Most insects in the house are fast and brisk crawlers.
But do you know that sluggish bugs can also sneak in and hide inside your home?
Well, there are 6 tiny slow-moving black bugs that sneak inside homes.
One of them is a pest larva.
And these larvae can pose significant threat to your clothes, fabrics, and carpets made from natural fibers.
In this guide, you’ll find out why these small black bugs move inside your house, where they hide, and the best ways to get rid of them.
Let’s dive in.
Carpet Beetle Larvae
The most common slow-moving tiny black bugs in the house are the carpet beetle larvae.
The carpet beetle larvae hatch out of the eggs that adult carpet beetles lay in your home.
Adult beetles fly or crawl inside the house, especially during the spring, to lay eggs.
They’ll lay eggs on things like carpets, rugs, couches, and clothing made from natural fibers like wool, silk, leather, fur, and feather.
They do it because the protein present in the natural fibers is the food source of carpet beetle larva.
The carpet beetle larvae feed on natural fibers which causes the damage.
The damages are in the form threadbare holes.
The larvae also leave behind shed skins and fecal deposits which are the signs of their presence.
If there’s carpet beetle infestation, then you can see the signs of the damages on carpets, rugs, leather couches, and on the clothes inside the closet.
The adult carpet beetles can also target stored food in your kitchen pantry.
If you don’t close the airtight containers properly, or if there’s a fissure on them, then the adult beetles will sneak inside the containers to lay their eggs.
Stored pet food is also vulnerable to carpet beetle infestation.
On top of being a damaging fabric pests, the carpet beetle larvae are also grain insects like the flour beetles and rice weevils.
A carpet beetle larva is of ¼ – 1/8 inch in size. It’s black or dark brown with hairy bristles on its body.
The body has five segments and there are also small invisible legs that it use to crawl slowly.
Some larvae can also have yellowish or brownish patches on their bodies.
The larvae don’t bite. But the hairy bristles on their bodies can cause serious itching if they crawl onto your skin.
The adult carpet beetles are harmless. Outdoors, the adult carpet beetles feed on nectar and pollen.
There are three primary types of carpet beetles that invade homes – the black carpet beetle, varied carpet beetle, and the furniture carpet beetle.
The furniture carpet beetle can also lay it’s eggs in the gaps on upholstered furniture.
It’s not only the natural fibers and stored food the adult carpet beetles target to lay their eggs.
Carpet beetles can also lay their eggs on wall voids, and in places like attic, especially when there are dead insects in them.
It’s because the dead insects are also a food source for the larvae.
Upon feeding, the larvae will venture out of the wall voids to look for dead insects and spider webs to eat.
That’s why you can notice them crawling on the walls and ceiling too.
Bed Bugs On Bed
Bed bugs aren’t typically black. They can appear as black because of their dark reddish-brown color.
And on the bed, bed bugs are slow crawlers.
The ones that had their bloodmeals will move slowly because their bellies are full of human blood.
Bed bugs are parasites that bite humans to feed on their blood.
And their bites are intensely itchy. Red welts and itchy rashes develop on the skin after the bites.
But some people don’t show any symptoms when bed bugs bite them.
A bed bug grows up to 3/16 inch in size, has six legs, flat, and oval shaped like an apple seed.
Because of it’s flat body and oval shape, a bed bug can easily hide in the gaps and cracks on the bed, walls, and furniture.
When the bed bug infestation is bad in your house, you can see them crawling on the walls too.
Not to mention, they’ll spread in places like dresser drawers and closets.
Pill Bugs
Another slow-moving little black bugs that sneak inside homes are the pill bugs.
Pill bugs are oval, ¼ to ½ inch in size, convex shaped, and have scales on their bodies.
Pill bugs or sow bugs are actually not bugs. They’re crustaceans like the crabs and lobsters.
Outdoors, the pill bugs feed on the decaying organic matter like leaf litter, rotting wood pieces, and on the molds and fungi on the soil beds.
They’ll hide underneath rocks and potted plants.
Pill bugs are moisture bugs. They prefer wet and damp places to live.
So, when the weather outdoors becomes too dry, pill bugs move inside the house looking for damp places.
Once inside the home, their go-to places will be the basement and bathroom where there’s a lot of wet places.
The best part is that pill bugs are harmless. And they can’t lay eggs inside human homes.
So, there’s no chance of infestation.
And these are harmless bugs that don’t bite and don’t spread any diseases either.
If you poke pill bugs, they’ll curl themselves into a tight ball to protect themselves.
Clover Mites
Clover mites crawl considerably fast when they’re outdoors in their habitat.
But inside the house, clover mites are slow crawlers.
Clover mites enter homes when the weather outdoors becomes too hot or cold.
They’ll gather on window sills and window frames looking for entry points to sneak inside your home.
Clover mites are dark red. But they can appear as tiny black bugs at the first look.
Clover mites are extremely tiny. They grow only up to 1/30 inch long.
So, they can appear as pin head or a tiny black dot.
Clover mites have eight legs. The frontal legs are long and they look like antennae.
If there’s a severe clover mites infestation in the outdoors of your home, then they can enter homes in large numbers.
Clover mites inside the house don’t bite. They’re nuisance bugs.
The worst part is that they can spread everywhere inside the house, including your bed.
And clover mites in bed can trick you into thinking that they’re bed bugs.
But these tiny red bugs are not bed bugs.
Rove Beetles
Rove beetles are tiny, growing only up to ¾ inches in size, black beetles that you’ll find in the decaying organic material in your yard or garden.
These beetles are long, black or dark brown, and slender.
They’ve got short wings that rest on their thorax.
The segmented abdomen is visible when they crawl on the soil beds or rotting debris.
The adult roach beetles are strong fliers and can cover considerable distances.
Like the predaceous devil’s coach horse beetles, the roach beetles raise their abdomen upwards if you poke or disturb them.
Rove beetles move slowly. These insects eat any tiny bugs or larvae that move slower than them.
Rove beetles look like earwigs and they seldom enter homes.
But they can sneak inside human homes looking for debris and leaf litter.
Rove beetles are nocturnal bugs. At the outdoors they’ll hide underneath rocks, wood pieces, and plant pots.
Black Lady Bugs
Black lady bugs are slow-moving lady bugs that you can see in your yard or garden during the spring and summer.
Black lady bugs are easy to identify. They’ve got a shiny black body with two red spots on them.
Adult black lady bugs grow up to ¼ inch in size. They’ve got a round shaped body.
Black lady bugs, also known as the pine ladybirds, are toxic. They can trigger allergic reactions if they crawl onto your skin.
But black lady bugs don’t bite humans and pets.
Black lady bugs are helpful bugs that kills and eat harmful garden pests like aphids and white flies.
Like most species of lady bugs, the black lady bugs can also enter homes during the winter while looking for a place to overwinter.
At the outdoors black lady bugs overwinter in leaf litter or underneath rocks.
But the indoors are not an ideal habitat for ladybugs to survive.
How To Get Rid Of Slow Moving Bugs In My House?
Bed bugs and carpet beetles larvae can be tricky to remove.
It’s because they hide in difficult places and take time to show up till there are too many of them.
So, it’ll be best to hire a professional exterminator to do the job.
You can get rid of bed bugs on your own without hiring a professional pest control company when the infestation isn’t severe.
You can get rid of carpet beetle larvae by using insecticide sprays like Raid when the infestation isn’t bad.
Cleaning infected items like carpets and rugs with a steam cleaner will eliminate the larvae because the heat from the cleaner kills them.
Also, you can wash the clothes in hot water or give them for dry cleaning to get rid of any carpet beetle larvae in them.
Getting rid of the other slow-moving bugs is quite easy. And you can do it without hiring a pest control company.
To eliminate clover mites inside the house, scatter food grade diatomaceous earth on them.
It’ll kill the clover mites.
Then remove the food grade DE and dead clover mites with a vacuum cleaner.
Dispose of the dust bag outside your property so that they mites that are alive don’t come back to your house.
There’s also a spray option. You can mix equal amounts of white vinegar and water.
Pour the mixture in a spray bottle and spray it on the clover mites to kill them.
You can also use essential oils and dish soap to prepare the mixture if you don’t like the smell of vinegar.
One of the most effective essential oils that you can use to eliminate clover mites is peppermint oil.
Keep in mind that clover mites splash out a red liquid if you crush them.
The red liquid produces red stains that can be hard to remove.
Use your vacuum cleaner to remove rove beetles, lady bugs, and pill bugs.
These bugs can reproduce inside your home.
So, when you remove them completely, there’s no way that will be any of them left inside the house.
Conclusion
Carpet beetle larvae, bed bugs, pill bugs, clover mites, rove beetles, and black lady bugs are the six slow-moving little black bugs in the house.
However, most bugs, especially the little bugs, in the house can crawl slowly despite being fast crawlers.
So, small bugs like ants, flour beetles, and many insects and flies, including drain flies, can be slow moving if they want to.
This guide revealed which bugs move slowly by default and the most practical ways to eliminate them.
Thomas Orbert is a PhD in entomology with specialization in tiny and microscopic pests. Thomas is a regular contributor to our site and shares failproof methods to get rid of small pests.