The time of year again is coming when insects of all kinds awaken and start flying and crawling indoors and out. And with this advent of spring inevitably come concerns and complaints for bugs in carpets. A recent email from a retail floor covering dealer involved a consumer of theirs that contacted them with a complaint for what they said were carpet beetles invading their carpet. The consumer saw these little creatures, did some research, so she said and spoke with friends and was convinced her carpet was infested with carpet beetles.
Before we proceed you should know some information about this particular situation. The carpet is two years old with nylon face fiber and a synthetic backing. The consumer said she went on line to find out about carpet beetles. She determined that this is what she had and that they were going to eat her synthetic carpet. When we spoke to the dealer and told them carpet beetles do not eat synthetic fiber we were told the consumer was convinced otherwise.
First of all, if the bugs the consumer said she has are carpet beetles the carpet is two years old and they certainly would not have come from the carpet – they would have come from someplace else. Second, carpet beetles do not eat nylon. In every case we’ve been involved with when a consumer claims they have carpet beetles the bugs they have don’t turn out to be them. I went to the Internet to see what the consumer may have seen about carpet beetles. On two sites, both by universities which have entomology departments, neither stated that carpet beetles eat nylon. In work we’ve done in the past we have gone to entomologists at theUniversityofGeorgiaor to the local Cooperative Extension office with bugs, said to be carpet beetles, to find out that’s not what they were. There are also pictures of carpet beetles on line so you can compare the bugs a customer of yours has to the pictures and see whether or not they match. If the carpet is wool carpet beetles will have a source of food but not if it is synthetic. Bugs don’t eat plastic and carpet is basically a plastic and all wool should be treated with resist agents.
Having said that you still have to consider your customers concern and be conscious of their fears. If they want you to see the bugs go look at them, take photos with a digital camera and take samples placing them in a small plastic zip lock bag. You can take the samples to a local pest control company and they can most likely identify the bugs. You can go on line and compare your pictures and samples to pictures of carpet beetles. And you can send the samples and email the photos to a university which has an entomology department. You’ll have an answer to give to your customer, learn something yourself and put the question to bed. Every time we’ve ever had a complaint for carpet beetles what we actually found was that the bugs were something else. When the weather starts to warm and bugs become active they will find their way into the house. Often when they get there some of them will wind up on the carpet. With short life spans they will die and their carcasses will be seen on the carpet, especially if the carpet is a light color and particularly around the perimeter of the room. You may also want to look for a plant nearby where they may have made a home. If the carpet is wool, and for some reason it has not been treated to resist wool eating bugs and carpet beetles do in fact exist, there will be places on the carpet where there will be clear evidence of it having been eaten. Most of these areas will be around the perimeter of the room. You may have a claim then.
With all the information available from reliable sources on the internet, you can easily find out if a complaint for bugs is carpet beetles of some other kind of insect.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts