The head is barely evident when viewed from above, legs are shorter and antennae are clubbed. The larvae are stubby in appearance and their bodies are covered with bands of stiff, lighter-color hairs. They feed more commonly on the surface compared to the black carpet beetles, which prefer to burrow. The tuft of hairs at the tip of the abdomen are not as pronounced as the hair tuft on the black carpet beetle. Infestations of carpet beetles in foods is much less common than flour beetles or the saw-toothed grain beetle.
Carpet beetles develop more slowly on cereal products than on materials of animal origin.
Many other small moths have a very similar appearance. The larvae are whitish with a dark hair capsule. You can usually see a silken feeding tube or larval case in the material they feed upon. The clothes moth larvae are most destructive to articles that are left undisturbed for long periods of time. The adult moths prefer darkness.