Not all beetles are the same
The word beetle covers a huge number of insects, and the one in your kitchen probably has nothing to do with the one in your carpet. In homes we mostly meet a few well-known groups, and each has its own place.
Stored-food beetles are very small and brown or reddish. Some people call them flour weevils or rice weevils. They live inside flour, rice, pasta, pulses, spices and dry pet food, and complete their whole life cycle inside the packet. You can have generation after generation in the same cupboard without them ever leaving it.
Carpet beetles are small, round and speckled, and you see them on windowsills because they’re drawn to light. The damage comes from the larva, a small hairy grub that lives under carpets, in wardrobes and along the skirting.
Some beetles come from outside, from the garden, plants or an empty plot next to the house, and walk in at night towards the light. These usually don’t breed indoors, and the fix is to close their way in.
If beetles are coming out of wooden furniture and leaving fine powder underneath, it’s most likely woodworm, which needs a different treatment injected into the wood.
Why ordinary spraying doesn’t get rid of them
Flour beetles live inside the food itself. Spray the cupboard and a few beetles walking on the shelf die, while the source sits in an old packet at the back. A few weeks later they’re back. The same applies to carpets: the larvae are under the rug and in the gap between the floor tiles and the skirting, and a surface spray doesn’t reach them.
So the most important step is finding the source and removing it. Sometimes it’s a spice packet opened months ago, a sack of rice in the storeroom, cat food on the balcony, or a wool rug rolled up in a closed room.
Another common mistake: infested food goes into the kitchen bin, and the bin stays open overnight. The beetles climb out and head back to the cupboard. Seal infested food in a bag and take it out of the flat straight away.
How we deal with them
First we identify the type. If you send us a photo on WhatsApp before the visit, things go faster, and from the photo we can sometimes tell you where to look.
In the kitchen we ask you to empty the cupboards, check the packets and containers with you, and throw away anything infested. Then we treat the cracks, corners and hinges with an approved residual product, and leave the shelves to dry before the food goes back in airtight containers. In the rooms we treat carpet and fitted-carpet edges, under furniture and wardrobe corners after a thorough vacuum. Outside, we treat around doors, windows and gaps, and advise you on lighting and insect screens.
Check your kitchen yourself before you call
Empty one cupboard onto a table in good light. Open every packet of flour, rice, lentils, pasta and spices, and check the underside and folds of each one. Sift the flour onto a sheet of white paper. Beetles, small larvae or odd clumps mean you’ve found the source, or part of it.
Then look at the shelf itself, the cracks along the edges and under any shelf lining, because beetles hide there too. Don’t forget cat and dog food or bird seed, which are among the things people overlook most.
If only one packet was infested and you move the rest into airtight containers, the problem may end without any treatment at all. If you find beetles in more than one cupboard, or they come back after cleaning, call us.
Shops and storerooms
Bakeries, spice shops, grain and pulse stores and animal feed stores are where beetles cause the biggest losses, because they spread quickly from sack to sack. Treatment has to go hand in hand with better storage: new stock kept away from old, floors and corners cleaned, and infested goods isolated immediately. We can schedule visits outside your working hours so the shop doesn’t have to close.
After the treatment: what to do
- Keep flour, rice, pulses and spices in jars or containers with tight lids rather than in their bags.
- Buy quantities you'll use up in a reasonable time, and use the oldest stock first.
- Check every new packet before you pour it into a jar, because infestations sometimes come from the shop.
- Vacuum carpets and corners thoroughly every so often, especially under furniture and along the walls.
- Fit insect screens on windows that face a garden or plants.
The price is set after the inspection
The cost of beetle control depends on the type of beetle, where the infestation is (kitchen, storeroom, carpets or around the house), the size of the property, and whether a follow-up visit is needed. We confirm the exact price before we start, and the inspection comes with no obligation.
After treatment you receive a guarantee certificate stating the period and the service, and if the problem returns within that period we come back at no extra cost.
