What In The World Are Drugstore Beetles?

What do you think of when you hear the word "drugstore beetle?" Do you picture a large beetle sitting on one of those round spinney stools at a soda fountain counter from the 1950s? Or, perhaps the picture you get in your mind's eye is just a drugstore infested with beetles.

With a name like drugstore beetle, it is understandable, but drugstore beetles don't just hang out in drugstores. Here's what you need to know.

What exactly is a drugstore beetle?

These ⅙ of an inch, reddish-brown, oval-shaped beetles do tend to infest drugstores and feed on prescription drugs, but they also feed on a wide variety of other foods including: coffee beans, wheat, spices, cereals, pet food, seeds, bread, cookies, dry mixes, and meal.

Sometimes they even feed on non-food items like wool, leather, wooden objects, books, and even aluminum foil.

These beetles live around 7 months, but most of their destruction to food products and other materials happens during their larval stage. A female will lay up to 100 eggs directly on her food source then, for about 4 to 20 weeks, the tiny, white larvae will burrow through the food, consuming it.

As if this isn't bad enough, the larvae will then build cocoons inside the food! It goes without saying that drugstore beetle larvae will cause whatever they are infesting to be completely unusable.

If I find these pests in my Northern Virginia home, how do I get rid of them?

Although there is a lot of advice on the internet about how to control household pests yourself, eliminating pantry pests like the drugstore beetle on your own can be a tedious task, to say the least. The source of a drugstore beetle infestation can be difficult to pinpoint.

All food products must be closely examined for signs of these beetles or their larvae, and anything found to be clean needs to be placed in tightly sealed containers to avoid contamination. Any infested foods or floral arrangements need to be immediately thrown out. But, even if you are successful at doing this, be aware that drugstore beetles also hide out in other parts of the home, not just your pantry.

If you fail to get every beetle out of your home, you could be looking at another infestation in the near future.

The best solution to these destructive beetles is to get help from a professional.

Here at American Pest, our trained and certified technicians know how to locate less obvious sources of drugstore beetle infestation, and they have the experience to take care of this problem with ease.

No matter what you think of when you hear the term, "drugstore beetle" we're pretty sure you don't want this "beetles invasion." Get fast, safe, and effective pantry pest control with American Pest. Every time!