Help! - Moths in my carpet - advice needed

usignuolo

I like oriental rugs and have several in my house. They all get hoovered regularly and none have shown any signs of moth infestation - until now.

However I have a very nice antique Turkish wool carpet in my sitting room and when I started to hoover it just now, I found the moths had been at it, just at the edge. This is where we walk over it to enter the room. So there is a lot of footfall there and it is right out in the open. (My mother always said moths like dark dusty places and this is neither). Nor have I seen more than a very occasional moth about. So I am a bit surprised about this.

I have checked all round and found one tiny hole on another edge but that seems to be all so far. I have hoovered it, both sides and I have checked all the other rugs and they are oK.

It was not there last time I looked so I think it is fairly recent and the backing is so thick they have only managed so far to eat a couple of small tufty sections which don't really notice unless you are looking.

What is best way to clear out the infestation and stop it recurring?

ukmaggie45

My daughter had probs with moths in wool carpet in her shared house. She uses pheromone traps. I haven't had a chance to chat with her recently about this (too much else going on in both our lives!) but I think they are at least helping.

dacouch

My mum had problems with this, it's normally the larvae that do the damage, it's often in areas behind furniture.

She is tight so did not want to spend money on chemicals so used her wall steamer to steam the areas and a hoover to suck up eggs. She treated it a few times and got rid of them.

andrew-b

My parents had the same problem about a year ago in their lounge..and yes it's the larvae is the problem. They'd gone away for several weeks in the summer, curtains drawn, not much ventilation and returned to find the moths had been feasting on their carpet. Only really around the edges and under furniture etc but even so it was a major upheaval. Fortunately most of the damage is hidden from view. They had to move all the furniture (including hefty units/display cabinets etc)...vacuumed a few times and washed the carpets too. Think it's ok now as they haven't mentioned a recurrence of it.