Even initially protected materials can lose their immunity to attack through cleaning and aging. However, the hazard remains undiminished for unprotected furniture and fabrics imported from areas of the world where they are not treated. Wherever they occur, the fabric-infesting insects are potentially highly destructive, but the substitution of synthetics for many of the woolen fabrics and the treatment of rugs, carpets, and other woolen fabrics with insectproofing agents in their places of manufacture have led to a steady decline of the over-all importance of this group of household pests. Termites, crickets, cockroaches, silverfish, psocids, and even some dermestids may be included among such species. There are many species of insects that are unable to digest keratin, but nevertheless can cause damage by chewing through keratin-containing fabric. However, the larva of the black carpet beetle, Attagenus megatoma, was not especially attracted to these salts or to the more common stains (Mallis et al., 1962). Of the salts tested, K 2HPO 4, KCl, NaCl, and Na 2HPO 4 were the most readily eaten, and appeared to be the substances that would make a stain such as tomato juice attractive to these insects. In one investigation, it appeared that minerals, proteins, and B vitamins were the attractant substances in fabric stains for the larvae of the webbing clothes moth, Tineola bisselliella, and the furniture carpet beetle, Anthrenus flavipes. Clean, processed wool cannot support the normal life cycle of the clothes moth unless it is contaminated with certain nutritional supplements. Merely handling a fabric with the bare hands will impart some nutritional factors to it, and even fungus spores settling from the air will add some nutrition (Pence, 1958). They will feed on or damage many other substances of animal or vegetable origin besides fabrics and paper.Īlthough keratin-containing substances (wool, hair, and feathers) are their preferred food materials, carpet beetles and clothes moths will also attack other fabrics, such as cotton, linen, silk, and synthetics if the fabrics contain contaminants of nutritional value, such as urine, perspiration, beer, milk, or fruit juice. In either group, it is only the larvae that cause damage. Clothes moths are the more important of these groups in the southern states, but carpet beetles are more important in the remainder of the country. The pests of economic importance are found mainly in 2 groups: the carpet beetles and the clothes moths.
There are approximately 30 species of moth larvae, 15 species of beetle larvae, and hundreds of species of bird-infesting biting lice (Mallophaga) known or suspected to be able to digest keratin, and they are the only animals that can digest it (Waterhouse, 1958). The widespread use of wool and other animal hair in clothing, carpeting, furniture, and other household materials gives insects the potential for being of great economic importance if they are able to feed on keratin, a proteinaceous constituent of these materials. Comparison of Destructiveness of Fabric-Feeding Insects.Control of Carpet Beetles and Clothes Moths.Pests of Fabrics and Paper BEETLE Species | MOTH Species | SILVERFISH Species | Figure Captions
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