Are you a resident of Arizona or planning to move there?
If yes, then you shouldn’t miss this post ever.
In this guide, you’ll find out 6 little black bugs in Arizona that are invasive, nuisance, and irritating for Arizona residents.
You’ll learn how those bugs enter your Arizona home.
You’ll also find out actionable tips on preventing these awful bugs from entering your home and protect yourself from their bites.
Let’s dive in.
6 Tiny black Bugs In Arizona
- Carpet beetles
- False chinch bugs
- Black plant bugs
- Biting midges
- Springtails
- Ground beetles
All these bugs invade Arizona homes for their own reasons. Bugs like drain flies and biting midges can be accidental intruders.
Whereas ground beetles can also sneak inside the house looking for food.
Keep reading to find out more about these bugs and the specific reasons they invade your house.
Carpet Beetles – The Black Flying Beetle In Arizona
Ask any Arizona resident, and the resident will tell you about the sightings of little black beetles in the house.
These beetles are carpet beetles.
Carpet beetles are tiny black beetles that invade Arizona homes during the spring and summer months.
These bugs enter homes through open doors, windows, and through the gaps on the windowsills, walls, and door frames.
They enter homes for only one purpose, to lay eggs.
The adult carpet beetles are not damaging pests. They feed on the nectar and pollen of flowers.
But the carpet beetle larva is both fabric and pantry pest that causes serious damages to natural fabrics made from animal matter and to stored foods.
The protein the present in the animal fabrics is the larvae’s food source.
So, things like wool carpets, carpets and rugs blended with silk, leather products, clothing made from feather and fur, and taxidermies are their primary targets.
However, soiled clothes and fabric also attract the carpet beetle larvae.
That’s why you can come across the carpet beetle larvae on your bedsheets and on dirty clothes inside the laundry basket.
Stored foods in your kitchen pantry shelves are also a target for the adult carpet beetles to lay their eggs.
The larvae will also feed on the foods like cereals and grains that you keep in the storage jars.
The carpet beetle larva is a tiny black worm with brownish patches and hairy bristles on their bodies.
The larva grows up to ¼ inches in size. And you’ll notice it feeding on the fabrics, leaving behind its fecal deposits and molted skin.
Carpet beetle larvae damage on fabrics is in the form of threadbare holes that they create while chewing on the fabric.
These larvae can also sneak inside closets and wardrobes if they can figure out that there are clothes made from natural fibers.
Outdoors the adult carpet beetles lay their eggs on dead insects, birds, and rodents so that their larvae can feed on their carcasses.
So, the adult carpet beetles lay their eggs on any dead insects in the wall voids and attic of your home.
And when the larvae venture out from the cracks and gaps, you notice them crawling on the walls and ceiling.
The best way to kill the adult carpet beetle and the larva is by using a spray like Raid on them.
You can also wash the fabrics in hot water to eliminate the damaging fabric pest.
Steam cleaning or vacuum cleaning the floor furnishings like carpets and rugs is also a potent hack to remove the carpet beetle larvae.
You may want to prefer to use a steam cleaner to clean your carpets and rugs.
The heat from the steam cleaner is lethal for the larvae.
However, it’s essential that you don’t let the adult carpet beetles to fly inside the house.
To do that, seal the wall voids and the crevices on the windowsills and door frames.
Installing window shields with fine meshes also stop the adult carpet beetles from flying inside the house to lay their eggs.
Light also attract carpet beetles.
So, keeping bug zappers near the doorways and decks, or using light bulbs that don’t draw bugs are also helpful in keeping the carpet beetles away.
Adult carpet beetles are not only black. There are spotted carpet beetles which are also known as the varied carpet beetles.
Like bed bugs, the carpet beetle larvae can also hitchhike by latching onto products that they infest.
Carpet beetles and their larvae can also infest your car.
False Chinch Bugs In Arizona Homes
In this and in the following section you’ll find out tiny flies in Arizona homes that are a complete nuisance. And no we’re not talking about house flies and mosquitoes.
One of the nuisance flying bug in Arizona is the false chinch bug.
False chinch bugs are pretty common in Phoenix, Tucson, southern Arizona, and homes near Mojave dessert.
False chinch bugs feed on mustard weeds. They swarm in large numbers starting from April.
¼ inch long, brownish-gray, with red patches on their body, false chinch bugs will gather around the window screens in large numbers.
The swarms look menacing, but false chinch bugs don’t bite humans, nor do they bring any infestation risks.
But false chinch bugs feed on seedlings, and they can harm your garden.
We don’t recommend using any pesticide or anything else to get rid of false chinch bugs.
It’s because they die on their own when the temperatures start to increase.
These bugs are a temporary nuisance for a few weeks.
To stop them from entering your home, use weather stripping on your door and put up window shields.
If they’re inside your home, then vacuuming is enough to get rid of them.
Do not squish them because the guts out of false chinch bugs stink, which may attract ants and roaches.
As a precautionary step, get rid of weeds in your garden or yard in January and February.
It’ll make your home less attractive to false chinch bugs.
If the swarms of false chinch bugs banging themselves on your window scares you, then wipe your windows with water and dishwashing detergent.
It’ll repel the false chinch bugs from your windows.
Black Plant Bugs
Over the years, there’s a rise of tiny black bugs in Arizona, especially in Lake Havasu City.
These bugs are known as black plant bugs or Slaterocoris Atritibialis.
Like the false chinch bugs, these black plant bugs also arrive in hordes.
They’re active only during the summer months, and they try to enter your home to escape the heat outside.
The black plant bugs are shiny black.
They relentlessly try to barge into your home. That’s why they bang themselves, time and again, on the window glass trying to get inside your home.
But black plant bugs are harmless to humans, and neither do they possess any threat to your garden.
The best way to deter them from entering your home is to use window shields.
Like the false chinch bugs, these black plant bugs also die on their own. The dead black plant bugs look like a pile of rat feces underneath your windows and doors.
Biting Midges In Arizona Homes
Biting midges are common biting bugs in Arizona that are active during the summer months.
Biting midges, also known as no-see-ums or biting gnats, are tiny black biting flies in Arizona homes.
A mosquito look-alike, biting midges are common in Arizona homes that have a lush garden or yard.
These biting midges live and breed in damp soil beds in your yard.
Outdoors, biting midges will feed on the flower nectar and sugary plant saps.
But the female biting midges bite humans and other mammals like pets and livestock.
The carbon dioxide that mammals exhale, body odor, and heat attract the female biting midges to humans.
Biting midges are an annoyance when you’re outdoors. But they can enter homes too.
Why and when?
When the temperature increases during the summer, the dampness in the yard or garden starts to reduce.
That makes these small flying bugs look for a more moist and less hot place to live.
It’s during this time biting midges can sneak inside your home.
And biting midges are also attracted to electrical lights.
That’s why they’re more prone to sneak inside your home during the dusk or the evening hours.
Another way that can make biting midges enter your home is when you bring potted plants inside your home from your yard.
Chances are there are biting midges in the soil bed or latching on to the plant.
To get rid of the biting midges from your property, you’ll need to eliminate their egg laying grounds.
Like the mosquitoes, biting midges lay eggs in the damp wastes and standing water.
So, eliminate those sources.
Thick green lush vegetation and tall grasses also attract the biting midges.
So, if there’s any unnecessary vegetation on your property, remove them.
Use mosquito sprays and mixture of white vinegar and water in your yard to kill the adults.
If there’s a swimming pool or pond, bird feeder, and any containers outdoors that can hold rain water, then put some mosquito dunks in them.
The dunks will kill midges’ larvae.
Also, install window screens with fine mesh to deter these tiny black flying biting bugs from invading your house through open windows.
Black Springtails
Black springtails in Arizona are nuisance pests.
These are moisture bugs that feed on the molds and fungi that form on wet soil beds and organic wastes.
Springtails can jump. And they can jump quite a distance.
They’ve got a spring, which is known as the furcula, tucked underneath their abdomen.
To jump, springtails will use the furcula to push themselves against the surface to launch themselves.
So, when they’re present in the soil bed bordering your home’s walls or windows, they can sneak inside the house by jumping.
Springtails will target damp and wet areas, like the bathroom, to hide inside the house.
Springtails don’t bite. Neither do they spread any diseases.
Also, it’s quite easy to get rid of them in your home. Take a vacuum cleaner and scoop them off the floor.
That’s it.
You can also eliminate springtails from your yard or lawn by using any standard insecticide spray, diatomaceous earth, or even
But you’ll need to keep your yard and garden free from any organic wastes like leaf litter.
You’ll also need to ensure that you don’t overwater your yard or there are no water leakages in the outdoor section of your home.
Dampness attracts springtails and the best way to keep them away is by controlling the moisture levels on your property.
Springtails are common in urban homes in cities like Phoenix and Tucson.
Black Ground Beetles In Arizona
In 2022, Arizona residents, especially residents of the Phoenix valley, have noticed a sudden upsurge in the appearance of tiny black beetles in their homes and yard.
These are a type of ground beetles that came in massive hordes after the monsoon.
The black beetles are accidental home intruders. They sneak inside the house through the gaps and cracks on walls and windows.
However, the ground beetles are harmless to humans and pets.
Ground beetles feed on insects like aphids, tiny mites, mealy bugs, and larvae of moths and other flying bugs.
So, these beetles are only after other insects and your home’s indoors are not an ideal habitat for them.
Use a vacuum cleaner on the ground beetles inside the house to remove them.
If there are too many of them in your yard or garden, then hiring a professional pest control company is your best option.
Further Readings –
Dr. Thomas Orbert is a PhD in Entomology with extensive research experience in ectoparasites and microbials. He has also worked in the spaces of ecology conservation and has multiple years of experience in field research and scientific publishing.