Wednesday 6 January 2010

Carpet Beetle.

Herein lies our problem. If we level that much land to grow rice and whatever, then no other animal could live there except for some insect pest species. Which is very unfortunate.
-Steve Irwin-

I recently found lots of tiny oval shaped insects in my room; I didn't give it much thought until my roomie asked me if I've seen one of those recently and I said yes, I have seen them around more frequently than usual, and I thought I'd better Google it to find out what it was.

So after some unsuccessful attempts (I didn't know what it was, how am I supposed to know what to Google for??), I finally found what I wanted (at least that's what I assumed) after looking in the 5th or 6th page of searching "small insect with legs hidden" in Google image.

Yes, I know.

I guess I got lucky.

The link I clicked was the image with the caption "carpet beetles are". Click to enlarge.

So anyway, I read on and the description of the insect pretty much fit the ones in my room, and I found they're called carpet beetles.

Description

Adult carpet beetles are small with compact, rounded, oval bodies. Their legs and head are not obvious and are often hidden under the body.

The variegated carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) and furniture carpet beetle (Anthrenus flavipes) are 2-3 mm long and mottled yellow, white and black.

The black carpet beetle (Attagenus unicolor) is larger, ranging from 3-5 mm, more elongate and black with brownish legs.

The Australian carpet beetle (Anthrenocerus australis) is 2-3 mm long and dark with light markings. Of the four species, only the Australian carpet beetle is native.

Carpet beetle larvae move slowly and are 4-7 mm long, depending on the species. They are brown in colour and covered in bristles. As the larvae grow they moult, leaving cast brown skins.

Carpet beetles are widely distributed and can be found inside homes and other buildings where food is available.

Source: http://www.nqccs.com.au/library/pests/beetles/carpet.htm


Urrgh.

I'm getting goosebumps.

I figured maybe it's from my unwashed carpet, so I took my carpet outdoors and flipped it over a few times, but I couldn't find anything. Except for a dead and semi-decayed beetle.

*omg goosebumps*

I don't know if these pests actually bite, but I'm having some itchy spots on my hand and legs.

Or is it just all in my mind?

Whatever it is, I hope they're not crawling around on my bed while I'm asleep.

Now that I've checked my carpet all over, I don't think it's the source of these pests (but to play safe, I'll leave my carpet outdoors for now) and it's bugging me that I'll be sleeping with these pests every single night from now on.

I'll search for the source. In the mean time, I guess the most I can do is vacuum those in sight. They're freaking me out.

P.S.: No, of course I'm not going to upload an image of the beetle here.

1 comment:

美食 said...
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