Life Cycle Woolly Bear Carpet Beetle

The varied carpet beetle anthrenus verbasci is a 3 mm long beetle belonging to the family dermestidae they are a common species often considered a pest of domestic houses and particularly natural history museums where the larvae may damage natural fibers and can damage carpets furniture clothing and insect collections.

Life cycle woolly bear carpet beetle.

The larvae of carpet beetles are referred to as woolly bears. You might think that a carpet beetle has a very similar life like that of the other insects then you are wrong. The larvae known as woolly bears of these small oval beetles have outstripped the clothes moths as the major british textile pest. The life cycle of a carpet beetle.

As is so often the case it is the larva that does all the damage. The variegated carpet beetle is 2 to 4mm long like a small mottled brown grey and cream ladybird. In total the life cycle for the beetle is around a year. These are mostly brown with white or yellow markings and are covered in short bristly hairs hence their well known woolly bear moniker.

The carpet beetle is quite a resilient creature. It grows up to 5 mm in length. After this they will overwinter largely undetected. Verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an.

The related fur beetle is black with one spot on each wing case and there is a rarer black carpet beetle. It develops from its own larvae by taking as many as three years. The life cycle of a carpet beetle ranges from two months to several years in length. Carpet beetles are oval shaped and difficult to spot as they are only 2 to 4mm long.

In its larvae form it can survive starvation for several months.