Black Carpet Beetle
General Description
| · Adults are shiny black with brownish legs and 0.3 to 0.5 cm in length.
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 Credit: Caroline Harding, PaDIL |
| · Larvae are tiny when they hatch.
· Larvae have distinctive elongated carrot- or cigar-shaped bodies and long, brushy tail bristles. · Larvae body color varies from a light brown to almost black.
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 Credit: CSIRO |
Life Cycle and Common Characteristics
- Females lay eggs either indoors or outdoors, beginning 4 to 8 days after the adult emerges.
- Each female lays about 50 eggs over a period of about three weeks, after which she dies.
- Eggs hatch in six to 11 days in warm weather.
- Larvae may grow to 1.25 cm long over a series of five to 11 molts.
- Larvae may live from 9 months to 3 years, depending on their diet and environmental conditions.
- Larvae pupate in the last larval skin, with the pupal state lasting from 6 to 24 days.
Damage and Economic & Health Implications
- Black carpet beetles are found outdoors in flowers and are most numerous in the spring and early summer.
- Mature larvae can wander rather widely, so they may be found anywhere in a building.
- Larvae are found in a bathtub, kitchen sink or even crawling on walls and ceilings.
Larvae are general feeders, feeding on dead animal materials, hair, fur, hides, and horns, and occasionally on woolen products. - Larvae frequently burrow through containers to obtain food, leaving small openings through which other insects may enter to cause additional damage.
- Cast skins and frass are found on infested items and fabrics.
