Furnished Floor Versus Walked Floor
The eating is done by larvae, not by the adults, and what they are after is keratin - the protein in wool, silk, fur and feathers. The useful thing to know about them is that they will not work where there is light and movement. That splits a room in two. The middle of a bedroom floor gets crossed every morning and stays sound; the strip of carpet running under a fitted wardrobe, the square beneath a wardrobe that was never meant to move, the carpet in the bay behind long curtains and the border under a bed with drawers in it are where the pile thins out.
That is why it is so often found during a clear-out or a redecoration rather than day to day. Why the damage sits under furniture explains the pattern, and holes appearing in a carpet helps sort moth damage from ordinary wear and the odd cigarette burn.
The Cupboard Over the Stairs and the Room Kept for Best
Two spaces in this kind of house are worth opening before anything else. The cupboard built over the stair bulkhead in the back bedroom is dark, still and usually stuffed with whatever nobody wanted downstairs. And a front room that only sees visitors gets vacuumed round rather than under, year after year. Where carpet moths hide lists the rest of the places to check.
Wool Put Away for the Summer
The other half of the problem is storage. Winter coats, jumpers, a wool overcoat in the hall cupboard, blankets in an ottoman, a rolled rug standing in the garage or laid over the joists in the loft - all of it goes away in April and is not looked at again until the clocks change. Wool put away unwashed is better feeding than wool that has been cleaned first, because body oils and food traces make it more attractive.
Where moths keep appearing in a bedroom, open the cases and the blanket box before blaming the floor. What they do to clothes and furniture shows the kind of holes to expect, and carpet moths or clothes moths sorts out the naming, which matters less than people think since the treatment is priced the same either way.
Checking a Room Properly
Pull out what will move, lift a corner of every rug, and run the back of your hand along the carpet where it meets the skirting. You are looking for thin or bald patches, tufts that come away, fine silky tubes in the pile and small cream grubs; the larvae guide shows them at a size you can compare. Short brown bristly grubs and little empty skins instead mean carpet beetles in Neasden, and anything that is biting you is neither of them, so check for fleas.
- Vacuum into the edges and under everything that shifts, then empty the cleaner into an outside bin
- Bag stored woollens in the room they are in rather than carrying armfuls through the house to sort
- Wash or dry-clean what can be cleaned, and seal anything past saving before it leaves the room
- Do not let an old or inherited rug be thrown out in a hurry; ask a specialist rug cleaner what can be saved first
- Treat pheromone traps as a way of telling whether moths are still about, not as a cure
Booking, the Rooms and the Visit
When you book, list the rooms with damage or larvae and say for each one whether it is fitted carpet, a rug, a wardrobe or a loft. Clear the floors and the bottoms of wardrobes beforehand so everything can be reached, and move what furniture you can; the preparation guide gives the shape of it and we will go through the rest with you. Odd adults can still turn up for a while afterwards, and how long depends on how much of the house was involved. Fresh larvae or new damage after the period we give you is a reason to call back.
Keeping Wool Safe in an Interwar House
- Shift the armchair in the bay and the chest of drawers a few times a year and vacuum what is under them
- Turn rugs end for end so the same edge is not left in the dark for a decade
- Put coats and blankets away clean and sealed, not folded into an open case or a cardboard box
- Look into the bulkhead cupboard and the loft when the summer things come out, not only when they go back
- Keep a rolled rug off a garage floor and wrapped, and unroll and check it before it is laid again
How to stop carpet moths coming back and the Brent advice on protecting carpets and clothes both go further. The borough page is Carpet Moth Control Brent, and the same wool carpets and rugs turn up in the larger houses of Dollis Hill.
