Their diet consists of feathers, furs, insects, dead animals, processed human food, skins, cotton, silk, and wool.

A variety of predators like ants and spiders will feed on carpet beetle larvae.

No predators will exclusively eat carpet beetles and the larvae will hide in dark places to avoid them.

Female carpet beetles can lay over 100 eggs which can hatch after 10–44 days at temperatures between 15 °C (59 °F) and 32.5 °C (90.5 °F), ideally at 25 °C (77 °F).

In the UK, it was found that between June and September, the beetles mostly stay outdoors, migrating indoors during the rest of the year.