Carpet moths
Carpet Moths in Larger Friern Barnet Apartments
The larvae feed on the keratin in wool, silk, fur and feathers, and they avoid light and footfall. In a big apartment with more rooms than the household uses day to day, a spare bedroom, a study or a dressing room can go unvisited for weeks, and a wool carpet or rug in there is left alone long enough for larvae to eat into it. By the time someone moves the bed or lifts the rug, the damage can be well advanced. Why carpet moths are found under furniture explains why the hidden edges go first.
Deep built-in cupboards
Conversions often turn awkward spaces into storage: cupboards set into thick walls, under the stairs of a duplex, or at the end of a corridor. Woollen coats, blankets and rolled rugs put away in them and left for a season are ideal food. Before storing woollens for a season, clean them, as larvae are drawn to wool carrying sweat or food traces. Clothes moths, a close relative, do the same in wardrobes, and carpet moths or clothes moths sets out which you are likely to have.
Long hallways and runners
A long internal hallway with a wool runner gets walked on daily down the middle but not at the edges, and larvae can work along the skirting on either side. Turning or shifting a runner every few months, and lifting the end that sits under a hall table or shoe rack, stops one strip of edge staying hidden. Hallways are not counted as rooms in the price.
Signs to Check
- Bare or thin patches at carpet edges, under beds and behind doors that stay open
- Small cream larvae or silken tubes in the pile
- Small buff moths that run or flutter rather than fly well, often in dim rooms
- Holes in woollens stored in built-in cupboards
The signs of carpet moths shows each of these, and what the larvae look like helps you tell them from other pests. Bristly brown larvae rather than smooth cream ones are more likely carpet beetles, and bites in a carpeted room are nothing to do with moths but may be fleas.
What to Do Before Treatment
- Vacuum the affected rooms thoroughly, especially under furniture, along skirtings and inside cupboards, and empty the vacuum outside
- Take everything out of affected cupboards, and wash, dry-clean or freeze the woollens worth saving
- Keep cleaned items bagged until the rooms have been treated
- Move light furniture off the carpet edges so they can be reached
Preparing for carpet moth treatment lists everything to do beforehand, room by room.
Booking and Afterwards
When you book carpet moth control, tell us which rooms have damage, whether any cupboards are affected, and whether the carpets are wool or a wool mix. You will be told what the technician found and which rooms were involved. How long it takes to clear depends on how established the larvae are and how many rooms are involved, and how long carpet moth treatment takes explains this. Get back in touch if you see new damage or moths after the time we give you.
Keeping Moths Out of Unused Rooms
Open up the spare room regularly, vacuum under the bed and along the skirtings, and shift rugs now and then so no edge is left undisturbed for months. Store woollens clean, in sealed bags or boxes, and check them each season. How to stop carpet moths coming back has more, and the wider picture is on Carpet Moth Treatment Barnet and in carpet moths in Barnet.
