Name that household bug!

finnith

I live in Canada, where's it's currently Winter. My favorite thing about Canadian winters is the general lack of bugs, which I hate (it's a welcome respite from our mosquito-filled summers). However, my family has come across quite a few of these bugs in our house, especially the kitchen, so I was wondering if anyone knew if they are just some harmless bug or something worse. They're pretty small, and almost look like ladybugs, but they seem flightless.

pics: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wio2vcq0yrd8kdy/2013-01-11 15.00.14.jpg

Cabezone

Gonna be hard to identify from that pic...need a closeup one with something for scale.

MetroidZoid

I would throw out a guess that it's a beetle that hatched from some product in the pantry, flour or a box of something, and is completely harmless though the product is probably bad and/or exposed to insects now.

@BugBoy you got anything on this?

BugBoy

First thing I thought of was carpet beetles

They're common household pests and will feed on fabrics or food items, so I'd take a look around and see if you can find a source.

If they're mostly in the kitchen, look for them in bags of grain or flour, and if you find any throw the items out.

You'll probably be looking for the larvae or their shed skins/droppings rather than the adults, so keep an eye out for those. They should look small and fuzzy.

finnith

Hmm yeah I looked around that site Bugboy and it looks like it might be the dreaded Deathwatch beetle (which after some research I think should really have a less ominous name). The picture here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/162251/bgpage, looks most like the ones we're getting at home.

There are actually some larva on the outside of the pantry, so I'm worried that they got into the food. We'll be calling an extermination expert tomorrow though, as all the online advice about eliminating an infestation seems to work around the lines of "it's hard" and "this is for a 600-year old church".

sys64738

If it is a deathwatch beetle (aka anobiid beetle, pronounced an - no - bee - id) it's a woodboring beetle. They wouldn't be all that interested in the food, rather the pantry itself. If it is those, and I hope it isn't (for your sake) you may be looking at anything from wood replacement, wood treatment, or all the way up to a fumigation to get rid of them. Depends on how extensive the infestation is.

What's in the picture does look like some kind of stored product beetle (poss. drugstore / cigarette), though, and that would be considerably easier to treat (find and get rid of infested foodstuffs).

cr0w

Grain/drugstore beetle. Easy enough to deal with unless you have an infestation. Pull everything out of the cabinets/pantry, toss out anything such as cereal boxes, macaroni, pasta, anything grain or wheat-related that isn't sealed, and see if you can narrow down where they're coming from. When I have to deal with them (I'm an exterminator), I just pull everything out, toss almost everything, and spray the pantries with a mild insecticide. Deltamethrin, usually. This generally does the trick. You have to pull/toss out everything though.