Varied Carpet Beetle
Subject: Insect ID
Location: Agoura Hills CA
March 5, 2013 5:32 pm
Greetings from Southern California. We see examples of this crawling on our walls from time to time. Here’s a photo I took today myself March 5, 2013. The finger is to indicate the scale. My kids are concerned, though I’m sure it’s harmless. Many thanks.
Signature: Alan
Varied Carpet Beetle
Dear Alan,
It seems that in recent weeks, a significant percentage of our insect identification requests have been for Carpet Beetles, including the Varied Carpet Beetle, Anthrenus verbasci, the species in your image. Your photo is of a much higher quality than most of the requests we have received recently, so we are using your request as a feature on our site to inform our readers about Carpet Beetles. Carpet Beetles are common household pests that feed on a variety of organic items in the home, including “wide variety of materials of animal origin (wool, fur, skins…)(1); stored food materials and products (biscuits, cakes, seeds, wheat, maize, oats, rice, cayenne pepper, cacao, and dried cheese)” according to BugGuide. For clarification, only the larvae eat those items. Adults, which are frequently found on windowsills, feed on pollen.
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