Have You Got Carpet Beetles In Your Home?
Carpet beetles, small as they may seem, pack a potent punch against the integrity of your home’s carpets and fabrics. These unassuming pests can wreak havoc on your cherished belongings, making understanding and controlling them crucial for a healthy living space. This comprehensive guide delves into the intricacies of carpet beetles, covering identification, entry points, signs of infestation, prevention strategies, and effective elimination methods.
Understanding Carpet Beetles
Carpet beetles, belonging to the family Dermestidae, are notorious for infesting home textiles. Among the various species, the Varied Carpet Beetle and the Furniture Carpet Beetle are particularly prevalent. These insects have a diverse diet, feasting on materials like wool, fur, silk, and feathers. They can also invade your pantry, targeting stored food products.
You can identify them using the images below – they come in a range of colours, patterns, spots and stripes but for most of the UK, they’re a small black beetle. If you’ve found some in your home, look on your carpets, stairs, window sills, blinds and the edges of rooms for more.
They also leave shells of their body as they grow. If you’ve found some, chances are there’s a lot more and they’ll be in multiple rooms of the house – they live deep in the fibres of carpets so most you won’t find unless you’re checking your carpets with a fine tooth comb.
Are Carpet Beetles Dangerous?
While these beetles primarily cause damage to materials, they pose no direct harm to humans. Nonetheless, their destructive feeding habits can lead to significant textile damage, emphasizing the need for prompt action to mitigate their presence.
How Do Carpet Beetles Get Into The Home?
These insects can sneak into your home through various means, including open windows or doors and tiny cracks. Bringing in second-hand items without proper inspection can also introduce these pests into your home. Outdoor sources like gardens or bird nests serve as reservoirs for these beetles, making vigilance essential.
How Can You Tell If You Have Carpet Beetles?
Key indicators of a carpet beetle infestation include sightings of adult beetles, larvae, shed skins, faecal pellets, and notably, damaged fabrics. Regularly inspecting at-risk items can aid in early detection and control.
Are There Certain Carpet Types More Prone To Carpet Bugs?
Carpets made from natural fibres, such as wool or silk, are more prone to infestation. Blended fibres or combinations of natural and synthetic materials also offer a hospitable environment for these pests.
How Do You Manage An Infestation?
Contrary to common belief, infested carpets often don’t require replacement. Through diligent cleaning, vacuuming, steam treatments, and appropriate insecticide application, you can eradicate these pests and preserve your textiles.
What Preventative Measures Can I Take?
Maintaining cleanliness, storing susceptible items properly, and sealing potential entry points are fundamental strategies to deter carpet beetles. Additionally, regular inspections play a critical role in early detection and infestation prevention.
How To Get Rid Of Carpet Beetles
We’ve actually tackled having carpet beetles, and treating them is actually pretty easy.
Step 1: You want copious amounts (lots) of baking soda (also known as bicarbonate of soda), NOT Baking powder. We used Tesco’s version, as of 24/05/2025 a 200g tub is 65p each. You’ll probably want 2 tubs per carpeted room.
Why This Works: Baking soda completely throws off their digestive system, like a family friendly poison for carpet beetles. It’ll dry them out and kill any survivors. Sprinkle your baking soda across the room and then use a brush to get it deep in the fibres of the carpet. Leave it for 30 mins for them them to come out of their defensive position and start snacking.
Step 2: Vacuum. Grab your favourite vacuum cleaner and slowly vacuum every section of carpet. Empty it after every room into an outside bin.
Step 3: Steam clean. It’s a somewhat optional extra – you can get by with the baking soda and vacuuming every day for a few days as more come to the surface of the carpet and die, but steam is 100% effective in killing them. It doesn’t have to be an expensive or industrial strength steamer – a cheap one on amazon will do. Steam clean slowly over every section of carpet again.
Step 4: Wait a day or two, then vacuum again. Go slowly, again. This’ll get the ones that you initially missed if they were too deep down into the carpet, as they come up to get away from the baking soda they’ve already ingested.
Step 5: optional, you’ll want to vacuum again. Vacuuming is the magical componant of the treatment and also goes a long way in preventing an infestation. Just as a regular cleaning routine, you should vacuum once a week.
And that’s it! Carpet beetles will give you the ick and make you feel itchy, but they’re harmless to humans and pets – they’ll just damage any carpets or floordrobes (clothing piles on the floor). They’re easy to get rid of and you won’t need to replace any flooring or call in the heavy duty chemicals, but if you’re feeling the urge to rip up your carpets and start fresh then it might as well be affordable.
We offer new carpets from £10 a week, interest free with no credit checks or limits. If that’s something you fancy, click here to find out more.
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About The Author
Matt
Matt is a master at gathering relevant information and rolling it into a ball of digestibility. Fuelled by caffeine and metal bands, you'll usually find him in the office either writing blog posts with verification from our most experienced flooring fitters, creating new ad designs, working on our social media and website or finding ways to improve our customer's whole experience with us. Matt is part of the background force that keeps the Pay Weekly side of Easipay Carpets growing.
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