Carpet beetles feed on different household materials like wood, furry material, woolens, and plants also. The most affected household commodity, where you will mostly find these beetles are mattress fabrics. There are four types of carpet beetles out of which the black beetle is most dangerous. The first question that arises in our mind is that do these carpet beetles live in our mattresses?
Do carpet beetles live in your mattress?
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When carpet beetle is in their larval stage, they surely can live in our mattress. Along with that, it also feeds on the mattress fabrics, the dead human skin, and hairs too. As soon as they gain their adult stage, they don’t live in our mattress as bed bugs do. One can easily distinguish between two as the carpet beetles don’t bite. Also, they are smaller in size than the red bugs.
Signs of Carpet Beetles Infestation
The carpet beetles easily get attracted to your mattress that is made of animal-based silk or fur. But if your mattress is made of organic stuff, then the chances of infestation increase several folds. If you doubt that these carpet beetles infest your home, then you must look out for these signs in your bedroom:
- Presence of oval-shaped living object. It shows various colors, i.e., black, brown, yellow, white, or orange.
- The larvae of carpet beetles are shiny and smooth with numerous hairs on their body.
- Suppose you find any skin sheds of brown color. These are the larvae skin they shed as they grow up.
- You may notice brown feces pellets on your bedding.
These above signs will prove that your mattress is infested with carpet beetle, and you need to take some significant steps to get rid of these beetles.
How To Get Rid of Carpet Beetles In Mattresses?
These beetles can cause several problems like redness and itching due to this hairy nature of these larvae. You should take these steps as soon as you confirm the beetle presence in your bedroom:-
Strip the mattress
After finding the beetles’ existence, the first step you should take is stripping the mattress, remove all the covers and pillows, and check the infestation level. If the level of infestation is high, then you should throw the bedsheets and pillow covers. Then you should wash the mattress according to the instructions given. In the case of dry-cleaning instruction, you need to find every live larva and quickly remove it before it escapes.
Vacuum properly
After proper washing of the mattress, you need to vacuum the bed box and the mattress’s foundation. Take care that you vacuum the entire surface properly, leaving no corner unvacuumed. It will remove all the beetle eggs and larvae from the inner surfaces.
Boric Acid dusting
Sometimes these beetles lay eggs in the tight areas where you are unable to reach with the vacuum. Now such sites should be treated chemically with boric acid. This boric acid powder is dusted with the help of brushes in every corner of the bed box and spring foundation of the mattress. It will kill the larvae within no time.
Spraying of Boric Acid
Spraying the boric acid solution is the new and most effective way of treating the beetles chemically. The boric acid powder is mixed with double the amount of hot wat to prepare a solution. For example, 10 gm of boric acid mixed with 20 ml of water is proven to be an efficient solution to eradicate these beetles.
This solution can be poured in a sprayer and sprayed in the small cervices and cracks where beetles hide most of the time. Also, take care of your bedding headboard and foot areas; you can find an enormous amount of larvae hidden there. While using the spay, you should take care that you don’t come in physical contact with the spray droplets as it may cause skin problems.
Note: You can also use insecticidal sprays if boric acid is not available.
How To Prevent Carpet Beetles In Mattresses?
If you have faced the carpet Beetle attacks once and have removed the Beetles once, they will attack again. In this case, you must take some of the prevention measures to save your expensive mattress from infestation. Here are some of the best-proven prevention remedies to protect you home from carpet beetles:
Regular washing of mattress
You should regularly wash the mattresses that you think are more vulnerable to beetle infestation. Bedsheet and pillow covers should be changed periodically, and always try to remove the hairs and dead skin from the mattress that easily attracts the beetles.
Carpet steamers
In case you are unable to wash your bedding regularly, you should use the electronic steamers to get rid of all the unwanted particles that invite the carpet beetles.
Carpet Bug covers
If you live in an area where your mattress is more prone to carpet beetles, then you must use these carpet bug covers to cover your mattress and box spring foundation. These are plastic covers that will isolate your bed and save it.
Setting up traps
If you have recently gotten rid of the beetles but thinks that these beetles will again attack, you should use glue traps. These are home-based glue traps that are set up in the legs of the beds, especially. You can also set up these traps at the place, which are the beetles’ favorite places to enter your home. Also, don’t forget to apply these glue traps in the corner of the bedding. This glue trap attracts the beetle, and as they approach the web, they stick to the glue and die due to the unavailability of any food material.
Home vacuum solutions
After successfully removing the bugs from your mattress and bed areas, you must vacuum your home thoroughly. It will decrease the chance of infestation. The beetles love the corner, and by corner, we mean any corner of the house, so make sure you vacuum the whole home thoroughly to eradicate the beetle population.
Destroy outdoor nests
If you live in a home attached to a garden or have a tree nearby, you should take care of nests. If you find one, then you should destroy it as these may be the place where you find these beetles thriving most of the time.
Avoid organic mattress
If you live in a carpet beetle prone area, you should take care that you avoid buying organic mattresses. These mattresses are the most affected by the carpet beetles. So you should not give an attraction point to the beetles by purchasing an organic mattress.
It is an old saying that prevention is better than cure. To save your mattress from going sub stranded due to these beetles, you must take some prevention measures in advance.
Conclusion
Carpet beetles can become a pain in the neck. Removing these beetles from your home is possible but not an easy task. So, take care that you take prevention measures timely, and if you see any signs of these beetles at your home, you should start talking the ‘How to get rid of carpet beetles in the mattress’ steps mentioned above as soon as possible.
