Larder beetles are tiny black beetles with a brown stripe that sneak inside homes during the spring and summer months.
They’re also hibernators in human homes.
Larder beetles are pantry pests. They’re also fabric pests that can damage clothing made of natural fabrics.
But why do they invade bedrooms?
This guide reveals the reasons for larder beetles in bedrooms.
You’ll find out the factors that play a significant role in drawing the larder beetles to your bedroom, and in some instances, to your bed too!
And a lot more. Keep reading.
5 Reasons For Larder Beetles In Bedrooms
Do you know that larder beetles can also be potential fabric pests despite being pantry pests?
And that’s one of the reasons for larder beetles to be inside your bedroom.
However, there are other reasons too.
Let’s find them out, one by one.
Larder Beetle Infestation In Home
There’s no bigger reason for larder beetles in bedrooms than the presence of larder beetles elsewhere in your home.
Let’s face it. If there were no larder beetle infestation in your home, there wouldn’t have been any of them in your bedroom.
However, your bedroom isn’t the first choice of larder beetles to infest.
Your kitchen is.
So, the presence of larder beetles in bedrooms signifies one thing, which isn’t good.
And that is, there are too many of them in your home.
Larder beetles enter homes during the spring months to lay eggs on your stored food in the kitchen pantry.
They can also sneak inside homes during the winter months when they’re looking for a place to overwinter.
In the winter months, larder beetles in bedrooms look for cracks and gaps in the bedroom walls and furniture.
Why?
They want a place to hide and see through the winters by hibernating in these crevices.
Light From Your Bedroom Is Attracting The Larder Beetles
The light from the bulbs inside your home and bedroom attracts many flying bugs. It attracts the larder beetles too.
The light from your bedroom will attract the larder beetles too.
Drawn by the light of the light bulbs in your bedroom, too many of them can invade your bedroom.
The Larder Beetles Were Hibernating In Your Bedroom
One of the reasons for the sudden appearance of flying bugs in homes is that they were hibernating, and they came out of hibernation.
It’s a typical scenario during the spring months. With the larder beetles, it’s no different.
The larder beetles might be hibernating in the gaps and cracks on your bedroom walls and furniture.
And with the arrival of spring, they’re out of hibernation.
Larder beetles mate as soon as they come out of hibernation. And if they’re inside your home, they’ll lay eggs.
A female larder beetle can lay up to 100 eggs. So, it would be best if you get rid of the larder beetles as soon as you see them in your bedroom.
Later in the post, you’ll find out how to get rid of larder beetles in your bedroom.
Let’s look at another pressing reason for larder beetles to be inside your bedroom.
Your Bedroom Is Dirty
Do you know that a dirty bedroom attracts bugs? And it also attracts larder beetles.
If your bedroom is dirty with food stains, grease marks, stained clothes, and packaged food, then larder beetles will indeed get inside your bedroom.
And it’s not just the larder beetles that’ll sneak inside your bedroom.
Bugs like ants, roaches, spiders, and even mice can also sneak inside your bedroom.
Most bugs, especially those that are nocturnal and hibernate, love cluttered places.
They prefer places like the attic, storage rooms, basements, and garage because these places are cluttered.
There are a lot of tight gaps in these places for the bugs to hide.
The same thing applies to your bedroom too.
If your bedroom is cluttered, it’ll draw bugs, including the larder beetles.
But the food stains, food crumbs, and partially opened food packets in your bedroom are the ones that play significant roles in drawing larder beetles.
Why?
It’s because the larder beetles feed on them.
Food stains on the bedsheets and bedroom furnishings also draw worms in the bed that feeds on them.
The Larder Beetles Are Targeting The Natural Fabrics In Your Bedroom
The final reason is the most compelling reason for the larder beetles to sneak inside bedrooms.
Yet no one talks about it.
As you know, larder beetles invade homes to infest your stored food and lay eggs on them.
They lay eggs in the stored food in the kitchen pantry because the larder beetle larvae feed on the stored food.
In fact, larder beetles are one of the five bugs that damage stored food in kitchen cupboards and kitchen pantries.
However, there’s also one more thing that both the larder beetles and their larvae love to devour.
And that is natural fabrics.
The larder beetle larvae feed on natural fabrics that are animal extracts.
So, the adult larder beetle targets clothes and fabric made of wool, silk, leather, fur, and feather.
They’ll also target taxidermies and animal trophies.
That makes the larder beetle larvae a damaging pest for woolen clothing and carpets, silk clothes and fabric, leather shoes, and wearables.
The larder beetle larvae can also damage synthetic fabrics blended with natural fibers.
So, one of the reasons that larder beetle is in your bedroom is because they’ve figured out these expensive clothing in your closet, wardrobe, and dresser drawers.
And they’re trying to sneak inside the clothing storage areas to lay their eggs.
The larvae of the larder beetle are tiny brownish worms with hairy bristles on the body.
The carpet beetle larvae also looks like the larder beetle larvae.
However, the carpet beetle larvae are smaller and have yellowish stripes on their bodies.
The carpet beetle larvae also damage natural fabrics.
Carpet beetle larvae and larder beetle larvae damages are like tiny holes created on the fabric by chewing on it.
How To Get Rid Of Larder Beetles In Bedrooms?
Getting rid of larder beetles in your bedroom is a part of a more extensive process of eliminating the larder beetle infestation in your home.
However, there are seven steps that you can take right now to get rid of larder beetles in your bedroom.
Step#1 – Vacuum Clean Your Bedroom
As you know by now, a dirty, cluttered bedroom attracts the larder beetles.
So, the first step should be to vacuum clean your bedroom.
Ensure you clean all the food crumbs on the bedroom floor, furnishings, and bed.
Vacuum clean the closet, wardrobe, and dresser drawers because there can be larder beetle eggs and larvae in these places.
Remove dirty linen from your bed, including pillow covers, and wash them in hot water.
Hot water will kill any larder beetle larvae, germs, bug eggs, and bed worms stuck with your bed linen.
It’ll be best to steam clean your bed mattress, carpets and rugs, and chairs and couches in your bedroom with a steam cleaner.
Steam cleaners produce heat. And the heat kills any bugs (including bed bugs) and their larvae and destroys bug eggs.
Step#2 – Seal The Gaps And Cracks On The Bedroom Walls, Floor, And Furniture
The crevices on the walls, floors, and furniture are the hiding and hibernating places for larder beetles.
They’ll spend the winters there in those gaps and cracks. When spring arrives, the larder beetles will come out from those fissures.
Also, these gaps and cracks in your bedroom can contain dead bugs.
Larder beetles will lay eggs on the carcasses of dead bugs because the larvae feed on them.
And when they run out of the food source, the larvae will venture out from those gaps looking for food.
That’s one of the reasons for the mysterious appearance of worms and bugs on the walls and ceiling.
When the larvae are from the fissures, they’ll get onto your bed or into the closet and damage your expensive clothes.
So, please seal those gaps and cracks on the bedroom floor, walls, and furniture.
When the larder beetle larvae pupate, which means they spin a cocoon around themselves and metamorphose inside the cocoon into an adult, it’ll drill holes in furniture.
So, if you see any holes in your bedroom furniture, caulk them with a silicone-based sealant.
Silicone-based sealants are strong, and bugs can’t chew through them.
Step#3 – Use An Insecticide Spray On The Adult Larder Beetles In Your Bedroom
There are many insecticide sprays that you can use to get rid of larder beetles. Raid is one of them.
Raid is an effective spray to eliminate insects and bugs, including carpet beetles.
But ensure that you use the spray on the larder beetle to kill it.
Insecticide sprays are larder beetle killers, not repellants.
So, if you miss spraying directly on the larder beetles, it might not be effective.
That brings you to the next step in getting rid of larder beetles in the bedroom. And that is to use larder beetle repellants.
And you can use essential oils to repel them and keep them away from your bedroom.
Step#4 – Use Essential Oils For Larder Beetles
Lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint essential oil repels larder beetles and many other bugs.
Add 8-10 drops of these essential oils to 10-12 ounces of water. Mix it well.
Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and spray it in all the corners of your bedroom.
Or you can use peppermint oil spray for bugs straight out of the bottle.
Do not forget to spray the mixture on places areas that you’ve sealed and on things like bed frames, headboards, and bedroom furniture.
Bugs and larder beetles hate the smell of these essential oils. And they keep away from places that emit those smells.
Step#5 – Install Bug Repelling Light Bulbs Near The Bedroom Windows
Light from your home and bedroom attracts the larder beetles. They follow the light and fly through the open doors and windows.
They can also crawl in through the gaps in the window frames.
So, to keep them from flying inside the home, it’ll be best to install a bug-repelling bulb near your windows.
Or you can also use window screens with fine mesh to prevent the beetles and many other types of tiny flying bugs from flying in through open windows.
Installing bug zappers in your outdoor areas like the terrace, patio deck, and yard reduces the flying bug’s intrusion into your home.
Step#6 – Keep Sticky Bug Traps In The Corners Of Your Bedroom
Sticky bug traps are the most underrated tools for tackling nuisance pests that sneak inside homes.
For flying beetles like the larder beetles, they’re practical too.
Keep a few of these sticky bug traps in the corners of your bedroom.
Keep one or two sticky traps underneath your bedroom storage furniture to prevent them from sneaking inside your closet and drawers.
These sticky traps are non-toxic, you can keep them in your kitchen to get rid of pantry pests, and they emit pheromones that draw the hidden bugs to them.
When the bugs step on the traps, they get stuck.
Keep the trap overnight. Please dispose of the traps with bugs stuck on them the following day.
Step#7 – Keep Cedarwood Blocks In Your Fabric Storage Areas To Prevent Larder Beetles
The larder beetle larvae cause severe damage to clothes and fabric made of wool, silk, fur, leather, and feathers.
The presence of these expensive fabrics in your closet and wardrobe will also draw the adult larder beetles to lay eggs on them.
So, if you’ve got a cloth storage section in your bedroom, keep cedarwood blocks in the fabric storage sections.
Cedarwood’s scent keeps your clothes smelling fresh. And the bugs hate the smell too.
It’s a highly underrated yet useful hack to keep your clothes safe from closet bugs like carpet beetles, larder beetles, and clothes moths.
Are Larder Beetles Harmful To Humans?
Larder beetles are nuisance pests, and they’re not harmful to humans. They don’t bite, and they don’t spread any diseases either.
The larder beetle larva is also harmless.
However, the hairy bristles on their bodies can cause itching and skin rashes if they crawl on you accidentally.
That rarely happens.
But the larder beetle larvae can get onto your bed if they’re in your bedroom and your bedsheet is dirty with food crumbs and food stains.
At that time, you can get an itchy sensation on your skin if the larva gets onto your skin.
Are Larder Beetles Harmful To Pets?
No, larder beetles are not harmful to pets. They’ll not get inside your pet’s ears or nose.
And they don’t bite pets either.
The larder beetles and their larvae can feed on the shed fur of your pets, especially cat fur.
But there’s nothing to panic about this feeding habit.
If the larder beetles are feeding on your cat’s shed fur, it doesn’t mean that they’re dangerous to cats.
Larder beetles don’t harm cats either.
Summary
Larder beetles in the bedroom become a nuisance when too many of them are in your home.
They’ll sneak inside your bedroom looking for a place to hide or feed on the waste and dirt in your bedroom.
This guide revealed the factors that can draw larder beetles to your bedroom.
It also has a seven-step guide to protect your bedroom from larder beetles.
Larder beetles are tiny black bugs with a brown strip on them.
The presence of larder beetles in your bedroom is a sign of larder beetle infestation in other areas of your home, especially in your kitchen.
To know more about larder beetles, read our guide on small black beetles with brown stripes in your home.
Nang Chen is an Entomologist and Arachnologist who is associated with Vienna’s museum of natural history. He’s also a consultant with real estate groups, insecticide conglomerates and law enforcement groups as a forensic entomologist. Nang Chen holds an M.S. from South China University and he’s a regular contributor to our site.