Life Cycle Woolly Bear Carpet Beetle

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

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. You might think that a carpet beetle has a very similar life like that of the other insects then you are wrong. It develops from its own larvae by taking as many as three years. It grows up to 5 mm in length.

These are mostly brown with white or yellow markings and are covered in short bristly hairs hence their well known woolly bear moniker. Carpet beetles are oval shaped and difficult to spot as they are only 2 to 4mm long. Verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an. All species of carpet beetles undergo complete metamorphosis passing through the egg larval and pupal stages before developing into adults most carpet beetles develop up to four generations yearly while varied and black carpet beetles develop only one.

The variegated carpet beetle is 2 to 4mm long like a small mottled brown grey and cream ladybird. After this they will overwinter largely undetected. The larvae of carpet beetles are referred to as woolly bears. The related fur beetle is black with one spot on each wing case and there is a rarer black carpet beetle.

As is so often the case it is the larva that does all the damage. In total the life cycle for the beetle is around a year. The life cycle of a carpet beetle. The larvae known as woolly bears of these small oval beetles have outstripped the clothes moths as the major british textile pest.

You will often see the adult form between april and june and then have the main problems with the larvae in october.