Old Fitted Carpet in a Flat Above a Shop
Moth larvae eat keratin, the protein in wool, silk, fur and feathers, so a wool or wool-blend carpet is a meal and a polypropylene one is not. It is worth working out which you have before anything else: a dense, slightly hairy pile that felts when you rub it is usually wool, and that is what was fitted through these upstairs flats when they were last done up. Under a bed or behind a wardrobe that has not moved in years, larvae can eat down to the backing while the middle of the room looks fine.
Warm Floors and a Long Season
A room sitting above a trading kitchen or a heated shop holds a steady temperature right through the winter, and warmth lets larvae keep feeding when they would otherwise slow down. Damage in a flat like this can therefore appear more quickly than in a cold back bedroom. It also tends to show first along the skirting above the warmest part of the building rather than by the draughty window.
Back Rooms and Storerooms
Above and behind the parades there are box rooms, back landings and storerooms holding everything nobody wants underfoot: offcuts of carpet, curtains, felt, a bag of coats, blankets and boxes of stock. Undisturbed wool in a dark room is an ideal breeding place, and the moths that come out of it fly into the rooms you actually use. Open that room before you decide the bedroom carpet is the source. Where carpet moths hide lists the other places worth opening.
Wool Rugs in the Terraced Streets
In the Victorian and Edwardian terraces behind the High Street, floors are often stripped boards or laminate with rugs laid over them, and a wool or silk rug is a far richer meal than any fitted carpet. Larvae keep to the underside and to the edge nearest the wall, so turn a rug over instead of studying the top of it. The gaps between the boards collect fibre and hair and can hold larvae as well. Holes appearing in a carpet helps you tell moth damage from ordinary wear, a pull or a burn.
Making Sure It Is Moths
The adults are small, dull and reluctant fliers, more likely to run across the floor or sit on a wall low down. Look for thin or bald patches, loose tufts, gritty debris and silky tubes of webbing in the pile with cream larvae inside them. The signs guide and the guide to the larvae settle most cases between them. Short bristly brown larvae and empty skins mean carpet beetles in Harlesden instead, and none of this bites anyone — if something is biting, check the bed for bed bugs.
What to Do This Week
- Pull the bed, the sofa and the drawers away from the walls, vacuum into the edges and empty the cleaner into an outside bin
- Roll rugs back and vacuum the underside and the floor beneath them, boards and gaps included
- Empty the storeroom or box room onto a hard floor in daylight and go through the textiles in it
- Wash or dry-clean the woollens you are keeping and bag them before they go back
- With an old or valuable rug, ask a specialist rug cleaner what can be done before writing it off
Booking, Rooms and Preparation
List the rooms where you have found damage, larvae or webbing, and say for each whether it is a fitted carpet, a rug, a wardrobe or stored textiles. Rooms are counted one at a time, and a hall, a landing or a communal staircase is not a room even when it is carpeted in the same wool as everything else. If a storeroom is involved, tell us what is kept in it. We will explain how to prepare, and the preparation guide gives a sense of the clearing and vacuuming that comes first.
Afterwards, keep vacuuming the edges and under furniture, and expect the odd adult for a while. How long that goes on depends on how much of the carpet was affected, as how long carpet moth treatment takes sets out. Fresh larvae or new bald patches after the period we give you are a reason to call us back.
When the Carpet Is Not Yours to Replace
Most flats over the Harlesden shops are rented, and a tenant cannot lift a fitted carpet. Report the damage to the landlord or agent in writing with photographs, because carpet eaten to the backing at the edges is a repair question as well as a pest one, and treatment protects whatever is staying. Everything that helps meanwhile is yours to do: move furniture and vacuum beneath it, keep wool clothes clean and sealed, and do not leave a bag of textiles in a dark corner for a year. There is more in how to stop carpet moths coming back and the Brent advice on protecting carpets and clothes. Carpet Moth Control Brent covers the borough, and homes in neighbouring Willesden are priced the same way.
