Got black beetles running around in your home? In this guide, we’ll show you how to quash, get rid of them. These little insects are mostly found where food products are stored and can be quite the post.
You may be around about doing something wrong in your home to have attracted them, perhaps you need to clean more often but that’s not the case at all. These little black beetles are mostly attracted to food, cool places, and shelter conducive for them to lay their eggs and reproduce.
Black beetles can be found anywhere they can find food to eat and a cool place to lay their eggs. Once they find these things in your home as expected, they become unwanted guests and keep multiplying.
In this article, we’ll show you several ways to get rid of these little insects that can become annoying pests over time, both by DIY methods and also with insecticides you can get from stores around you.
How Did Black Beetles Get Into My Home?
As mentioned earlier, Black beetles are insects that love food and shelter, and once they find these two things in your home, a cool place to stay, and things to feed on, they immediately make themselves comfortable.
These insects could get into your home through one or both of these ways:
1. From outside directly outside your home
Black Beetles build their nests in pine straws, under your lawn, wood chips, and some other places, but, once these places outside your home become too cold and uncomfortable for them, they find their way into your home through gaps and little openings in the windows and doors, and also through cracks in your home’s foundation.
2. Probably from the store
You could actually bring in these insects from the store when you go to get food products. This is why it is advisable to wash up everything you got from the store outside before taking them into your home so as to be sure there are no black beetles accompanying your food products.
Are Black Beetles Harmful or Poisonous?
Black Beetles are NOT poisonous, but they can be quite harmful because they bite. Well technically, it cannot really be called a bite, but when black beetles come in contact with your skin, they release toxic secretions from the pygidial glands in their lower abdomen, which they use to ward off predators.
This toxic secretion that is released onto your skin can then produce pain and a burning sensation. These little insects however don’t mean to harm you. They only release these toxic secretions because they’re trying to protect themselves.
While this might sound ridiculous, black beetles are actually helpful insects. When you see a black beetle, your first instinct might be to crush it but try not to do that.
Black beetles are actually quite helpful in the garden, they help ward off pests that are harmful to your crops. Or, you could pick up the black beetle and let it out gently. After doing this, seal off all cracks and little openings in your doors and windows, so these insects don’t get in anymore.
How Do I Get Rid Of Black Beetles In My Home?
Here are some ways to remove black beetles from your home easily.
1. With Insecticides or Pesticides
This method is effective, but can only be used outside the home, in and on places these insects could have built their nests. Pesticides and insecticides cannot be used inside the house because black beetles are mainly found where food products are, and you sure wouldn’t want to spray insecticides on your food items.
For effectiveness, make use of insecticides that contain either cyfluthrin, deltamethrin, or bifenthrin. Insecticides that contain all these are very effective and pose no harm whatsoever.
Once you get the insecticides, use them to fumigate your lawns, outside your home, and in places, you feel black beetles might have their nests set up.
2. DIY Methods to Get Rid Of Black Beetles
There are some easy DIY methods that you can carry out to get rid of those black beetles in the home, and here are some of them:
1. Soapy water
Take a spray bottle, put in water and a decent amount of liquid dishwashing soap, then spray this in your food pantry, and anywhere else you feel the insects might be. Note, do not add any bleach or chemicals into the soapy water, as this would not guarantee your home free from future infestation, and would be harmful to your food products.
2. Use The Vacuum Cleaner
The importance of thorough vacuuming cannot be overemphasised. When you notice black beetles in your home, then it’s time to do thorough vacuuming. Start with the food pantry, because that’s mostly where the insects would be. Take out all your food products from the pantry and vacuum thoroughly.
After vacuuming, you could spray the soapy water everywhere in the pantry to make sure that you aren’t leaving any insect behind.
3. Mint Oil or Peppermint Plants
Get plants that contain peppermint and place them in strategic places in the home. Like in the food pantry, in the kitchen, and other places you might have found a beetle. However, if you don’t have peppermint plants, you could get mint oil.
Put about 15 drops of minty oil into a spray bottle filled with water and proceed to spray everywhere, from your windows, to doors, pantry, corners of the house, and you could even spray this minty water on the plants you have at home so they give off a peppermint smell which repels black beetles.
4. Use Neem Oil
o to any store around you and pick up a generous amount of neem oil. Neem oil is a great beetle/insect repellent, and isn’t harmful to kids, pets, or your foodstuffs. When you get neem oil, spray it onto plants in the home, on your window sills, doorways, and any other place there might be an opening in the home.
Neem oil repels black beetles, so it is safe to say that with this, your home would be free from these insects.
5. Set Traps
There are some sticky insect traps that give off scents that attract black beetles. Go to a store and get these traps, then proceed to place them in strategic places.
These traps would give off scents that attract the beetles to them, and because they’re sticky, once these insects get on them, they’re stuck. You can then carry the traps outside and let the beetles go, far away from your home.
6. Use Essential Oils
You see those essential oils you have in your bedroom that makes you smell nice and makes you relaxed, the scent of those oils repel black beetles. Lavender oil, Tea Tree oil, Citrus oil, Eucalyptus oil, or any other essential oil you have, would chase away these insects.
All you need to do is put some drops of the oil into water and spray everywhere in your home. It’d chase those black beetles out from their hiding places, and leave your home smelling great. It’s a win-win situation.
3. Avoid some type of outdoor lights
There are some types of lights you place outside your home that literally invite these insects in.
If you find out that insects, both the flying and crawling insects, are always around the light you placed outside, then you need to change that light to one that doesn’t attract insects. It is possible that the light outside your home is acting as a beacon to the black beetles.
4. Grow Plant plants that repel Black Beetles
Both in and outside of your home, you could plant black beetle repellent plants. These plants would do the job of giving off a smell that black beetles cannot stand, and in the process keep them away. Here are some plants that repel black beetles:
- Citronella grass
- Catnip
- Rue
- Tansy
- Marigold
- White Germanium
- Chives
- Garlic.
These plants would repel those insects, but are harmless, and would smell great to you.
Wrapping it up
Remember that these black beetles only came into your home for shelter and food, so, anywhere you find them, if it is possible, let them out gently, and seal off all openings in your doors and windows, no matter how little the openings might be.
Vacuum inside the home regularly, spray insecticides or pesticides outside, and avoid clutter, most especially in your pantry. You could get containers with lids for every food product in your pantry.
This makes your pantry more organized, and clutter-free, thereby keeping black beetles out.