Woolly Bears Carpet Beetles

The larvae known as woolly bears of these small oval beetles have outstripped the clothes moths as the major british textile pest.

Woolly bears carpet beetles.

Last week one of our technicians recorded some amazing footage of a carpet beetle larvae often called a woolly bear. The related fur beetle is black with one spot on each wing case and there is a rarer black carpet beetle. It grows up to 5 mm in length. To see that footage click here.

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. In the uk carpet beetles and clothes moths are the biggest threat to our textiles. As is so often the case it is the larva that does all the damage. Carpet beetles and wooly bears all categories clothes and carpet moths.

Carpet beetles consists of antennae that are segmented. Carpet beetles are oval shaped and difficult to spot as they are only 2 to 4mm long. 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.

There are eleven of them with a combination of three segments. 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.