Carpet Beetles
In Pests
How Do I Know I Have A Moth/Beetle Infestation?
The Clothes Moth, Case & Bearing Clothes Moth are a pest found mainlyon carpets with all or some wool content or clothes. The Carpet Beetle prefers birds nests, cereals, dead rodents/birds to carpets. It is the larvae of all species that cause the damage (these are grubs), the adults do not feed on wool at all but on pollen and nectar. Adult moths don’t usually feed at all, they just mate, lay eggs and then die. It is usually undisturbed areas of carpet, or clothes that have not been worn for a long time that are attacked. Often when a piece of standing furniture is moved you may notice damage or when a seldom used item of clothing is removed from storage the damage is noticed. The other types of beetle damage is either on grain, meal, leather or fur.
The larvae are small (about 4mm long), covered in brown hairs, and tend to roll up when disturbed. As they grow, they moult – and the old cast-off skins may be the first sign of infestation. Adults are often seen in April, May and June, seeking egg-laying sites; and the grubs are most active in October before they hibernate.
The adult Carpet Beetle feeds only on pollen and nectar of garden flowers but lays its eggs in old birds’ nests, felt, fabric or accumulated fluff in buildings. It is the larvae from these eggs that do the damage. They feed on feathers, fur, hair, or wool and tend to wander along the pipes from roofs into airing cupboards – which house the clothes and blankets which constitute the food.
The life cycle takes about a year, and the grubs can survive starvation in hard times for several months.
Carpet beetles cause damage that consists of fairly well-defined round holes along the seams of fabric where the grubs bite through the thread.
Preparation Prior To Treatment
All areas in and around the infested areas should be cleaned, carpets vacuumed & furniture moved. In the case of stored product moths then the infested food should be removed to an outside bin and the cupboards etc cleaned out & contents removed ready for spraying.
Treatment
We treat carpets, wardrobes, drawers etc in the infested and surrounding areas with one (or more) of the following insecticides: Effect Microtech CS’* which contains Lambdacyhalothrin, Ficam W which contains 80% Bendiocarb w/w or K-Othrine which contains Deltamethrin. Also a powder might be used called Ficam D*. This contains an insecticide in a dust formulation @ 1% w/w Bendiocarb. All insecticides are biodegradable, almost odourless, non tainting & do not corrode or stain. They are not highly toxic towards mammals but are extremely so to all forms of crawling and flying public health pests.
Call PESTUK on 0800 026 0308 or 0330 100 2811 or email us at services@pestuk.com
