Moths - any advice re carpets?

Queen-Bee_2

Hi everyone,

Hope someone can help!

Three or four years ago, I bought a new carpet from John Lewis for my sitting room.

Last week, when I was shampooing it with an industrial cleaner I'd hired from HSS, I discovered that MOTHS have eaten a hole in parts of it, a coupe of larger holes about the size of a 10p and lots of smaller ones as well.

John Lewis have simply said that none of its carpets are mothproof, but I'm devastated - money is very very tight at the moment, but when I bought the carpet, I bought a nice one as I'd expected it to last for years.

I know that there are moths in the house, because they ate a lot of my jumpers a couple of years ago, but I wasn't expecting this.

Is there anything I can do?
Thanks for any helpful ideas/suggestions,
QB

Henry_Hoover_2

You have my sympathy! Moths are very hard to get rid of. I discovered some a few months ago behind the TV - they have taken up residence and chewed a big hole in our wool carpet.

I used a spray from Lakeland - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/moth-guard/F/keyword/moth/product/21383

The spray did get rid of them, but to be honest i'm very squeamish and couldn't relax knowing that we'd had moths, so the whole carpet came up and every room now has laminate.

Queen-Bee_2

Thanks Henry, I'll certainly be considering this!

Does anyone else have any experience/suggestions?

QB

tru

Are the holes in the same area? If you have some spare carpet, you could pay a fitter to cut the old bit out and patch it.

Or you could do what I did when our rabbit chewed ours I bought a big needle and some wool, pulled the carpet back and stitched loops into it. The wool didn't quite match but it's hardly noticable. If your carpet's not loop pile, just re-tuft, the same way you'd make a rug. It's hard on your fingers though so use a thimble.

annie123

My expensive 100% wool Berber carpet in the hall has been plagued by moths for years.
It started behind a piece of furniture that I hovered around rather than move, tried lots of sprays etc nothing worked, they just spread to different areas.

So now I've painted the hall stairs and landing, the carpet is coming up and out to allotments via free cycle, then getting ant powder (rec by a friends dad, ex bug exterminator) between the floorboards, under skirting etc leave bare for 3 weeks then lay new carpet, not 100% wool.
I've lived with them for 10 years and can stand it now longer.
Laying carpet ourselves and will be cheap stuff this time.
I just can't stand the embarrassment any longer, even the meter readers glance down at my moth eaten carpet.

What ever you try, keep a very close eye on it, they spread very quietly!

shebrett

moths hate the smell of cedar wood. I was having a problem with them in my closet and so I bought a big bag of bulk bicarb soda and put it in a bucket with about 25 drops of cedar essential oil (also added a bit of orange essential oil as I prefered the smell that way) and dusted it all over the carpets in the bedroom, including the cupboard then hoovered it up. doesn't harm the carpets but the smell lasts for at least a week so go easy if you're not keen on cedar Sems to have worked for me, did this about 6 months ago.

Henry_Hoover_2

annie123 wrote: »

My expensive 100% wool Berber carpet in the hall has been plagued by moths for years.
It started behind a piece of furniture that I hovered around rather than move, tried lots of sprays etc nothing worked, they just spread to different areas.

So now I've painted the hall stairs and landing, the carpet is coming up and out to allotments via free cycle, then getting ant powder (rec by a friends dad, ex bug exterminator) between the floorboards, under skirting etc leave bare for 3 weeks then lay new carpet, not 100% wool.
I've lived with them for 10 years and can stand it now longer.
Laying carpet ourselves and will be cheap stuff this time.
I just can't stand the embarrassment any longer, even the meter readers glance down at my moth eaten carpet.

What ever you try, keep a very close eye on it, they spread very quietly!

I have heard that even carpets than aren't 100% man-made can still get moths, they just eat around the man-made fibres and hunt out the wool mix! :eek:

They are horrible, horrible things. It's a pain to pull furniture out and hoover under it, but if I ever have another carpet I will be obsessive about it!

annie123

Henry_Hoover wrote: »

I have heard that even carpets than aren't 100% man-made can still get moths, they just eat around the man-made fibres and hunt out the wool mix! :eek:

In that case I'm going to get a cheap polypropene carpet

zippychick

Hi Queenbee

This older thread - Help moths have chomped my clothes - may have some ideas to help you? I'll merge this later on

thanks
Zip

thisuseridistakenagain

we have them really bad in our carpet, bit its a rented place, so im not too fussed!! lol

the only thing we could find that kills them cheaply is ant killer, which i have bought bucket loads of from the poundshop.

Would your insurance cover a new carpet? or is that making money issues worse long term?

I know you used to be able to get a thing that cut out a circle of carpet so you could patch it up with a spare bit from betterware a while back.

Queen-Bee_2

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Despite my having hoovered and shampood for a week, I'm still finding the little bu**ers around the house, creeping out of the edge of the carpet by the wall and fluttering around in the evenings.

I am now thinking that the problem is so severe that I ought to get the house fumigated.

Has anyone done this and if so, how much was it :eek: and did it prove effective?

QB