Frequently Asked Questions About Insects - Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University

Frequently Asked Questions

Topic:	Beetles, stored products
Question:	I recently found a large number of insects infesting an upstairs bedroom of my house. The bedroom is a spare and is normally closed off, but does have furniture in it, and clothes, etc., in the closet. There are no plants in the room. The insects are very small, about 1.5 - 2 mm, and uniform in size. They can fly, but infrequently. They appear to be dark brown with no discernible variation in color, but they're so small I may have missed some tiny dots or striations. They appear to be very small beetles, and the wings are covered by hard shells when they're not flying. The bodies are fat-oval shaped. The room is on the front of the house, with shrubs outside on the ground floor. The room is directly above the laundry room and a half bath, both of which are off the kitchen. The insects are basically everywhere in the room, and there are also a few in the bedroom next to them. There are many in and on the carpet, crawling on the furniture, on the walls, and on the window sills. They were also in the closet, but we did not see any damage to the clothing or blankets. I sprayed around the baseboards, window sills, and furniture with a commercially prepared 0.01% tralomethrin solution. It seemed to kill a lot of them, especially around the window sills, but I can still see live ones in the closet where I did not spray all the contents. I called an insect control company and the owner suggested they might be powder post beetles, but I checked the furniture pretty carefully and can find no evidence of damage. I'm not sure, but these may be the same pests I found about three months ago in an old box of dog biscuits sitting on top of my refrigerator. I started seeing them in the kitchen, and finally traced them to the biscuits. They were boring holes in the biscuits. I threw out the box, killed all the insects I could find, and they seemed to go away pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I did not save any of those insects for comparison. Can you help me identify these pests and figure out how to get rid of them? I don't like overusing insecticides, and I don't want to fumigate the house or spray the entire yard unless it's necessary. I will save some of the dead insects in a plastic bag for potential identification.
Answer:	The most likely beetle, based on your description, is one of the stored product beetles. You already had an infestation and it may have spread to other areas of the home. They can feed on a variety of food products and may be present in wall hangings, bean bags, or some other source that may not be real obvious. A second possibility is carpet beetles. They feed on fur, feathers, woolen goods, etc. Actually, some carpet beetles feed on food products, too. You may have an infestation in a closet, pillow, etc. that you overlooked. There is no way to be sure about what these are unless you get some specimens identified. You can send some to us here at: Extension Entomology Texas A&M University 412 Heep Center College Station, TX 77843-2475 Check out our publications section at the link below. Browse through all the publications (they are sortable in various ways).
Related Link:	http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/
Related Link:
Image Link: **
Response by:	John A. Jackman, Ph.D.
Title:	Professor and Extension Specialist
** Most of the Related Links above also contain images.

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