Strangely enough the adult carpet beetle feeds on pollen and nectar and is common on outdoor plants.
Carpet beetles ceiling.
They have also been found in spices and grains and could contaminate your entire pantry.
This is why the adult beetles are now climbing walls and heading for windows looking for a way to get outside to feed and mate.
Once mated the female carpet beetle avoids light and may move indoors to lay eggs in suitable dark areas.
As stated above they may also be found in food products including milled products such as pastas cereals nuts etc.
Carpet beetles enter homes through doors windows and other openings although they may be brought in on cut plants and flowers as well.
Often times mistaken for some sort of ladybug because of their characteristic shape and sometimes spotted carapace carpet beetles are small about 1 8 th to 1 4 th of an inch long dome shaped insects with an appetite for fashion and furniture.
Carpet beetles cause the most damage during this stage while finding natural fibers to eat which can include your clothes furniture and carpet.
Most homeowners spot the larvae or beetles crawling along a surface somewhere.
Major carpet beetle infestations with lots of beetles emerging all at once are usually traced to an animal carcass like a dead raccoon in a chimney or a dead squirrel in the attic.
If your beetles were infesting a carcass in a wall void or other space in most cases you would have smelled the decay.
Some carpet beetles make their homes inside the nests of birds or other animals and can live in walls or chimneys feeding on dead insects and animals.
Many of us have seen them but few people know what these miniscule insects are actually capable of.