The measures to be used for the control of carpet beetles depend upon
the place in the house where the pest is causing injury. If carpet
beetles are troublesome in trunks, chests, or closets that are not
opened often, a good grade of flake naphthalene, paradichlorobenzene
or camphor will give good results. If the trouble is in closets in
daily use, beneath carpets or rugs, or in piano felts or upholstered
furniture, these substances are of practically no value, and one must
fumigate the house as a whole or in part with either hydrocyanic-acid
gas, carbon disulphid, or carbon tetrachlorid, or use the still older,
more tedious, and less effective means of control consisting in
frequent search for and the killing of the individual larvæ and adults,
and the treatment of floor cracks and similar hiding places with
kerosene, gasoline, or benzine. The following materials and methods may
be employed with satisfactory results:
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Eggs of the furniture carpet beetle laid in
the pile of a plush mohair covering of a chair. Considerably enlarged:
the eggs are smaller than the head of a common pin and white In color.]