Seeing a bug in your home isn’t a pleasant experience. You should know something about the type of bug they are so you understand how to get rid of them and how to stop any new from hatching.
Bugs tend to invade a home for one of three reasons: They want in from the cold, they want to lay eggs, and they want to eat.
Disrupting those patterns will guarantee success in getting rid of them. But what are they?
Flat brown bugs in homes are usually going to be either drugstore beetles, bed bugs, weevils, stinkbugs, and cockroaches.
Read on about how to identify and kill infestations of these bugs.
5 Flat Brown Found in Homes
Every home gets some kind of bug in at some point. The secret is getting rid of them, their larvae, and their nest quickly. That can be a problem because many types of bugs are prolific breeders.
Here are the top five most common little flat brown bugs in houses
Drugstore Beetle
The drugstore beetle is one of two types of the 1,000 or so anobiids that feast off stored food items. They like stored grains, seeds, packaged food, and anything made from plants or animals.
These beetles are more plentiful in heated homes in moderate to warm climates. However, they aren’t that abundant in tropical areas.
The drugstore beetle is between 1/10 and 1/7 inches long and is either brown or red hue. They have fine hairs on their wing covers.
Female drugstore beetles lay up to 75 eggs in food and larvae tunnel through the food to build a cocoon when fully grown.
It can take between four and 20 weeks for the larvae to complete the growth period into an adult. The entire life cycle is between two and seven months, depending on the food and the temperature.
How to Get Rid of Drugstore Beetle
The first step is to find out where the infestation is located. Food that is heavily infested needs to be wrapped in heavy plastic and taken to an outside trash can.
You will need to check all food containers and place any possibly infested items in a refrigerator or freezer for at least 7 days at 25 degrees or 16 days at 36 degrees to kill any bug at all stages.
Place the frozen items in a plastic bag to throw away.
Clean everything but concentrate on where the infested foods were stored. Be sure to vacuum up any spilled cake mixes, flour, cookie crumbs, and cornmeal.
Store food in airtight containers and you may want to invest in clear containers to make it easier to check for an infestation in the future.
While you can use commercial insecticides, that is typically a last resort and usually isn’t needed to rid your home of the problem.
Be sure to follow instructions and don’t use them around your food if you choose to go that route.
Bed Bugs
These are oval, flat, brown bugs that can be compared in size to an apple seed. They don’t eat your food but instead feed on you or your pets. Specifically, they are bloodsuckers.
Bedbugs can move quickly but don’t fly. The females can lay hundreds of eggs and they are small, about the size of a speck of dust.
They enter your home through things like used beds or couches, clothing, and luggage. Since they are flat, they can fit into tiny crevices.
They are communal and live in groups in favorite hiding places like bed frames, mattresses, box springs, and headboards.
Those with a bed bug problem will wake up with bites on their body. The bites itch and sting but don’t cause allergic reactions like other bugs. They can turn into welts over time.
Look for dark spots on sheets and mattresses, a musty odor in the sheets, and bloodstains on your bedding as signs you have a bed bug problem.
How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs
First, remove all bedding and check it for signs of bugs. Remove any dust covers and look at the wood frame seems. You should even detach the fabric where it is stapled to the wood frame to check.
Check the crevices in the seams around your mattress. Turn your mattress over and check the other side and your box springs. Look around your bed too for any signs in books or on the carpet.
Next, clean all bedding in hot water with a strong detergent and use the highest dryer setting to dry them. Anything that can’t be washed should be put in the dryer for 30 minutes.
Get a stiff scrub brush and scrub the mattress seams. Vacuum the bed and all around it. You may want to use a steam cleaner. Put any vacuum bags in an outside trash can.
Put your mattress and box springs in a zipped cover that won’t let them escape. It either needs to be plastic or a tightly woven cover.
You will need to keep this on your mattress and box springs for at least a year to ensure all die.
Get rid of clutter around the bed. Glue down any peeling wallpaper since bed bugs will hide there and repair any cracks in the walls or around the windows.
Weevils
Weevils are a type of beetle. They are small at less than 1/4 inch in length at most. More than 97,000 weevil species exist.
These bugs kill crops and can get into your wheat, flour, corn, or other stored grain products so they will be found mostly in the kitchen. It has a long snout with its flat body and most can fly.
How to Get Rid of Weevils
You will need to do an extreme clean to get rid of weevils. Most of that will be in the pantry area since they are attracted to stored items.
Remove items and throw away any infested food first. Then, prepare hot, soapy water and wipe down the shelves.
Follow that up with either a disinfecting spray or a finish with white vinegar. White vinegar is crucial as it’s been proven to kill weevils.
Clean all cans and other unaffected items before placing them back in the pantry or cabinet.
Stinkbugs
These are flat bugs in a triangular shape that are either brown or grey. Stinkbugs have a hard shell and most people see them in their home as fall weather approaches.
Stinkbugs enter homes because they can’t survive winter weather. They come in through open windows or doors.
They enter a type of hibernation and will look dead when you find them. They are really just in a type of coma state and will wake up in spring to mate.
You may find them in curtains, on ceilings, or in hidden places like behind shelves. Stinkbugs do no damage to your home and don’t infest your food.
The biggest problem is there tends to be a lot of them during an infestation, sometimes thousands, and it’s hard to get rid of a horde of stinkbugs.
How to Get Rid of Stinkbugs
It’s best to get rid of them the moment you find them. All you have to do is sweep or vacuum them up and dispose of them in an outside trash can.
Cockroaches
These flat brown bugs can be either small or large. They have an oval body with small heads and long antennae.
They can live anywhere in your home, including kitchen cabinets, inside couches, closets, and corners.
Cockroaches multiply quickly with each egg case carrying between 16 and 50 eggs. They enter your home in a variety of ways but tend to come with boxes or packing material.
They can also come with any paper bags you may get from a store.
Some can travel with you in your luggage!
These bugs love newspaper, cardboard, luggage, and a place that is warm and cozy for them to lay eggs. One of the cockroach’s favorite places is the backboard attached to the back of your refrigerator.
They can create a nest of hundreds there before you even realize you have any.
How to Get Rid of Cockroaches
This is going to be a multi-pronged effort. First, you will need to find all the infestations. That may involve getting rid of some old furniture but you can save your seating by finding the infestation and dousing the area with a bug killer that kills all stages and eggs.
You can also fog your home to catch many of the roaches as a general approach.
However, you will still need to empty your shelves and pantry, kill any roaches in there with insecticide and wipe all of them down with a disinfectant and white vinegar.
Then out your stove and refrigerator and kill any nesting there.
Don’t be fooled if you don’t see any. They hide. You will need to pull any cardboard backing off the refrigerator to check them and may need to unscrew the back of the stove to check.
You may need to call a pest control company if you find numerous colonies. A company uses a spray that targets and kills instantly and continues to kill over the next few days.
Their poison is passed from one roach to another like a virus. You will find dead roaches all over the floor in the morning over the next few days with this approach.
After you’ve cleared your home of roaches, put out sticky traps in high problem areas where walls and floors meet.
Remove clutter like old newspapers and boxes and seal spaces around cabinets, windows, and other places with caulk.
Also, seal spaces where electrical wiring and plumbing go through walls to prevent reinfestation.
Preventing a reinfestation can be done by washing dishes, pots, and pans after you use them, keeping all foods either in the refrigerator or in insect-proof containers, and vacuuming regularly.
Don’t leave pet food or water out overnight and keep counters, sinks, and tables clean. Take the garbage out every night.
FAQs
How do I know if I have bugs in my home?
You will see some damage to plants or see infestation in food. You, family members, or pets may have bites. There may be tracks, markings, and unexplained odors.
The real clue is if you see a bug, dead or alive. They don’t travel alone so that won’t be the only one in your house.
How do I know I need an exterminator?
You need an exterminator if you have tried to resolve the bug problem and your efforts seem to be in vain.
Alright, that’s it for this article, here are a few hand-selected articles that you might also find interesting reads:
Tiny brown bugs in bed – Everything you need to know!Small, Tiny Brown Bugs in My House – What Are They?
Cockroaches That Look Like Bed Bugs – 3 Common Examples
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