How to get rid of skin beetles: step-by-step instructions

Sometimes carpet beetles, which few people have heard of, settle in the house. They cause harm to interior items and clothing that are in the house and directly to the owners. Not everyone knows how to get rid of them, but the methods of control are quite simple, and if you know them, it will be very easy to drive out the nasty bugs.

Who are leather beetles and what do they look like:

The carpet beetle is a small beetle, about 3 mm in size.
They have a brown color , but its shades can be either light and slightly reddish, or dark, even black.
They have little hair and a small tail.
Skin beetles move slowly and pretend to be dead as soon as they sense danger, while they can roll over on their stomachs or hang motionless on a curtain.
These insects reproduce very quickly , so it is necessary to fight them as quickly as possible, otherwise they will simply fill the house.
The larvae of these parasites can continue to live without food for 4 years. As soon as they receive the required amount of food, they begin their transformation into an adult.

Bugs getting into the house is very simple: in the summer they can fly through an open window or door, and at any other time, you can simply bring them with infected things.

The habitats of parasites are different and it is quite difficult to detect them. They love dry and warm places.

Therefore, as a rule, their habitats are:

window sills;
skirting boards under radiators;
genital slits;
cabinet drawers;

They can also be found in carpets and zoological collections made from natural materials.

A sure sign that you have skin beetles is the following:

the presence of scuffs on the carpet;
minor damage to the sofa upholstery and clothing;
small pieces of skin that bugs shed;

Ways to fight

It is very important to begin the process of getting rid of pests as soon as you discover them in your home.

It is more difficult to destroy skin beetles than other pests, since they are more resistant to various poisons, and therefore the treatment must be done several times to make sure that they will not appear again.

At the same time, it is best to treat the house during the breeding season of parasites, that is, in May:

The very first thing you need to do is find their habitat . You should carefully examine window sills, baseboards, sofa upholstery and other warm and dark places in the room. If you have found the place where they are located, then you can be sure that you will be 100% able to get rid of them.
Pests can be controlled using chemicals .
You can try traditional methods . But it should be remembered that folk remedies will not always give results, and it is better to use chemicals.
And if the parasite infestation is severe , then only specialists can help.

In any case, no matter what method is chosen to combat pests, there is one rule, the observance of which will help achieve greater results and avoid their re-infestation: during the period of destruction of skin beetles, you should vacuum the entire house several times a day.

Chemicals

Treating premises with chemicals is a very effective way to remove unwanted bugs.

There are several types of chemicals that are selected depending on the habitat of the parasites:

Powder preparations . Powders must be poured into the habitats of parasites. If these are cracks and baseboards, then a broom will help, which should be used to place the powder there. Boric acid works very well for this.
Liquid emulsions . They are used if the number of parasites is large. They leave no marks or stains. They process either the entire room or individual items. When processing each item separately, they should be placed in a bag, inside of which the product is sprayed. The item should be left in this state for several hours.
Aerosols . These drugs work just like aqueous concentrates. The difference is that it works a little slower, but the eggs will remain intact. The treatment must be done several times, and the consumption will be greater than that of aqueous concentrates. The advantage of these drugs is their price.
Poison in tablets . This remedy will help more against larvae, since adult parasites do not eat solid food. The destruction process will take quite a long time and it is better to use tablets as an additional measure, using them together with powders or other chemicals. These products have a rather pungent odor and permeate the furniture.

Effective means

There are quite a large number of different chemicals that are designed to combat skin beetles:

Difox . This product has a capacity of 50 ml. for a price from 80 rub. up to 200 rub. You can buy a 500 ml bottle for 400 – 700 rubles. It is very easy to find, but it is important to know how to breed it. To destroy parasites you need to dilute 2 ml. drug in 1 liter of water.
Antimol . These are tablets that can be purchased at a cost of 20 rubles. up to 300 rub. The price depends on the number of tablets and additional effects. They need to be placed in several places around the house in gauze bags, which must be looked for separately. They do not affect adults.
Mittox . This is a liquid concentrate that is sprayed in places where parasites are localized. Its price is on average 600 rubles. 50 ml. This product must be mixed with 1 liter. water and then disinfection can be carried out. The prepared solution can be stored for no more than 5 days.
Molemore . This aerosol costs 50 rubles. – 100 rub. It is used to treat skin beetle localization sites and other surfaces where they could settle. Its effect lasts six months.
Boric acid . This product in powder form is the cheapest: 1 package costs from 6 rubles. up to 100 rub. It is odorless and harmless to humans; you just need to sprinkle it in places where parasites live.

Traditional methods

If there is no need to use strong chemicals, then you can resort to traditional methods of pest control.

Quite effective in the fight against skin beetles are:

Temperature difference . This method is very good to do in winter, you just need to cool the apartment. Beetles do not like sudden temperature changes and die at -10 degrees. This procedure should be repeated several times. If you need to remove parasites from individual things, then you need to take them out into the cold several times and bring them back.
Steam . Pest habitats can be treated with steam, and clothing should be boiled.
Permethrin pyrethroid . Woolen and fur items in which beetles live are soaked in this solution. This method will help get rid of not only skin beetles, but also other parasites that can settle there.

Destruction of skin beetles in three steps

In the most general case, the destruction of skin beetles is carried out according to the following plan:

All places where leather beetles hide, breed and feed are searched and opened. This is the most difficult stage, because due to their phenomenal omnivorous nature, these bugs with their larvae can safely exist, grow and reproduce almost anywhere.
Places where insects accumulate are treated with insecticides.
Additionally, with preparations with a long residual effect, places where either adult beetles or larvae were regularly encountered, but where they are not permanently present, are treated. Here the calculation is made on the fact that insects that are not in places of accumulation and that can survive the treatment can move along these surfaces. Having come into contact here with a drug with a long residual effect, the insects will die, albeit later than the main part poisoned directly.

Here in the photo, for example, beetles collected in the apartment after disinfestation:

With professional disinfestation, the third stage is not needed - in the second step, all surfaces and possible hiding places of skin beetles are sprayed so intensively that they all die. Even if some individuals survive such baiting, with the slightest subsequent movements they will end up on a layer of the drug, which will remain in those places where the owners of the apartment, even with thorough cleaning, will not be able to remove it - behind the baseboards, on the back walls of furniture, under floor covering. And all these surviving characters will die. Although, according to our observations, no surviving skin beetles remain indoors after proper treatment with professional products.

Let's now go through each point in order.

Processing rules

The drugs used to treat the house are very strong and can harm household members.

To avoid possible negative consequences, you must follow a number of rules:

All inhabitants of the house, including animals , must leave it during disinfection.
When spraying poison , windows and doors should be tightly closed, and the walls should be free of furniture.
After finishing the treatment , the one who carried out it must also leave the house for several hours.
After the house has been disinfected , all rooms should be thoroughly ventilated and cleaned, but you should only wash those places that you touch with your hands, so that there are few chemicals left for the larvae that may appear.
Repeated treatment can be done no earlier than after 14 days.

Removal sequence

Skin beetles must be removed in the correct sequence:

First you need to find their habitat . There may be several of them, so it is necessary to carefully examine every corner of the house.
The next step should be general cleaning . You should try to collect as many parasites as possible with a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner bag should be shaken out very vigorously, or simply thrown away. It’s also good if you have a water vacuum cleaner, then the pests will definitely not run away after cleaning.
After cleaning, you can begin disinfestation . It must be done very carefully and try to get to all possible crevices in order to completely get rid of the beetles.
After treating the house, you need to monitor the possible appearance of insects and, if skin beetles are detected again, disinfection must be repeated.

Prevention of occurrence

You can avoid the appearance of skin beetles by taking preventive measures.

Carpet beetles will not appear if:

Do general cleaning regularly.
Use a mosquito net.
Don't let clothes sit in the closet.
Place lavender , wormwood, tansy, camphor and tobacco around the house.

These measures will make you confident that pests will not choose your home as their habitat and will not spoil your things.

And finally - a little about prevention

After getting rid of the annoying pest, your main task is to prevent its reappearance. Below are must-have prevention tips:

Clean the carpets in your apartment regularly. From now on, the vacuum cleaner is your main assistant in the apartment!
Once a year it is necessary to disinfect suitcases with essential boric acid.
Place wormwood and lavender on every clothing shelf—bugs hate these herbs.
Keep as few old and unnecessary things as possible in your apartment.
Check your clothing regularly.
Buy vacuum bags and put clothes in them that you won't be wearing in the near future.
The windows will have to be equipped with insect nets - they are excellent protection against skin beetles.

By regularly following all our advice, you will most likely be able to protect your apartment not only from disgusting skin beetles, but also from almost any other household pests!

Harm from skin beetles and danger to humans

skin beetle bites
Adult parasites practically do not cause much harm, but their larvae do the opposite. They feed on almost everything and thus damage clothing and home furnishings.

If skin beetles appear in the house, the following are at risk:

wool;
fluff;
silk;
leather;
fur;
felt;
other materials of animal origin.
In addition, they can easily ruin books by eating the glue that glues their bindings together.
Bugs will happily feed on rubber cables, plastic, cardboard and asbestos.
They also do not disdain foodstuffs, such as bread, oatmeal, fish, meat, cheese and dairy products;

Therefore, beetles become carriers of various diseases:

After being bitten by this pest, a person can acquire helminths (worms).
And larvae can be a source of viral diseases, causing chronic problems, which can only be gotten rid of by destroying the parasites in the house.

But even if the skin beetle does not tolerate any diseases, the bite itself is quite a big problem. It is very painful and manifests itself differently for everyone. For some, it may simply be in the form of small dots that will pass relatively quickly, while for others, the bite site turns into a huge spot that itches, sometimes even bleeds.

The skin beetle bite site should be treated with hydrogen peroxide and alcohol to prevent possible infections and other unpleasant consequences.

The leather beetle: a pest through the eyes of an etymologist

Who is the leather beetle - description of species and photos, morphology, economic significance.

Why is the skin beetle dangerous in an apartment? In short: the pest spoils things, furniture - all household items. It lives in carpets, sofas and wardrobes, spoils upholstery and outerwear, gnaws passages in wooden and other coverings, and encroaches on food.

Carpet beetles (lat. Dermestidae) are a family of a large order of Coleoptera with about 700 species.

They live in almost all climatic zones, excluding the tundra. The optimal conditions for the development of the skin beetle are dry, warm air, the presence of food resources - products of plant or animal origin, which adults and larvae feed on.

The leather beetle is a long-liver. It takes about a month from the egg phase to the larvae. And the pest remains in the larval state for up to 5 years!

The larva hatches when there is enough food for the year. Considering that there are over 20 eggs in a clutch, and the female lays about 100 eggs throughout her life, over time, the leather beetle in the apartment multiplies at a high speed, and the fight against it becomes more difficult.

Conventionally, skin beetles can be classified as synanthropes - insect companions of human homes and all objects of economic activity. Initially, insects lived only in natural conditions; today they are household pests, although not very common.

The leather beetle also causes great damage to agricultural facilities, including storage facilities and food warehouses. The damage caused by the skin beetle on livestock farms and fish farms is difficult to underestimate.

What does the pest eat? The insect does not feed on skin: fur, products made from cotton and linen fabric, wool, food (meat, fish, grain, cheeses, etc.) - the malware is almost omnivorous. There is an opinion that skin beetles living in poultry farms can attack young birds and chicks (chickens, ducklings).

Skin beetle larvae damage not only food.

Thus, the objects of attack for the larvae are the walls of buildings and even vehicles, fabric products, carpets and sofa upholstery, plastic, cardboard, asbestos - even telephone cables!

The malware does all this with the goal of building pupal chambers – the so-called. pupal cradles, which are constructed by the larvae of a number of insects to undergo the pupation process.

The “cradle” consists of the material into which the pest is embedded - wood, soil, fabric, etc.

What a leather beetle and larva look like: morphological description

The imago (adult) has an elongated (sometimes rounded) body 2-12 mm long. The color of the imago is variegated, brown-brown, sometimes black.
The body of the adult skin beetle is oval-cylindrical, convex on top, flattened below, covered with scales or small villi.
The head in many species is completely retracted, with a gnawing type mouthpart (in some species with a sucking proboscis), and slightly protruding compound eyes.
The abdomen is segmented; the wings present in most species are well developed and fold into prewings at rest.
The legs are short, the tarsi are 5-segmented.

The egg is elongated-ovoid, 0.3-2 mm long and up to 0.1-0.8 mm wide. The egg shell is transparent, and the color differs at different stages of development. At the beginning of development, the color is milky white, then the egg acquires some yellowness.

The larva of the skin beetle is spindle-shaped, with a white, yellowish body that is convex at the top and flattened at the bottom. The size of the larvae is 1.3-1.7 mm long, 0.5-5 mm wide. Depending on the species, the body of the larva is covered with scaly, spicate, arrow-shaped integumentary appendages (chaetes) - protruding long hairs.

In the larval phase, up to 7 molts occur, with the last larval instar lasting up to 3 weeks.

The pupa is up to 12 mm long, up to 6 mm wide, with a cuticle covered with hairs.

How dangerous is the skin beetle larva? It is the larva that causes the most severe damage: for rebirth it needs a pupal chamber, and the pest begins to gnaw everything that surrounds it. There is evidence that the skin beetle larva gnaws passages up to 10 cm.

It is damaged things, oblong holes on furniture, surfaces that become signs of the presence of the leather beetle in the apartment.

Kozheed beetle in the apartment: varieties

Among almost 700 species, only 6 species of skin beetles can live in an apartment.

Ham (Dermestes lardarius L.). It is distinguished by its black coloring and yellow-black splashes on the wings. It moves quickly and quickly penetrates apartments and houses, where, due to rapid reproduction, it takes the position of an invader.

Brownie (Anthrenus verbasci L.). Lives in apartments, warehouses, and industrial premises. The body of the pest is covered with brown-brown and yellow scales, with yellow-gray splashes on the elytra. Size 1.5-3.5 mm, round-oval shape.

Carpet (Attagenus unicolor Brahm). A very common type in apartments and houses, it has 4 subspecies. The color of the malware is brown, length up to 4 mm. Most of its life is spent in the larval phase, which is the reason for its “gastronomic” predilections - the pest feeds on wool, damages carpets, and sometimes gets to small soft food. Adults feed on their own subcutaneous fat.

Smirnova (Attagenus Smirnovi). The most dangerous species: this pest, resembling a brown ladybug, multiplies at a tremendous speed, often lives on windows, hides near window sills, destroying surfaces (destroys mainly wood) and furniture.

Fur coat (Attagenus pellio L.). It is mistakenly considered a storm of fur coats, but a black insect with 5 white characteristic dots on its body feeds only on kitchen scraps and can look into the cellar. Causes minimal damage in the apartment compared to its counterparts.

Museum (Anthrenus museorum L.). Named due to its habitat: it lives in stuffed animals, entomological collections, in book bindings, herbariums, in the fabrics of ancient tapestries, etc., less often in flowers. Rarely lives in an apartment.

Danger and harm to humans

How dangerous is the beetle beetle and its larvae for humans? The harm lies not only in damaged clothing, coverings, and furniture.

1. It carries bacteria. It is assumed that in the larval phase the pest can become a carrier of viruses and bacteria. 2. He is a carrier of helminths. The vital activity of the malware can lead to helminth infestation. 3. He bites. Some species bite, leaving red dots and spots at the site of the bite. A skin beetle bite does not have serious consequences, but the spread of a secondary infection, and occasionally helminthiasis, is possible.

Tips and tricks

To get rid of parasites quickly and permanently, you should know a few small tricks:

Carpet beetles do not like moisture. Therefore, the more often wet cleaning is done, the lower the risk of their occurrence.
In summer, beetles are most active , and during this period there is the greatest likelihood that they can move in with you.
Adult parasites fly around the house during the day and return to their shelter at night. Therefore, in order to discover their habitat, you can simply turn on the light bulb at night, to which they will flock.
The larvae are always active, day and night, they do not need sleep.
If the house is warm , small bugs will develop faster and in greater numbers. And if it’s the other way around, then it’s slower, but will cause more damage.

Special means

Traditional methods do not always give good results, so there is a need to use insecticides.

Pills

If pests have infested your wardrobe and are eating woolen items, you can scare them away by placing tablets on the shelves. After a few weeks of using Antimol, Dizmol or Supronit, not a trace of parasites will remain. It is better to put the tablets in fabric bags.

Aerosols

They act on adult insects, causing paralysis and subsequent death. The treatment is carried out repeatedly, for example, with such products as “Raptor”, “Molemor”, “Karbofos”, “Raid”, “Dichlorvos”, “Clean House”.

Concentrates

If your home is heavily infested with bugs, then various concentrates will come to the rescue. They can treat the entire room or individual areas in the apartment. These compounds do not spoil or stain surfaces. Such means include “Executioner”, “Mittox”, “Tetrix”. It will take 1 to 3 weeks to completely destroy the pests. After using such concentrates, you can forget about parasites for a month. If a separate item is being processed, it is placed in a plastic bag, and the concentrate is poured inside. The item is kept in the bag for several hours.