Tobacco Beetles - tips to get rid of them?

[oceanauk]

Last summer I had bugs in my flat.  This year they've returned in larger numbers.  I had a pest control guy round today who identified them as Tobacco Beetles or Cigarette Beetles.  I have no fear of rats, snakes, spiders etc but I hate bugs and these little things are smaller than ants and I'm freaked by them!!!  I find them everywhere - always on their own (ie not in groups) and they are usually on the walls.  I live one floor up in my flat which I keep spotless (or try as I'm obessive compulsive!) so having these things in the flat is really hard for me.  The pest control guy sprayed around but said there's not much I can do - he thinks they may come in through other flats in the building and/or through open windows.  I find it hard to believe so many can come in through my windows everyday and tend to lean towards the fact they are in living in the building somewhere - unfortunately it is a lot of hassel getting the whole building sprayed and it would never completely get rid of them anyway. Because they are so small I just worry all the time where the next one might be - it's so horrible. Has anyone else experienced them?  Can I do anything at all to prevent them coming into my flat?  Or can I put something down that would attract them so I can catch them?  Apparently they eat coffee, tea, cereals etc. I have to say though that I've never found one inside a cupboard or anything - my cupboards were checked by pest control and they're all fine.  I was even told they might just be coming in the cereal boxes when I do my weekly shop!  It's going to give me nightmares!!!

[Sammy Snake]

I'm sorry, I can't help but just had to sympathise.  It sounds horrid and if I was you and the flat was only rented I would HAVE to move!

In my last house, over the four years I lived there I had:  mice in the upstairs airing cupboard and spare bedroom; ants in the kitchen/living room; rat(s) chewing through the back gate and coming to the bin in the back yard; tiny flies in the kitchen around the bin/sink and last but not least, flying ants living under the cooker.

The cooker was right next to the back door and they reckon they must have crawled under the back door and then under the space beneath the cooker and nested.  This is despite the inch thick layer of ant powder by the back door due to the previous infestation...  Cleaning under the cooker and copious spraying of ant powder did not kill them athough they were too weak to fly, they just kind of 'wrigged' out of their little hidey hole and onto the kitchen floor.

My house was always clean and I had no pets that could attract these bugs/pests.

Needless to say the flying ants were one problem too many.  I moved house and have had no problems (touch wood) with pests of any kind ever since!

[Sammy Snake]

I must add that all these problems were not at the same time!  It mainly happened each summer, a different pest each time!

[oceanauk]

Thanks for replying Sammy Snake - you've made me feel a bit better actually - at least I only have the one problem to contend with!!!  Stupid things is - I lived in Syndey, Australia for a while and we had a house which had an outside "dunny" (toilet!) and that had huntsmen spiders in (larger than tarantulas and just as hairy!) they could jump upto 6 feet too, plus rats under the house which came up through the kitchen flooring, cockroaches which would run over you at night and I was fine with it but now I'm scared of tiny little bugs which are smaller than ants!!!! LOL!!! How weird is that!!!??!!

[shaz-rla]

Not weird at all!!! I hate cockroaches though!  We have silverfish (they were here when we moved in - we had  pest control in and that seemed to get rid of them for a while but they are back again.  We have ants in most of the downstairs rooms.  We had *********** (May/June/July bugs) beetles which rattle down our chimney for a couple of weeks at a time in any of the above months - they look like furry cockroaches and we hadn't been warned about them when we first moved in I must admit to having run out of the living room screaming leaving my then very young baby and children in the room.  They come out at dusk and fall asleep and look like they are dead when it turns night, I am now used to them!

[shaz-rla]

The ed has banned one of my words here as it sounds too rude to put in another word for them is blind beetles!