One Run of Wool From the Front Door to the Back Bedroom
Carpet fitted through a whole interwar house is stretched onto gripper at every edge and tucked under the skirting, and once the furniture is standing on it nobody lifts it again for twenty years. The middle of a hall or a landing is walked on daily and suffers least; the inch or two against the skirting, the strip beneath a radiator and the pile under a fitted wardrobe get neither light nor traffic, and that is where the pile thins out first. The guide to holes appearing in carpet explains what the larvae are actually doing to it.
The Stairs and the Half-Landing
Stairs are worth a torch of their own. The tread is scuffed clean by feet, but the riser, the corner where the carpet meets the string, and the turn at a half-landing collect fibre and dust and are almost never vacuumed properly. Damage here is easy to miss because it faces downwards and sideways rather than up at you, and it sits in the one part of the house that touches every room.
Under the Wardrobe, Under the Divan
A built-in wardrobe across the chimney breast of a bedroom, a divan bed with drawers, a heavy chest that has stood in the same place since it was delivered - each of them roofs over a piece of carpet that is never seen. Pull what you can away from the wall and look. This guide explains why the furnished parts of a room go before the open floor does, and the signs guide shows the webbing, the grazed pile and the small pale larvae you are looking for.
Winter Clothes Put Away in a Bedroom Cupboard
Bedrooms in these houses tend to have a fitted cupboard beside the chimney breast or over the stairs bulkhead, and wool coats, jumpers and blankets spend half the year in it. Anything put away unwashed carries traces of skin and food that make it a better meal than clean wool, and a cupboard door that stays shut for months gives the larvae exactly the quiet they want. Take the contents out onto a hard floor when the season turns, rather than pushing last winter's coats to the back. The guide to damage in clothes and furniture covers upholstery and felt as well, and the comparison with clothes moths sorts out which insect the name belongs to - the treatment and the price are the same either way.
Working Out Which Rooms Are Involved
- Take a torch to the carpet edge behind every bed, wardrobe and chest you can shift
- Look at the stair risers, the string corners and the turn at the half-landing
- Lift the corner of a rug and check the underside and the floor beneath it
- Open the bedroom cupboards and look at the floor of them, not just the hanging rail
- Check the box room and any bedroom that is only used by visitors
The hiding places guide goes through the same search in more detail, and the larvae guide settles what you have found. Short, bristly brown larvae with empty skins beside them are carpet beetles in Preston rather than moths, and anything that bites is neither: check for fleas if the marks are round the ankles.
Booking, Preparation and How the Stairs Are Counted
When you ring, list the rooms with damage, say what the floors are - fitted wool, a wool mix, rugs over boards - and mention wardrobes, cupboards and stored clothes, because those belong to the room they stand in rather than being counted separately. Before the visit, vacuum the edges and everything you can move, empty the cleaner outside into a sealed bag, wash or dry-clean affected wool and keep it sealed, and leave the carpet dry rather than shampooing it. The preparation guide describes what that looks like in practice.
Afterwards, the odd adult can still appear for a while, and how long things take to settle depends on how much damage there was and how many rooms were involved. Keep vacuuming the edges, and if fresh larvae or new damage show up past the point we describe, come back to us.
Protecting Wool in a Preston House
- Move the heavy furniture and vacuum properly underneath it two or three times a year
- Do the stair risers and string corners with the crevice tool, not just the treads
- Wash or clean wool before it is put away, and store it in sealed boxes or bags rather than loose
- Turn and beat rugs, and give the underside as much attention as the pile
- Treat pheromone traps as a way of watching numbers rather than clearing them, since they only catch males
The prevention guide fills in the rest, the borough page is Carpet Moth Control Brent, and the Brent carpet moth advice goes further into looking after textiles. Houses of the same age and carpeting in neighbouring Queensbury behave no differently.
