Larder beetle extermination

It's extremely important to exterminate larder beetles — their life cycle is about 40-50 days, and that's enough to infect all of your food

Prepare for aLarder beetle extermination and eliminate these intruders from your home once and for all. Remember: prevention is better than the cure!

The larder beetle (Dermestes lardarius) are oval in shape, about 9 mm long. To recognize them, look for a yellow stripe on the wings. They are known to dwell in dark places. They infest dark places in the house during the warm seasons of the year. When they manage to find food, the females lay 136 to 150 eggs which hatch in 12 days. They dig holes in foods like cheese, bread, and cold meats — not to nibble on those foods, but to store their larvae in the holes.

The only good deed they are able to perform in favor of frustrated housekeepers is that they also attack the nests of rodents like rats and mice hidden between the cracks in the walls. Larder beetles also feed on the remains of their own kind such as those of ants and other critters with feathers and dry epidermal surfaces. They even try to pupate in timber, but they have a harder time doing so with metal such as tin or zinc.

So how do you recognize the signs of this infestation? It's really simple. You just need to look for unnatural holes in your food, especially in dried/smoked foods that are stored in the back of your cabinet. It's just as easy to spot partially hidden larvae that have hardened off when you separate the mutilated food items to inspect them. There is also the fact that the insects themselves do not go unnoticed with their bodies covered in thick hairs and their yellow and brown colors.

Getting rid of larder beetles

The first step in getting rid of larder beetles is a cleaning inspection. Check every dark and cold place in your household, including places where you keep fur coats, animal skins, trophies and so on. Throw out all mutilated food and clean your cupboards, pantry and cupboards using disinfectant and any other liquid cleaners.

Pesticide extermination should be a last resort. Given the danger of pesticides when used carelessly, it is best to contact a professional to use this method in all storage areas of your home, including basements and attics. In the future, wrap your food in plastic containers and put it in tightly sealed, metal-lined containers, which makes it difficult to puncture.

Just give our exterminators a call. Contact us.