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We have these little insects in our house, they look brown and round to the naked eye, they seem to be somewhat attracted to light since we found a cluster of ~6 on the wall next to a light, otherwise we find them one here and one there.

They are very very small, can barely tell what shape they are without magnification, they look almost like a dot.

Images below are taken with a loupe with 30x and 60x magnification but they are of squashed bugs so not the greatest photos, sorry. Will post pictures of live ones if I find more.

Location: San Jose, California, USA

Full quality images: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/15FU-KEzqmXy7s69VfmA1UJoM_o0elWWz

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EDIT: added some images of live insect on the wall, no magnification, 30x and 60x to the drive folder.

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    $\begingroup$ Great pictures! Can you update your question with your location? $\endgroup$
    – acvill
    Aug 11, 2021 at 2:38
  • $\begingroup$ Mist with alcohol for better unsmashed photos. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Aug 11, 2021 at 2:39
  • $\begingroup$ Woops, this is in San Jose, California, updated question as well. Also took some pictures of a live insect on the wall with and without magnification and added to the drive folder. $\endgroup$
    – Legion
    Aug 11, 2021 at 7:55
  • $\begingroup$ if you can please sit some on graph paper or a ruler to photograph, then their size can be known. $\endgroup$
    – Polypipe Wrangler
    Aug 11, 2021 at 10:15

1 Answer 1

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The beetles are about 3mm (1/10 inch) long - so not any wood eating beetle. That's good.

The elytra (wingcase=main body) has parallel lines. The antennae have the terminal 3 segments enlarged, so not cigarette beetle.

Looks like the drugstore beetle, Stegobium paniceum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugstore_beetle

If you can easily get a pheromone trap, that will help confirm by catching the male beetles.

enter image description here

Photo from wikipedia.

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  • $\begingroup$ i looked for pheromone traps for drugstore beetle but can't find them, closest I found was this trap that says cigarette beetle and someone in the comments mentions that it also worked for drugstore beetles, which sounds odd, any thoughts? amazon.com/JF-oakes-Pantry-Beetle-Pre-Baited/dp/B006J9IK08 $\endgroup$
    – Legion
    Aug 11, 2021 at 17:22
  • $\begingroup$ I only found the idea of pheromone traps online - I've never lived in an area that has this beetle as a problem. Anyway, those photos are quite good, see if you can get one of the antennae. $\endgroup$
    – Polypipe Wrangler
    Aug 12, 2021 at 10:50
  • $\begingroup$ there should be a half decent picture of the antennae in the drive folder, I am hoping to remember to take another one with a ruler next to the beetle, once I have that I will try to repost the drive folder images here as well. As for the trap, I found one on amazon for $20, will first comb through my kitchen to see if I have an infestation, otherwise they just look lost, a few here and there, some even in the bathroom, not a lot in the kitchen. $\endgroup$
    – Legion
    Aug 13, 2021 at 5:45

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