Small brown bug in the apartment: how to deal with it?

Damaged carpets, furniture, clothes and other household items are the main reason that motivates you to look for an answer to the question of how to get rid of skin beetles in an apartment. Small insects are almost invisible to the human eye, but can cause significant damage to households and are dangerous to human health. You can save things and protect yourself by using an integrated approach to solving the problem. Chemical control methods, folk remedies and compliance with preventive measures can help with this.

The carpet beetle poses a danger to things and human health. To prevent adverse consequences, it is important to begin pest control as early as possible, using available methods and means.

The article contains effective methods that will help get rid of pests and prevent their occurrence in the future. To achieve maximum effect, use several methods in combination.

Small brown bug in the apartment - what kind of insect?

This small brown bug in the apartment is called the skin beetle. Its wide habitat is due to its omnivorous nature and rapid reproduction and movement. Under natural conditions, the adult along with the larvae are able to consume almost any organic food.

According to coleopterologists, the most favorable living conditions are considered to be tree hollows, bird nests, forests and swamps: almost throughout the entire territory of the central zone. The reason for the appearance of bugs in apartments is the lack of food in natural conditions.

Little brown bug on the windowsill

One of the first places where it can be found is the windowsill. The main reasons for their appearance in this place are:

• the ability to fly freely from place to place;
• lay the larvae on the back side of the windowsill;
• the presence of favorable conditions for reproduction (especially if there are heating radiators in these places).

Flying little brown bug

They successfully migrate into human homes. A flying little brown bug is able to move into a residential area using clothing and personal belongings. Thanks to their mobility, they can independently penetrate windows and doors.

Thanks to its good ability to reproduce and excellent camouflage characteristics (small size and color), it quickly spreads throughout the apartment.

Let's celebrate! After entering the apartment, they begin active reproduction and within three weeks after laying eggs, red-colored caterpillars hatch. Each female is capable of laying eggs for two to ten days. In total, up to one hundred eggs are obtained. After this, the adults die.

Types of grinder beetles and their characteristics

Many people don't even realize how harmful this insect is. Depending on the type of insect, the damage they cause to a person’s home can be different, but serious. In the photo you can see the borer beetle, as well as certain species of this harmful insect.

Furniture sharpener

This is an insect that grows up to 5 mm in length, which is distinguished by a dark brown body color, with golden splashes that are clearly visible on the back. It feeds on and processes any type of wood, which poses a serious danger. It is found mainly in home furniture, but in certain conditions it does not refuse the walls of a wooden house. In addition, it can ruin any product that contains cellulose. These are picture frames, books, cardboard, as well as wood products that are of interest to the pest.

It is very difficult to detect the pest, because at the slightest danger it hides and freezes for a while. The fact that wooden structures are affected by a furniture grinder can be understood by the presence of small holes in the wood, as well as yellowish dust that spills out of these holes. In these holes, after some time, the female lays eggs, from which rather voracious larvae will subsequently be born.

House grinder

This type of pest prefers damp wood rather than dry wood, so it is more often found outdoors rather than indoors. The house grinder grows up to 5-7 mm in length. In the photo below you can see what a wood-boring beetle looks like.

Common comb grinder

You can distinguish this pest from its relatives by its unique mustache. Grows to sizes 3-5 mm. If this beetle penetrates into the thickness of the wood, it will not leave it until only dust remains of the wood.

Bread grinder

This pest does not sharpen wood, but renders dry food products, such as cereals, grains, pasta, including dried fruits, unusable. In this regard, we can safely say that the bread grinder poses a serious threat to humans. It can easily leave a person without food if their condition is not controlled.

Black house beetle

This type of pest prefers dry coniferous wood, so it cannot be found in living trees. The female lays eggs under the bark of dried or cut down trees in the warm season. Therefore, the black longhorned beetle enters a person’s home along with firewood or building materials that have not undergone special treatment.

Reasons for the appearance of bugs

The reasons for the appearance of bugs can be both external and internal factors.

External factors include:

• reduction of the nutrient medium in natural conditions;
• changes in climatic conditions (decrease in temperature and increase in humidity);
• ability to move long distances.

Internal factors can be:

• presence of a nutrient medium in the room;
• comfortable conditions for living and reproduction;
• placing stuffed animals or birds in the apartment;
• storage of a collection of insects (beetles, butterflies);
• home library (especially if you have old tomes);
• presence of pets (especially long-haired ones);
• neglect of preventive measures to combat the skin beetle.

Good to know! The summation of internal and external causes leads to the rapid spread of this pest in residential areas.

Who are skin beetles?

Specialist coleopterologists classify this small insect as a member of the order Coleoptera. It has a brown sometimes black color. The insect is small oval in shape. The entire body is covered with short, stiff hairs.

Brown beetles are divided into four large classes, each of which contains from two to eight species. According to this classification, there are more than 600 species.

Types of bugs, what do they eat?

The following types are most common in apartments:

• ham (the most common is almost black in color);
• carpet (uses organic compounds);
• fur coat (has a black color with several white dots on it. Prefers crumbs, food scraps, table waste. The adult lives using accumulated nutrients);
• Kozheed Smirnova (brown in color. Settles in wooden structures: door and window frames, wooden floors and wall decoration, in furniture elements);

Any household items serve as a breeding ground for them: from organic compounds (leather goods, fabrics, books, furniture, carpets, waste products) to synthetics.

The diet includes: cardboard, felt, rubber, cable braid, asbestos structures. Capable of eating indoor plants and flowers. They can cope with almost all plant foods.

The grain beetle is capable of destroying nuts. Various types of grains and cereals, bran flour and products made from them. Ham specializes in meat and fish products.

Let's celebrate! Despite this omnivorous nature, small brown bugs are able to go without food for a long time. It has been established that this period can last up to five years. In this case, their biological processes slow down, but they remain viable.

Varieties

Before you take on the destruction of uninvited guests, you should determine what type of insect has appeared. This could be a grinder that feeds mainly on wood products and is especially fond of old furniture. It is also quite possible that a flour-eating beetle will appear, which prefers cereals and flour. The size of the beetles is no more than 2-4 mm, and the color is brown or dark yellow.

In addition to wood, the grinder feeds on old books, which it grinds into dust and lays eggs there; later its larvae also live there. Flour eaters are slightly smaller than grinders and much more omnivorous. In addition to flour products and cereals, they also feed on books and wooden furniture.

In addition to the above-mentioned individuals, the carpet beetle can also move into an apartment. It is no longer considered as harmless as the previous ones, since it can cause a lot of harm, and is also unsafe for human health.

Pest danger to humans

The troubles associated with the proximity of a small brown bug for a person are associated with the manifestation of the following negative consequences:

• consequences of a painful bite especially for children and women;
• manifestation of an allergic reaction in people prone to this disease;
• transfer of pathogenic viruses, for example infection by helminths (due to larvae feeding on the remains of plant and animal food);
• deterioration of expensive and beloved things.

Despite its small size, the bite of a brown bug is quite painful. Each person has their own reaction to such bites. It can cause redness and subsequent inflammation at the bite site. During a bite, pathogenic bacteria can enter the wound and cause infection not only of the bite site, but of the entire body.

Therefore, doctors strongly recommend treating with a disinfectant after detection. This could be hydrogen peroxide, iodine or brilliant green.

Let's celebrate! Untimely treatment can cause an inflammatory process, which only a professional physician can help cope with and self-medication will not help.

When should you contact a specialist?

When it comes to food bugs, disposing of affected foods, thorough cleaning, and preventive traps in cabinets will combat the problem. But in the case of bedbugs and rams, everything is much more complicated. Folk and chemical remedies will solve the problem only for a while. The best solution would be to involve professionals using products that are not sold in regular stores.

If such a problem arises and professional treatment is necessary, you need to prepare the apartment for disinfestation. First of all, cover all furniture, remove all food and hygiene products that may contain toxic chemicals. To clean your home from bedbugs, specialists need to provide free access to baseboards, mattresses, beds, sofas, etc.

There is no need to remove the dishes; there may be cockroach larvae on them. It is also fully processed. At the time of treatment, all residents and animals must leave the house for three hours. After this time, the room must be well ventilated. The floors cannot be washed for 24 hours, since the death of the insect occurs not from inhaling the poison, but directly from contact with it. After disinfestation, you should wipe down door handles, kitchen counters and other surfaces.

How to get rid of bugs in an apartment?

To get rid of these neighbors you need to have answers to the following questions:

1. How did they get into the living space?
2. Where might they be?
3. Features of their behavior?
4. By what means is it advisable to get rid of them?

The first question can be quite difficult to answer. Small brown bugs can enter your home by flying into an open window or door. They can be brought on clothes, plants or mushrooms from the forest, or received as a gift along with purchased furniture.

The second question may be easier to answer, because the favorite places of residence of this pest are known.

These include:

• in the wool of carpets and carpet runners;
• on clothes (especially fur, wool, cotton);
• in niches behind radiators;
• on the bottom of the window sill (especially if it is wooden);
• under door frames and floor skirting boards;
• in upholstery of upholstered furniture;
• in food products (cereals, flour, meat and fish).

Therefore, in order to find the habitat, it is necessary to conduct a thorough check of such places.

To solve this problem faster, it is necessary to know the peculiarities of their behavior.

These include:

• beetle larvae are always found in dark places and cannot tolerate any light;
• adult bugs fly in daylight (sometimes it is possible to lure them into the light of apartment lighting);
• all leather beetles do not tolerate high humidity;
• they are not able to tolerate low temperatures.

The peculiarities of their behavior make it possible to quickly detect them and choose the most effective methods of control.

When choosing products to combat skin beetles, you can use the following methods:

• mechanical;
• physical;
• chemical.

Cleaning

The first method involves mechanical destruction of adults and their larvae. After finding the habitat, all insects found are mechanically destroyed. To increase the destruction area, you can use a vacuum cleaner, mop or other utility tool.

Freezing the premises

Physical methods involve changing the state of the physical environment. Knowing that bugs cannot tolerate low temperatures, you can carry out the procedure of freezing the room in winter. This will lead to the death of the entire population. Household steam generators have proven themselves well.

Disinsection of premises

The chemical method involves the use of products developed by the chemical industry to kill pests.

Usually they try to produce universal means for exterminating an entire class of pests. However, such drugs lose their versatility. The most appropriate is the use of narrowly targeted means.

Such preparations are created on the basis of hydrogen phosphorous or phosphine. They are used under synthetic film or indoors. This fumigation is quite effective. It involves subsequent ventilation, collection of dead pests and their removal.

Contact insecticides have shown good effectiveness. They are applied to the detected accumulation of brown bugs. Modern industry offers a wide range of such pesticides. Before using them, it is necessary to obtain specialist advice.

The most widely used drugs are:

1. Group of insecticides.
2. Boric acid.
3. Traps containing a sticky chemical.
4. Various tablets (for example, from the Antimol category).

Destruction of furniture

The most radical way to combat infested pests is to destroy old furniture. This is due to the difficulties associated with eradicating an entire population. Their ability to remain without food for a long time allows them to survive the most active chemical attack.

Call exterminators

Turning to specialized services for help from professionals has become more widespread recently, since this service has become much more accessible to virtually all segments of the population.

This technique has the following features:

1. Most organizations provide a guarantee that insects will not appear within a certain period. Such nuances are discussed in advance and recorded in a written agreement.
2. A specialist will select those types of insecticides that are suitable for destroying specific pests that annoy humans. All wishes regarding processing methods, toxicity of the products used and other nuances will also be taken into account.
3. The cost of the service in most cases depends on the individual characteristics of the situation. First of all, it is influenced by the chosen method of exterminating insects, the dimensions of the room being treated and the distance from the city, if the procedure is carried out on a summer cottage or in a country house. Typically, exterminating pests in a one-room city apartment costs from 1,500 rubles, and in a house located in the countryside, from 3,500 rubles.

Preventative measures for brown bugs

To eliminate brown bugs, it is necessary to carry out extermination and preventive measures.

Such activities are expected to include:

• Carrying out periodic checks for the presence of brown bugs;
• Constant ventilation, especially in winter, with the temperature in the room dropping to 12 degrees;
• Sealing of residential premises, eliminating cracks and possible entry points for pests;
• periodic wet cleaning of premises using special products.

Good to know! Controlling such pests is quite difficult. This is due to their small size, high vitality and omnivorous nature. However, the use of preventive measures, periodic inspection of possible places where pests accumulate and carrying out all methods of destruction will prevent the settlement and spread of small brown bugs.