These hard-shelled insects make up the largest part of the Coleoptera order, with 300,000 species worldwide. A typical homeowner in the U.S. may not notice or be bothered by the vast majority of beetles; some however are highly irritating and harmful to people, pets and your garden.
Whether they’re in your vegetable garden or in your pantry, you need to get rid of beetles as soon as possible. Making At Home Pros your first stop can speed the cut time that your home is beetle-infested, so you can achieve a pest-free (and stress-free) environment as soon as possible.
Identifying what kind of beetle may be infesting your home is not an easy task because there are so many different types. Some beetles, like ladybugs, have a classic appearance with a hard shell and spots. Others have slender bodies, can fly or are even built to resemble predators like spiders.
What Are Beetles?
Insects of the order Coleoptera are some of the most varied bugs in the world. They differ in size, ability and appearance to the extreme; some fly, some are iridescent, some roll balls of dung and some live in your carpet.
There are four stages of metamorphosis for a beetle: egg, larva, pupa and imago. Depending on what kind of beetle you have, the different stages of beetle can pose varying threats. The larvae of carpet beetles can damage wool, for instance, whereas fully formed powderpost beetles can threaten bamboo and other hardwoods as wood is their main food source.
For simplicity, this article breaks beetles into four major groupings: wood-eaters, carpet infesters, pantry or stored product pests, and general nuisances.
Wood-eaters
Different types of wood-eating beetles feast on certain types of wood. These types of beetles can both live in and feed on different types of wood, inflicting structural damage when they do.
There are three common types of wood-eating beetles that U.S. homeowners regularly encounter: lyctid powderpost beetles, anobiid powderpost beetles and longhorn beetles. Powderpost beetles infest all sorts of wooden furniture and get their name from their ability to reduce wooden posts into powder in very little time.
Carpet-infesters
As their name suggests, these beetles live in your carpets. Almost every variety of carpet-infesting beetle is oval shaped and only ⅛” long. These beetles behave similarly, so the only way to really tell them apart is by their coloration. Three examples of beetles seen commonly in households throughout the U.S. are black, varied and common carpet beetles.
- Black carpet beetles: These pests chew large, irregular holes in carpets and other types of fabrics, and have larvae that are shaped like miniature cigars with long bristles.
- Varied carpet beetles: These beetles have distinctive wing coverings with splotches of white, brown, and yellow, giving them a camouflage appearance. These insects eat dead insects and a variety of fabric material.
- Common carpet beetles: With unusual white and black scale patterns adorning their wing covers, common carpet beetles also have a stripe of orange or red running down the midline. Like the other types of carpet beetles, these pests devour fabric and fibers, destroying carpets, blankets and draperies.
Pantry pests
Otherwise known as stored product pests, pantry beetles like the dark areas in which you store a lot of your stored dry goods. Food like grains, cereals, sugar, nuts, oatmeal and flour are all fair game for pantry pests, both as a place to lay their eggs and as a source of food. These are the most habitual offenders when it comes to pantry pests:
- Red flour beetles: Feeding on flour, cereals and other dry goods, red flour beetles also resemble confused flour beetles; both species are dark red and about ⅛” long.
- Cigarette beetles: These beetles are oval-shaped and light brown, only ⅛” long. They eat plant material, and can also be found in tobacco, hence their name.
- Larder beetles: Feeding on stored animal products as well as plant material, larder beetles are common all over the world. They measure ¼” to ⅜” long, and are dark brown or black with a yellow bands on their wings.
- Sawtoothed grain beetles: These are the most common intruder in your pantry, as these flat, dark brown beetles feast on crumbs and open food storage containers.
General nuisances
Other than eating fabric, wood or your pantry products, some beetles can be downright irritating and can make your life at home less than comfortable. Japanese beetles and Asian lady beetles are two types that can put a major cramp in your style.
- Japanese beetles: These invasive species are copper-colored with iridescent green heads. Since their grubs eat turf and other landscaping elements, Japanese beetles can be highly damaging to your garden.
- Asian lady beetles: Although these bugs resemble ladybugs, they are not as red in hue; they’re more orange and feature an M-shaped marking near their heads. They cluster and swarm near the corners of buildings and can emit an unpleasant-smelling pheromone.
Why Are They Detrimental?
Beetles live on dry land and in fresh water, and these insects typically feed where they live. There are both beneficial and detrimental beetles. Some are considered good luck, like ladybugs, which rid our gardens of pests like aphids; others, like fireflies or lightning bugs, light up summer evenings with their incandescent mating rituals; still others can destroy acres of crops at a sweep.
Beetles feed on crops, animal fibers, organic elements and feathers. Due to the number of different species of beetles, it is absolutely necessary to identify your beetle pest right the first time around.
If you have attracted the types of beetles that feed on wood, then your house and furniture could be these pests’ next big meal. Pantry or stored product pests love an untidy space, and any open container or crumby cupboard is fair game. Luckily, most beetles can be eradicated with some of the home remedies listed below; however, if the beetles persist, your pest control specialist will employ some more intense treatment options.
What the Homeowner Can Do
There are a few remedies you can employ to get rid of your beetle issue. Before you have to hire a professional to help you, you can attempt to lessen the severity of your infestation by reducing the attractive habitats and using non-chemical tactics.
Some beetles can be removed from your premises and won’t return easily once they’ve been evicted. Simply use your household vacuum or a shop vac to suck up the invasive beetles. Inspect fabrics and foodstuffs that you’re bringing into your home, and get rid of any infested items.
Reducing moisture in your atmosphere may also help reduce the number of beetles living with you. Also, some beetles are attracted to light sources, so if you seal up entrances and cracks in the exterior of your home, and reduce the number of lights you leave burning, you may not have as many of these pests coming to your doorstep.
Keeping your house clean and pantry items well-sealed will make your home less attractive to the beetles who feed on such things. Keeping items fresh will also help; consistently rotate old fabrics out of your house, and don’t keep pantry items past their expiration date.
Peppermint oil, lavender oil and other tools like diatomaceous earth (DE) all make your job of keeping your home pest-free easier. Sprinkle these essential oils throughout your property or mix them with water in some mason jars at key beetle junctions.
What a Professional Does
If your pest problem necessitates more than essential oils, you need a professional on your side. Most pest control services will take three key steps when helping you rid your property of beetles: initial assessment, client education and treatment, and follow-up.
- Initial assessment: One of the greatest benefits of hiring a pest control specialist is that they can easily identify the type of beetle that’s infesting your home, pinpoint the source of the infestation and provide an effective remedy.
- Client education and treatment: Beetles need a long-term, consistent solution. Along with professional treatment, high-quality pest control companies will educate their clients about ways to keep beetles away in the future.
- Follow-up – With pheromone-based traps and insect growth regulators, your service provider rids your property of pests. Targeted treatments and follow-up visits provide the support you need to keep consistent pressure on the dwindling beetle population.
Beetles’ main strength is that they come in so many varied types. With differing food sources and maturation cycles, you never know what you’re getting when you discover a beetle infestation.
All beetles have hard wings, chewing mouthparts and working antennae, and most feed on wood, fabric, your garden or some of the items you can find in your cupboards and pantry. From cigarette beetles to click beetles, if you’ve noticed these insects in any stage of their development, you need to find a solution as quickly as possible.
At Home Pros is an ingenious solution that connects you with pre-screened home service providers in your area. All you have to do is provide some simple information about where you live and what pests you think may be affecting you, and At Home Pros will do the rest. With a few simple clicks, you can get a list of personalized providers in your area, so you can get rid of beetles and other bugs more quickly than you ever thought possible.
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