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Sticker of Larder beetle
Bug card No. 0821 of 1,500

Larder beetle

Dermestes lardarius

The larder beetle is a small dark brown beetle with a pale yellow band across its back. In the band are three black dots in a little triangle. It likes to sneak into houses and pantries looking for dried food.

Lives in
All over the world, in houses, pantries and storerooms
Length
8.5 to 9.5 mm (0.33 to 0.37 in)
Top speed
about 0.4 km/h (0.25 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting, but it can spoil food.
What does it eat?
It eats dried meat and fish, cheese, pet food, skins and feathers. It even nibbles dried insects in museum collections.
For real!Photo of Larder beetle
Picture by AndrΓ© Karwath aka Aka. CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Larder beetle about 9.5 mm long (0.37 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailas long as 1.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 9 seconds

How big is Larder beetle compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its baby, the larva, is longer than the grown-up beetle and covered in hairs.

2

The larva has two little curved spines at its back end.

3

Before turning into a beetle, the larva may bore into wood, cork or plaster.

4

A female lays about 135 eggs close to food, and they hatch in about 12 days.

you asked

Most asked questions about Larder beetle

?What do larder beetles eat?

Dried animal foods like meat, fish, cheese, pet food, skins and feathers.

?Do larder beetles bite?

No, they are harmless to people. They just like to eat our stored food.

?How big is a larder beetle?

It is less than one centimetre long, about 8.5 to 9.5 millimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Dermestes lardarius
Group
Beetles
Family
Dermestidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Dermestidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Moisture bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Dermestes lardarius (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by AndrΓ© Karwath aka Aka. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Houses and farms