Woolly Bears Carpet Beetles

To see that footage click here.

Woolly bears carpet beetles.

Carpet beetles and wooly bears all categories clothes and carpet moths. In the uk carpet beetles and clothes moths are the biggest threat to our textiles. It grows up to 5 mm in length. The larvae known as woolly bears of these small oval beetles have outstripped the clothes moths as the major british textile pest.

The variegated carpet beetle is 2 to 4mm long like a small mottled brown grey and cream ladybird. A nasty shock awaited this customer on moving their sofa a carpet destroyed by carpet moths. They have an elongated body which is covered in hair or large setae. The varied carpet beetle anthrenus verbasci is a 3 mm long beetle belonging to the family dermestidae they are a common species often considered a pest of domestic houses and particularly natural history museums where the larvae may damage natural fibers and can damage carpets furniture clothing and insect collections.

Last week one of our technicians recorded some amazing footage of a carpet beetle larvae often called a woolly bear. Carpet beetles consists of antennae that are segmented. It is not actually the moths which cause the damage but instead their larvae which feed on wool and natural fibres. There are eleven of them with a combination of three segments.

Carpet moth treatment suffolk. Verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an. These are mostly brown with white or yellow markings and are covered in short bristly hairs hence their well known woolly bear moniker. As is so often the case it is the larva that does all the damage.