Beetles in the house can wreak havoc on your food and valuable materials such as woolen carpets, silk, and leather clothing and accessories.
Three tiny flying beetles that enter your home to lay eggs and infest will be discussed in this guide.
Additionally, you’ll learn what attracts these tiny flying beetles with hard, shiny shells to your home, how they get inside, and how to exterminate them.
Read on for more
What Are The Types Of Beetles In House?
Carpet beetles, drugstore beetles, and click beetles are the most common small flying beetles in homes.
These beetles are tiny, and two of them, carpet beetles and drugstore beetles, can fool you into believing they are fruit flies or drain flies when they are seen flying around your home.
Each of these beetles has a reason for infiltrating residences. You’ll learn why, when, and how they gain access to your home later in this post.
However, for the time being, it’s critical to understand that carpet beetles and drugstore beetles are the most destructive to specific items in your home.
Click beetles are completely harmless and are uninvited guests in your home.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these minuscule beetles that have made their way into your home.
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Small black or brown flying beetles, carpet beetles are a type of beetle. A carpet beetle adult can reach a length of between 1/8 and 3/16 of an inch.
Additionally, there are greyish carpet beetles with white spots on their backs.
However, carpet beetles are typically found as small black beetles that resemble tiny round black hard shell bugs in the house.
Adult carpet beetles are terrestrial insects that feed on pollen and flower petals.
Therefore, how do carpet beetles gain access to your home? There is an eloquent justification for it.
And it is for the purpose of egg laying.
Adult carpet beetles lay their eggs on animal-derived materials.
Thus, silk, feathers, fur, wool, and leather products will serve as a breeding ground for carpet beetles.
What motivates them to do so?
This is because the larvae that hatch from the eggs consume these products. The carpet beetle larvae feed on animal products.
Carpet beetle larvae resemble a small brownish or blackish worm covered in bristles of hair.
The larvae will spin a cocoon to hide in before developing into adult beetles. Adult carpet beetles will emerge from the cocoon, referred to as the pupa.
Signs Of Adult Carpet Beetle And Carpet Beetle Larvae
Carpet beetles in their adult stage are easily identifiable. Adult carpet beetles will be visible flying inside your home if they are present.
Additionally, you would notice them on wool or silk carpets and rugs.
Adult carpet beetles can even nest in closets, wardrobes, and dresser drawers.
The larvae of the carpet beetle can be identified by two characteristics: their physical presence and the damage they cause.
The larvae of the carpet beetle wreak havoc on your priceless fabrics, shoes, and woolen carpets.
They cause damage by chewing on them and creating tiny holes.
Larvae of the carpet beetle can also wreak havoc on cotton textiles and bed linen. Numerous reports indicate that these larvae have been observed on beds.
Numerous types of bed worms, including carpet beetle larvae, can be found in your bed. Due to their small size, many people mistake bed worms and carpet beetle larvae on the bed for bed bugs.
There are many Japanese beetles in the United States, and they can be a big problem. The Japanese beetle is well-known for eating foliage, flowers, fruits, and more.
It is also known for destroying landscaping and other plants that people like. Adult beetles are about 13″-1 12″ long and have a shiny green body that looks like metal.
Japanese beetles aren’t likely to do a lot of damage inside your house, but they can quickly eat your garden and your outside plants.
The ladybug is a common sight in California homes because the Asian beetle is also called the ladybug, and they come from Asia.
When ladybugs are outside eating plant pests, they are seen as a good thing. When they come inside, they can do a lot of damage.
About 3/8″ long, the adults of this species have hard, red shells with black spots. The beetles can be found in attics, ceilings, and gaps in walls in the winter, when the weather is cold.
Thousands of them can be found. If they happen to get into your heating vents, just turning on the furnace can spread them all over your home.
Drugstore beetles are small brown beetles with shiny backs. They are roundish or oblong in shape.
These beetles are pantry pests, infesting food stored in jars and packets, particularly grains, cereals, and dried foods.
Drugstore beetles became quite prevalent in pharmacies, where they wreaked havoc on pharmaceuticals. That is how their name came about.
Drugstore beetles, also called biscuit beetles, lay eggs in stored food. And the larvae that hatch from the eggs feed on the stored food and excrete their feces.
When drugstore beetles become more prevalent in your kitchen and home, they appear on countertops, kitchen cabinets, and even in your bedroom.
In comparison to a large number of other beetles, drugstore beetles are not flat. Their backs are humped, and their mouths are tucked beneath their brows.
Drugstore Beetle Signs and Symptoms
There are no signs of infestation left behind by drugstore beetles to indicate their presence inside your home.
However, you will observe drugstore beetles buzzing around your home. Additionally, you will notice holes in the food packets and jars used to store food.
The larvae of these beetles will discolor the food they infest, and you may notice lumps, particularly on grains and cereals.
These lumps are the larval feces of the drugstore beetle, which they excrete on the food they infest.
The only beetles that do not cause damage to your home are click beetles, which also do not lay eggs inside.
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Click beetles are uninvited guests at your residence. However, the larvae of these beetles, dubbed wireworms, are destructive garden pests.
Wireworms are particularly detrimental to vegetable plants, particularly tomatoes, onions, and carrots.
Click beetles have an asymmetrical shape. Rather than that, click beetles are long and black, reaching a length of 1.5 inches in adults.
It’s one of those long, thin black bugs that infiltrate your home for no apparent reason.
When these beetles are on their backs, they make a clicking sound as they attempt to right themselves. This is how click beetles got their name.
How Tiny Beetles Enter Your Home
Electrical light attracts all of these minuscule flying beetles. Thus, one of the factors that attracts these small beetles to your home is the presence of a food source.
These beetles enter your home via open doors and windows.
Additionally, they will gain access to your home via small gaps and cracks in the walls, doors, and windows.
Additionally, these tiny beetles can be found in items brought into your home, such as potted plants, firewood, and cardboard boxes.
Drugstore beetles are already present in food and grain packets purchased at supermarkets.
Grocery pests are a constant presence in large grain warehouses. That is also how many of these pantry pests find their way into your home.
Eliminating these minuscule flying beetles from within your home is not difficult. It is achievable by anyone.
And, thankfully, it requires no pest control expertise.
However, you’ll need to take some precautions to keep them out.
How to Get Rid of Beetles in House
Cleaning your home is the most effective method of eradicating these tiny beetles.
The best way to eliminate these beetles is to vacuum your home and clean your kitchen.
Cleaning your kitchen thoroughly will ensure that there are no drugstore beetles inside.
Additionally, inspect all jars and shelves used to store food for these drugstore beetles and their larvae.
Discard any food that has been damaged and replace any thin storage jars with thick, airtight jars.
Again, the best way to eliminate carpet beetle larvae is to clean the home and keep animal-derived products clean and protected.
Spreading diatomaceous earth on infested items such as carpets and vacuuming it is another effective method of eradicating carpet beetle larvae.
Additionally, avoid allowing filthy clothing and fabric to accumulate for an extended period of time. Adult carpet beetles are drawn to them.
Seal any cracks and crevices in walls, windows, and doors to prevent these beetles from entering your home.
It is recommended that you perform the work with a silicone-based sealant. Silicone-based sealants are robust, have a ten-year shelf life, and are impenetrable to insects.
Utilizing weather strippings on doors and windows also conceals any gaps, preventing these beetles from flying into your home through those openings.
Install window shields with fine mesh on the bathroom and kitchen windows to protect your home from these beetles.
These window shields will keep beetles and other insects out of your home that are attracted to light.
Additionally, using insect-resistant light bulbs comes in handy. They are ideal for use in your garden or yard, as well as doorways and patio decks.
These light bulbs are not attracted to these tiny flying beetles and other flying insects.
Electrical lights also attract flying insects such as ants and termites, which cause costly damage to your home.
Therefore, it is always a good idea to install these insect-repelling bulbs in your yard and outdoors.
You can also catch these beetles inside your home by using a homemade beetle trap. A bowl of apple cider vinegar and dish soap must be prepared.
Maintain them in locations such as your kitchen or other areas where they are frequently noticed.
These beetles will be drawn to the mixture, but the dish soap will cause them to stick to the sides of the bowl.
10 Home Remedies to Get Rid of Beetles Naturally
How do you get rid of beetles for good if you have them in your home or yard? As a good thing, there are a few simple DIY projects you can do on your own.
Here’s what we think:
Mint oil and plants that have it are great natural pest repellents. Pour 8 ounces of water and pure peppermint oil into a spray bottle.
Add 10-15 drops of pure peppermint oil. You can shake up the mixture and spray it all over your doors, vents, and windows.
Pros: They’re cheap, effective, easy to make at home, and safe for kids and pets to use.
Cons: It needs to be reapplied often, and people who don’t like the smell of peppermint might not like this.
For good reason, people all over the world use neem oil as a natural way to keep bugs away. Neem oil can kill more than 200 different types of bugs but it’s completely safe for kids and pets and even wildlife.
To make a natural beetle repellent, spray neem oil on plants inside your home to keep beetles away, or put it on the seams of your windows and doorways to keep beetles from getting in.
Pros: Fast-acting, safe, and easy to make at home are some of the pros.
Cons: It needs to be reapplied often, and neem oil can be hard to find.
For crawling bugs, sticky traps can be useful. Buy a few of these traps at your local hardware store and put them in places where you’ve seen beetles.
In order for these traps to work, they emit a scent that attracts beetles. When the insect steps on the trap, the glue holds them in place and stops them from fleeing.
Pros: They’re cheap, effective, and easy to place.
Cons: The traps are ugly, you have to change them often, and kids and pets might mess with them.
Pyrethrin is a naturally occurring compound that comes from the chrysanthemum flower. It acts on the nervous systems of insects to kill them quickly. Spray Pyrethrin on the beetles as soon as you see them.
Pros: An effective, quick-acting solution.
Cons: It’s very manual, so you have to find and spray bugs, and you have to pick up the dead bodies of bugs.
Lavender oil smells good to humans, but it scares away beetles. A spray made with lavender oil and water can keep the bugs out of your home.
You can put dried lavender in drawers and closets, or you can make a spray by adding about 10 drops of lavender oil to 8 cups of water.
Pros: People who have kids or pets should use this because it is safe and doesn’t have any harmful chemicals in it. It also has a pleasant smell.
Cons: It needs to be reapplied often.
Even though this is a manual method, it can work. Here’s how:
Fill a quart jar with water and dish soap, and hold it under the branches of plants where beetles are resting so that they can’t get to them. When you touch the branch, it will wiggle. Beetles will fall into the jar. The dish soap will smother the beetles, so they won’t move.
Pros: It’s effective, kills beetles quickly, and it’s not toxic.
Cons: It may take a long time to get rid of all the beetles in your yard.
Use a wet/dry or ShopVac to pick up beetles where you see them resting or moving, then throw them away in a bag. Empty the vacuum’s canister into a jar of soapy water or a bag that you can close and keep clean.
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Pros: They are safe and effective.
Cons: It’s a lot of work to get rid of all the beetles, and it may take a few tries to get rid of all the beetles. It doesn’t get rid of beetles that aren’t visible.
The best way to get rid of beetles in your yard is to hang traps around your lawn. There are a lot of places where you can buy these traps in your area. Most come with a bag filled with something that attracts beetles.
When the beetles get into the trap, they get stuck and die of their own.
Pros: People and animals can play with it because it isn’t dangerous and doesn’t have a lot of impact on them.
Cons: They look bad, it may take a long time to kill all the beetles, and you have to take the traps down and throw away the dead beetles.
If you see beetles outside your house or on your plants, use insecticidal soap to kill them. This soap can be bought at your local hardware store. Spray it on your bushes or plants to kill beetles right away.
A lot of them are safe for kids and pets to use. They’re also easy to apply.
Cons: It may take several applications, and it may not kill all kinds of beetles.
Crushed algae is used to make DE. While it’s safe for kids, pets, and wildlife (you can buy food-grade DE online), it’s bad for bugs. You can buy food-grade DE online. Hours after they come into contact with DE, insects will die of dehydration.
You should sprinkle a thin line of DE around places where beetles can get in and along the foundation seam of your house to kill them,
Pros: They’re cheap, safe, and not harmful.
Cons: It can be messy and needs to be reapplied often.
Wood Boring Beetles in House
In homes, wood-boring beetles are second only to termites as the most destructive wood-eating bugs.
It can be hard to tell how much damage wood-boring beetles do because there are so many factors.
A beetle’s damage depends on what kind of wood it’s eating, how much moisture is in the wood, and what kind of environment it’s in when it’s eating it.
This fact sheet talks about how to find and get rid of some of the most common wood-boring beetles in South Carolina.
These beetles can be found in the United States. There are more than thirty-five different types of lyctid beetles.
Those who live on or near the ground are called powderpost beetles, and the adults are about 1/8 to 1/4 inch long.
They are long and can be reddish-brown to black in color, and they are very thin. When these bugs are seen from above, their heads are very clear.
Habits: Lyctid beetles only eat wood, like oak. They can live in wood with a wide range of moisture levels, from a dry 8% to a very wet 32 %, so they can live anywhere.
Only the larvae eat wood, but not the adult bugs that emerge. The female lays about twenty to fifty eggs in crevices or on the ends of boards every day.
At first, when the larvae are small, they eat their way into the wood. Adults emerge from the wood as the larvae get bigger.
They go through the wood to a point just below the surface, where they change into adults.
Adults cut a hole about 1/32 to 1/16 inches wide in the surface of the wood after they change.
A lot of the powdery wood dust that the beetle makes when it eats comes out when the adult emerges. You can see why they’re called “powderpost” bugs.
When both males and females leave at the same time, they mate, and the next generation of females starts to lay eggs all over again. For most lyctid beetles, the whole process takes 9 to 12 months.
Over 200 types of anobiid beetles live in wood, but only a small number of them are found in wood. Anobiid beetles are found a lot of places, but most are found in homes.
People also call them powderpost beetles or deathwatch beetles because a few of them live in wood, but most don’t.
Their size ranges from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch. They live in wood. It ranges from a dark reddish brown to almost black in color. Insects have hood-like parts of their bodies that cover their heads when they are seen from above.
Anobiids can live in both hard and soft woods. Only the larvae eat wood, not the adult bees.
They usually like wood in places that aren’t too hot and have a lot of moisture. Anobiids are the most common type of beetle that lives in crawl spaces.
They usually lay less than 50 eggs under wood splinters, in cracks, or in old exit holes. A small anobiid larva burrows into the wood, where it eats and grows.
When the larvae become adults, they make round exit holes that are between 1/16 and 1/8 inches wide.
The male and female come out together and mate, and the female puts her eggs in the ground.
They can fly and lay eggs in new places, but they are more likely to lay their eggs on the board from which they grew up. Most anobiid beetles take two to three years to grow up.
“False,” “large,” or “bamboo borers” are some of the names given to bostrichid beetles. They can also be called “lead-cable borers.” From reddish brown to black, the adults come in a wide range of shades of brown. They are between 1/8 and 1/4 inches wide.
This is how anobiid beetles hide their heads from above. The segment behind the head hides the head from the top. Most bostrichid beetles point their heads down.
When it comes to their habits, bostrichid beetles don’t usually do as much damage to homes as other beetles.
A few bostrichid beetles will also go after softwoods that have just been cut. Adult and larvae of the bostrichid beetle eat wood. This is not the case with lyctid or anobiid beetles.
In the wild, adult females make “egg tunnels” in the wood where they can lay their eggs. After hatching, the larvae tunnel into the wood to feed and grow.
Most of the time, the larvae are done growing by the spring of the year after they lays their eggs.
Adults cut 3/32 to 9/32 inch, round exit holes when they come out of the ground. Adults rarely return to the wood from which they came out.
The old house borer is part of a group of beetles called cerambycid beetles, which are also called long-horned beetles. They all start out as wood borers when they’re young, but only the old house borer is a real problem for people living in homes.
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Adult old house borers can grow up to 1 inch long. They can be anywhere from 5/8 to 1 inch long. In color, they are brownish black.
They have a lot of gray hair on their heads and bodies. Just behind the head, there’s a shiny bump on each side that looks like a face.
Old house borers like to eat softwoods that have been seasoned, especially pine. It’s true that these things can be found in old homes, but they are actually more common in new homes.
They lay about 50 eggs in cracks and crevices in wood. The larvae go into the wood to eat, but they stay close to the surface most of the time.
It usually takes about two to three years for larvae to grow in wood that has 15% to 25% moisture. In very dry wood, larvae can take up to 15 years to grow.
A lot of the time, larvae become adults in the spring, but they may not come out right away.
When the kids leave, the adults cut holes that are about 1/4 to 3/8 inches wide. It is normal for adults to be the busiest in June and July.
How do Exterminators Get Rid of Beetles?
Professional exterminators use tried and true methods to get rid of beetles. People at Smith’s Pest Management will be able to do these things for you.
Before we do anything else, we’ll make sure your home is free of pests. During this inspection, we’ll figure out what kind of beetle it is and where it came from.
Based on our findings, we’ll come up with a pest management plan that will work for you.
Most pest problems need a long-term solution. To help you figure out what caused your infestation, we’ll give you and your family the best information in the business.
What kind of beetles are in your home or garden, what they eat, and how to keep them away. Having this information helps you and your family be more powerful and keep bugs from coming back.
Finally, we’ll start using the plan we made for your family. Our team may also check up on you after the treatment to make sure the beetles are gone and that you don’t have any more in your garden or home.
I want to keep beetles out of my house and yard. How do I do this?
First, you need to keep beetles from getting into your house. Keep them out of your yard and away from your home.
A few tips:
Keep bugs out of your house by sealing all the places where they can get in. You should look for cracks in caulking and weather stripping.
You should also look for areas around windows and doors, as well as soffits and vents.
If beetles are a problem in your home every year, use an outside barrier treatment to kill them when they come into contact.
This type of treatment can be found at your local home goods store. Spritz the treatment around your doors and windows as well as your doors and windows, foundation, and roofline to keep beetles from gathering and getting into your space.
Beetles are drawn to food sources that make them hungry. As much as you can, get rid of the food sources.
This means taking leftovers off the counter, putting perishable food in the fridge or an airtight plastic container, and cleaning up spills and crumbs right away.
Keeping pet food and water bowls empty as often as possible is also a good idea. Trim trees and bushes away from your home, and keep pet food and water bowls empty as often as you can.
Wood Boring Beetles Control
There are a lot of things you should think about before you start trying to get rid of wood-boring beetles. This is the first thing to keep in mind.
In most homes, there is some damage from wood-boring beetles, but not all of them. Many times, the damage is very small and old, which means that all the beetles have died.
Unless you see beetles or new wood powder around the holes, you don’t need to use chemicals to clean them. Fresh wood powder is usually light in color and doesn’t clump together like old wood powder does.
Old wood powder often turns yellow and clumps together.
Also, there are many beetles in nature that attack wood, but they don’t do a lot of damage or keep coming back to homes. It is important to know which beetles you have before you go through with some of the treatments.
Finally, with the introduction of central air conditioning and heating, the risk of widespread damage has gone down.
It turns out that even with the more dangerous lyctrid and anobiid beetles, if a house doesn’t have a lot of moisture and a central cooling and heating system, there aren’t likely to be many problems.
As long as the beetles are still alive, there are a lot of ways to treat them. These things include controlling wood moisture, using surface covers, mechanical removal, freezing, and insecticide treatments to get rid of bugs.
Mold and mildew are most often found in the wood in crawl spaces. Many times, a vapor barrier is needed to keep water from getting into a crawl space.
As a general rule, plastic sheets (4 mil polyethylene) that cover 70% of the crawl space will keep the wood from getting too wet.
Paint, polyurethane, and water sealants will help protect wood from moisture problems and keep wood-boring beetles from getting into the wood, which will make it last longer.
Surface treatments usually don’t stop beetles that are already in wood from coming out.
Replacing the wood may be the best thing you can do to get rid of an infestation that is limited to a few pieces of wood.
Wood-boring beetles can be killed by freezing, especially in small furniture. If you have a lot of space in your freezer, you might want to think about this control option. Wood that is going to freeze should be covered in plastic.
Make sure to freeze the item for two weeks. Then, wrap the item in a towel and leave it until it’s at room temperature. When the item warms up, condensation forms on the wood.
This stops the wood from getting water marks because of this condensation. Also, be careful with the item because glue joints are very fragile when they’re frozen, so don’t touch it.
Most insecticides for wood-boring beetles are only allowed to be used by people who have been trained to deal with pests. Most of the wood-boring beetle insecticides are no longer available to the public.
You might be able to find some at hardware or discount stores that say they can kill wood-boring beetles around your home.
Before applying insecticide, remove any surface covering, such as paint, so the insecticide can get into the wood and work its way through the surface.
Following the directions on the label of the insecticide you buy is just like with any other insecticide that you buy.
The best thing to do may be to hire a pest control expert. They have more insecticides and tools than you do.
Fumigation may be the best way to get rid of beetles if spot treatments haven’t worked, or if there are a lot of beetles all over the place.
The fumigants can reach all parts of the house and kill wood-boring beetles. However, fumigants can’t stop wood-boring beetle infestations from happening again.
If you want to get rid of pests, you’ll have to spend a lot of money and get help from a professional. In order to hire a professional, get prices from a few well-known companies.
Summary
Three tiny flying beetles – carpet beetles, drugstore beetles, and click beetles – make their way into homes.
Carpet beetles and drugstore beetles are capable of wreaking havoc on the products they infest. However, click beetles are completely harmless and do no harm to the contents of your home.
However, click beetle larvae, also known as wireworms, are damaging to vegetable plants.
The best way to get rid of these small beetles is to vacuum your home and keep your kitchen clean.
We do not recommend using insecticides to eradicate these minuscule beetles, as they are unnecessary.
Additionally, by caulking cracks in your home’s walls, doors, and windows, installing window shields, and installing bug-repelling light bulbs, you can keep these beetles out.