Larder beetles

 

 

A larder beetle Dermestes lardarium. This little beetle, about 5mm. long, has a particular liking for laying its eggs on bacon, cooked hams, sausages and fish. It used to be very common in houses in the days before domestic refrigerators were available, but is no longer such a familiar pest.

Those romantic ‘cottage-core’ photographs, of hams and game hanging from wooden beams in country cottage kitchens, belie the constant battle with pest infestations that came with traditional methods of food storage. Neither of my grandparents, who stored their food in a cool larder and their meat in a meat safe, protected from insects by a fine wire mesh, had refrigerators and probably had cause to curse larder beetles.

They also turn up in old wasp nests, feeding on the remains of dead wasp larvae. This one landed on my window ledge and I suspect that it came from an old wasp nest in the loft.