Carpet Beetles (6431)

The black carpet beetle is a common carpet beetle in Pennsylvania. The larvae eat almost any type of animal product such as leather, wool, silk, feathers, hair, dried meat, dead insects, and even dried plant material. The black carpet beetle is a pest in kitchen cupboards, as well as in woolen carpets or clothes storage areas.

 The adult is 2.8 to 5 mm long, black to reddish brown and covered with short, sparse pubescence (Fig. 1). The first segment of the tarsi of the hind legs is much shorter than the second segment. The last antennal segment of the male is twice as long as that of the female.

The larvae of the black carpet beetle, which may reach 12.7 mm in length, are very different from other carpet beetles’ larvae. They are elongate, carrot-shaped, golden to chocolate brown, and have a tuft of very long, curled, golden-brown hair at the tail end of their body.

For more information, please visit this Penn State Fact Sheet.

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Penn State Entomology Department
 

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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