Carpet Beetles and How to Repel Them

      Carpet beetles are widely seen in many homes, as they usually feed on wool, silk, flour and feathers. Their eggs can be spotted around any food source, most of the time - your carpet. The baby larvae are hatched in a week or two and once they appear, your carpet is in danger. Young carpet beetles feed on the wool and hide behind the baseboards, where they can freely travel to discover new food sources. But how you identify a carpet beetle's infestation? Well, it is not that hard. Just look for any shed skins and fecal pellets, which resemble black grains of sand.

If you feel helpless in the fight with these terrible pests, here are some fine tips and tricks to help you repel these insects. The methods are completely green and easy to execute, even for an inexperienced person.

Cleaning

First of all, you have to get rid of all the sources, which can help the carpet bugs to feed and spread. Inspect the dark corners and baseboards for lint, hair or any dead bugs. Make sure to vacuum these areas on a regular basis. Other places where you may find the pests are also attics or old cobwebs and wasp nests. Shelves and drawers are possibly infested as well, don't forget to check them out. Most of the time, food crumbs and leftovers accumulate in such areas and attract the carpet beetles, then become a perfect breeding ground for them.

Protecting Your Possessions

Once you spot an ongoing infestation, it is good to protect your items. Store any of your possessions, which are vulnerable to carpet beetles. Use a tightly sealed container and place them there. However, make sure to check them twice and ensure that everything is clean before putting it into the storage. A great to naturally repel the annoying insects is the cedar. Get yourself a cedar chest and use it as a storage box. The oil from this material is known to be lethal for carpet beetles.

The Right Method

An infested item can be easily saved with extreme heat or cold. Use a bag and put the item there. Seal the bag, but press out as much air as you can. Then you have to put it in the freezer and set the temperature to -7 degrees Celsius. You should leave the item there for two weeks. If you don't want to wait that long, you can alternatively use the heat method. For this purpose, you have to use your oven and heat it to 50 degrees Celsius. Let it stay there for 30 minutes. However, both of these methods should be used with caution. Take into consideration the durability of the  item before starting any of these two techniques.

Anyway, you can always call for professional pest control service to handle the problem. In fact, carpet cleaning experts in Camden advise us to use any cleaning agency. They ensure that a reliable company can accomplish both the carpet beetle extermination and cleaning in just one visit. As the famous saying - to kill two birds with one stone.