Brown carpet beetle
The brown carpet beetle is a tiny beetle, smaller than a grain of rice. Its head is dark and its back is light brown and hairy. It lives inside houses and museums.
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Fun facts
In Britain it is nicknamed the vodka beetle, because its name smirnovi sounds like a vodka brand.
It was named after the scientist Smirnov, who first noticed it in Moscow in 1961.
Museums in northern Europe work together to learn how it spreads from house to house.
It can fly from one house to another.
Most asked questions about Brown carpet beetle
?Is the brown carpet beetle harmful?
It does not hurt people, but it can damage wool carpets, clothes and fur.
?How big is the brown carpet beetle?
Only about 2 to 4 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Attagenus smirnovi
- Named by
- Zhantiev, 1973
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Dermestidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Dermestidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Europe
- Also known as
- Vodka beetle
Where the facts come from
- Attagenus smirnovi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Pentinsaari M, Anderson R, Borowiec L, Bouchard P, Brunke A, Douglas H, Smith A, Hebert P (2019) DNA barcodes reveal 63 overlooked species of Canadian beetles (. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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