General Description

• Adults are small, rounded, and blackish, with a mottling of yellow                                               
  and white scales on the back and a heavy coating of yellow scales
  on the femur of the legs. The color pattern varies from yellow to white scales.

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• Females lay a total of 35 to 100 eggs in one to three batches.
• Eggs hatch in three weeks.
• Larvae then develop through 6-12 molts over a period of 3-6 months.
• Larvae are oval-shaped, somewhat elongated, and thickly covered with brownish hairs.
• The pupa is white and develops in the last larval skin.
• The pupal stage lasts from 14 to 19 days.
• The adult remains in the pupal skin for one to 10 weeks before becoming

Damage and Economic and Health Implications

• Furniture carpet beetles attack upholstered furniture, where they feed any suitable food source (hair, padding, feathers and woollen items).
• They also feed on other woollens, carpets, fur, bristles, horns, silk, and also feed.
• Individuals in close association with infested items may suffer allergic reactions as a result of exposure to beetle fragments, cast skins, or dusts.

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General Description

· Adults are shiny black with brownish legs and 0.3 to 0.5 cm in length.

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.

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.

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General Description

· The larva is an elongated, oval shape and is rarely more than 0.6 cm long. · Larvae are reddish brown and covered with numerous black or brown hairs. · Eggs are white.

Credit: Joseph Berger, bugwood.org.

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• Adult beetles feed on nectar and pollen in flowers.
• Each female deposit 30 to 40 small.
• Eggs hatch in 10 to 20 days.
  The larva molts 6 times over a period of 60 to 70 days.
• Pupation occurs in the last larval skin.
  The pupal stage lasts for 12 to 15 days.
• The adult remains in the old larval skin for about 18 days before becoming active.

Damage and Economic & Health Implications

• Larvae of this beetle often cause damage to carpets, textiles, fabrics, furs, feathers, museum specimens and similar materials.
• This beetle may cause dermatitis (skin irritation) when human skin comes in contact with shed larval skins.
• Damages on infested items as irregular holes. In museum damaged specimens are eaten by the larvae which they leave a fine dust around or beneath the specimen.

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