Carpet Beetles Vs. Bed Bugs: What Has Caused Those Little Red Bumps?

If you’ve been itching and seeing little red bumps on your skin recently, maybe you’ve gone online and done some research. Typing in the search term “little red bumps” brings up a multitude of medical websites, usually trying to help you diagnose a skin condition. But what if the bumps you’re seeing on your skin aren’t the result of a typical rash, but are caused by insects? Pests like bed bugs and carpet beetles can both produce little red bumps on your skin. Figuring out which pest you have in your home is pretty simple, but it requires knowing some facts about these two pests. The Pittsburgh pest control pros at Witt would like to make your research that much easier; here are some simple tips to help you determine if you have carpet beetles or bed bugs inside your Pittsburgh home. 

• If you’ve seen any insects inside your home, it’s very easy to tell the difference between carpet beetles and bed bugs. Carpet beetles are tiny, measuring between 1/16 of an inch and 1/8 of an inch long; they are oval with white and yellow-brown scales and three tufts of hair near the back of their abdomen.  Bed bugs are larger than carpet beetles at approximately ¼ of an inch long; they are shaped more like an apple seed and are reddish-brown in color.
• Bed bugs are typically found near the bed or hiding in drawers or furniture and personal belongings nearby so that they can have easy access to sleeping humans to draw a blood meal.  Bed bugs can be found anywhere that humans are and don’t tend to live outdoors unless it’s near a mammal whose blood can be a food source.
• Carpet beetles are typically found inside wall voids where other insects have lived, in attics and crawl spaces, and other places inside the home where dead insects or spiders have accumulated. They may also live and thrive outdoors, feeding on nectar and pollen.
• Bed bugs feed on blood, while carpet beetles feed on nectar, pollen, wool, hair, bristles, feathers, silk, furs, insect collections, dried plants, clothing, and fabrics.
• Bed bugs do not damage your belongings; they simply bite you while you sleep. Carpet beetle bites don’t affect you; they only affect your belongings, creating holes in fabrics, furs, and carpets.
• Red bumps on your skin caused by bed bugs are the areas where you have been bitten; your body may react to the saliva they inject into your skin to help them feed more easily. This causes itching and often a little red bump will appear at the bite site.
• Red bumps on your skin caused by carpet beetles are not actual bites; they may be an adverse skin reaction to the hair bristles on the carpet beetle’s abdomen. 

Hopefully, these tips will help you determine if you have a bed bug problem or a carpet beetle problem, but if not, that’s why we’re here! Give us a call and we’d be happy to come to your home to check out the problem for you and determine which pest is bothering you. If we find carpet beetles in your PA home, we can offer you carpet beetle control solutions that will eliminate the current infestation and help keep a future infestation from occurring. If you have bed bugs in your home, we offer bed bug treatments to get rid of the pests in an eco-friendly and very effective manner. Contact Witt Pest Management today for more information on pest control services in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.