Subject: Can you identify these bugs?
Location: Olympic Peninsula, Washington state
March 23, 2016 2:47 pm
I started seeing a few of these tiny bugs a few months ago, now they are everywhere! In my kitchen cabinets, along the bottom of my sliding glass door, in my bathrooms. . . Can you tell me what they are and how to get rid of them? I live on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, but friends have seen them in Portland OR and Marysville WA
Signature: Janna
Dear Janna,
The Varied Carpet Beetle is a common household pest. Thanks for including a dime in your image for scale.
I currently live in Port Angeles and I have client that lives a few blocks from me and she has a bunch of these guys around her house. I find them in every room from top to bottom. She says that this is the first year she’s had them. I found the larvae in her small bathroom rugs that were under her dogs water/food dishes. Washing in hot water fixed that right away. There was a pile of dog food that fell under a cabinet that the larvae were eating on or I should say made into Swiss cheese and they were all over paper bags that were in that said cabinet along with dog treats in boxes that were not sealed. Cleaning up the mess and throwing away contaminated food has worked on eliminating the problem.