CARPET BEETLES, or so-called "buffalo moths," are common household pests usually associated in their destructive work with clothes moths. Ordinarily they are not so destructive as clothes moths, because they reproduce only once a year, and then not so abundantly.

Experienced housewives throughout the North are familiar with the stout, oval, reddish-brown, hairy grubs or larvæ of the common carpet beetle, found beneath carpets or in clothing. In southern homes, however, the longer, slender, golden-brown larva of the black carpet beetle, with its tuft of golden bristles, is more common.

All carpet-beetle larvæ feed upon fabrics or upon various articles, including upholstered furniture, containing wool, silk, hair, fur, bristles, or feathers. They even feed upon dried animal matter.