wash with lice shampoo, change clothes often til u r rid of them. I know it’s not an easy thing to do, it’s like starting your life over again. I am not saying i am right, but i certainly have thought of it.
thought i had carpet beedles as well, i find out tomorrow for sure, but i think they are bird mites.
what a way to live aye. the pits.
take care…

Hi all,

Well, it seemed to be getting not so bad – they weren’t in my room as much, although I spotted them elsewhere in the house – but I decided to move anyway. When I went to check out the new place, I made sure to check for any of them and didn’t see any. I am already paying rent for the new place and still have one month rent to pay at current place but I don’t care because it means I have time to go through all my stuff and wash it at high temperature then use a lint roller on it afterwards to remove any possible trace of them. I will be moving stuff over gradually to prevent anything bad happening. This morning I woke up in my current house…there was a beetle stuck between my back teeth. It had obviously crawled in while I was asleep. I was so freaked out.

Could people advise if washing at high temperature and then using lint roller is a good idea to make sure that none ‘come with me’? Will be wearing light-coloured clothing when moving as well so I can spot any that might be on me and prevent them coming too. If anyone has other tips in relation to moving I would be very grateful to hear them.

hi Miranda,
I think you have to make sure they are not on your body as well. I don’t know if washing clothes in high temperature helps, guess it will to a degree. I read that u have to soak your clothes in bleach, but that always cant be done. are they in your furniture. I would be tempted to move with the clothes on my back and throw everything out. do u have them in your car? stay in a couple of different hotels and make sure they are off your body. I know it sounds far fetched.
I sold my house and moved, a year ago, not knowing much about them. I threw everything out, except car, plus they were still on me and I didn’t know it. they seem to follow me where I go. hopefully it’s not the case with you.
after I eat, I look around my lips and find them on there having a snack. last night I found one on my eyebrow. I realize that you shouldn’t believe everything u read, but most of the stuff does relate to my experience.
good luck Miranda…keep us posted