Varied carpet beetle

Have you have seen small beetles (3-5mm in length) and their larvae crawling around in your woolen carpets? There is a good chance that they are Varied carpet beetles: Even if you have a synthetic carpet: The larvae will eat debris such as skin scales, hairs and organic dust wedged between the synthetic fibers, but they will not damage your synthetic carpet! They only feast on Natural fibers such as wool and silk but will also damage stuffed animals, entomological collections and are a museum’s nightmare! The larvae are called “woolly bears”, are 5 mm in length and are very hairy. The best remedy to prevent carpet beetles starts with good housekeeping! Hoover often! A source of carpet beetles might originate from old birds nests, as they also eat feathers. A good repellent and insecticide is the use of “Moth” balls containing camphor, naphtalene or 1,4-dichlorobenzene: Be very careful with these as they are extremely toxic if ingested! A non-toxic alternative is to sprinkle diatomaceous earth between the carpet fibers.

Every year we get plenty of call outs for “Wasps” in Late March and April. Wasps usually come out of hibernation in late April and are not considered a  “nuisance” when the wasp nest is at the golf-ball stage. Saying that, it looks like queen wasps come out of hibernation earlier each year. Maybe this is caused by global warming?

What we usually find are mason bees (Osmia spp). They are solitary bees and slightly smaller than a honey bee and a furry yellow belly. Although they are truly “solitary”, a great number of these can be present in a small area, appearing to be swarm-like. They appear in early spring, usually on warm south-facing walls or under tiles with suitable nesting cracks and crevices and disappear at the onset of summer. They do not have a colony structure like wasps and are very docile. They will only sting if extremely provoked. We always advise clients to leave them alone, as they are beneficial, docile, clean and very efficient pollinators of various crops.