Hide beetles, sometimes referred to as skin beetles, leather beetles, or taxidermy beetles, are common stored product pests known to target leather and dried or cured meats, while infamous in museums for targeting animal exhibits and preserved specimens.
These beetles can also be found in homes to ruin food and furniture. In this article, we’ll go over the effective ways to get rid of hide beetles, how to control hide beetle infestation, and how to prevent hide beetles from breaking out in the future.
How to Identify Hide Beetles
It is essential to begin any pest control plan with identifying the exact pest, as carelessness in identification can lead to applying the wrong treatment costing you time and money. Research proves that adult hide beetles are mostly responsible for damages done.
They can grow fairly large, ranging from 6 to 13 millimeters in length. They are uniformly dark grey to black in color and are covered in whitish hairs with dense patches of white. Hairs can be seen on the sides of their thorax’s and their underside.
Larval hide beetles, when mature, are about 13 millimeters long, covered in long hairs, and have two spines on their tail ends that curve up and towards their head ends.
Pictures of Hide Beetles
Hide beetles can commonly be mistaken for other meat infesting pests like larder beetles. These two beetles share similar characteristics and feeding habits. However, they are different pests that require different effective ways to get rid of them.
You can easily differentiate these beetles by paying attention to their color. The wing covers of hide beetles are roughly uniform in color, while the larder beetles have a yellow band with dark spots across their wing covers.
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Where to Easily Spot the Hide Beetles?
After identifying the exact pest you are dealing with, it is also essential to spot the hide-out or possible habitat of your pest. Below are places you can find hide beetles once you have identified their presence in your property.
- Check around your property to confirm the hide beetle’s presence or find activity.
- Look for hide beetle activity in garages, attics, basements, pantries, and other storage areas.
- Hide beetles will infest leather and other animal products. So check out carpeting rugs and clothing made with fur or feathers.
- If any birds and rodents have invaded and nested in the attic or elsewhere in your home, their carcasses, when they pass away, provide attractive food sources for the hide beetles in your pantry.
- Check easily opened food products, check dried meats, fishes, cheeses, and pet food for hide beetles larvae or molted skins.
- When larvae have fully matured, they will burrow into hard substances like wood in order to pupate. So, check furniture structural supports or other materials like styrofoam for holes that are about six millimeters in diameter.
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How to Get Rid of Hide Beetles Effectively
Reading to this point, I believe you must have understood how to identify and easily spot the hide beetles. Moreover, at this point, you’ll start applying your treatment, but before starting any treatment, ensure all safety measures are enabled.
Start by wearing your personal protective equipment, and remember to keep people and pets out of the treated areas until the products settle completely.
Step 1: Preliminary Cleanup
The first step to get rid of hide beetles from your property is to conduct a preliminary cleanup.
- Collect all infested items, wash and dry them, or dispose of them to remove all adult beetles and larvae that are hiding in them.
- When cleaning clothes, be sure to wash and dry them with hot water and high heat. Animal skins can be steamed on the first side.
- You may also be able to freeze some items to eliminate beetles in objects that are sensitive to heat.
- Vacuum the floor, furniture, animal pelts, and the corners of rooms; be sure to throw out the vacuum’s contents outdoors.
- When you’re done, if you find hide beetles infesting food in your pantry, you should dispose of everything in paper or thin plastic packaging.
- If you found at least one infested package, the odds are there are beetles and larvae in your other packaged foods.
Step 2: Indoor Treatment (Fipro Insecticide)
Fipro insecticide is a strong hide beetle eliminating agent; it is made with fipronil, a non-repellent insecticide. This Fipro product quickly expands to cover all surfaces in a crack, crevice, or void.
Spray along the lengths of crevices where you found beetles or where you suspect they are hiding. In voids, spray long enough for the product to expand and cover the entire surface area.
When applied properly, hide beetles will travel through the treated areas normally and make contact with the chemical. The hide beetles affected by Fipro will have their nervous systems impacted and die within a few hours. One application of Fipro will control treated areas for up to 30 days.
Step 3: Outdoor Treatment (Supreme I/T)
Once indoor hide beetle activity has stopped, apply an outdoor crack and crevice application around your home or structure with Supreme I/T. Supreme I/T is a bifenthrin-based liquid concentrate that is labeled to treat over 70 different pests.
After you have applied Supreme I/T, this insecticide will leave a residual chemical barrier that will control pests for up to 90 days. After applying this product, you will have to mix it with water for residential treatments.
- You can mix and apply your Supreme I/T in a handheld sprayer or a backpack sprayer to use as a crack and crevice application.
- Mix 0.33 to one whole fluid ounce of Supreme I/T into one gallon of water to treat every 1000 square feet.
- Spray your solution into cracks and crevices in the exterior foundation, windows, door frames, and other voids in the walls.
- Do not let people or pets around treated areas until the spray has completely dried. Once hide beetles and other pests make contact with the spray, the residual barrier will have their nervous systems impacted, and they will die within several hours.
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Preventive Measures to Keep Hide Beetles from Returning to Your Property
Prevention is key to keeping pests from returning to your property. Even after applying the insecticides we discussed, there are chances of finding hide beetles again on your property. The best way to stop pest activity is to ensure that pests can’t re-infest.
Start by:
- Sealing exterior entry points around your home or structure.
- All large gaps can be stuffed with copper mesh, while tighter cracks and crevices should be sealed with caulk or an expanding foam.
- Seal thin cracks and openings in the foundation around window and door frames and utility penetrations.
- By blocking access to your property, you can stop small animals from nesting and providing food sources for hide beetles when they die.
- Store food and pet food outside of their original packaging and within sealable containers.
- By keeping food in airtight containers, you can stop infestations from spreading.
- If an infestation starts inside a sealed container, that means the food was already infested before it went in and you can throw it out without risking the rest of your pantry.
Where to Buy Products to Get Rid of Hide Beetles?
Buy all the products you need to get rid of hide beetles below:
Conclusion
Getting rid of hide beetles effectively isn’t a big deal with these professional products and steps from Pestclue. You can eliminate and prevent hide beetles from infesting and ruining your home, foods, and furniture.
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