Does steam cleaning work to get rid of moths in carpets? Does it damage the carpet? 7 August 2019 at 5:42PM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 11 replies 4.5K views

cashferret

Big carpet-moth problem in my wool carpet! Wondering whether to try to steam-clean it and whether that will damage it.

Anyone have any experience with this?

theonlywayisup

I have a limestone floor with wool rugs. I steam them as I have a house full of boys/men and dog/chicken/ducks...(yes they all find their way in).

I've never had a problem with moths but my rugs have never suffered from the steam clean. I am not harsh with it - use it with the brush attachment and stroke rather than rub - if that makes sense.

POPPYOSCAR

We steam clean our wool carpet.

Never been a problem.

Not sure if it depends if you have a wet or dry steamer,

Ours is a Polti that steams and vacuums up at the same time.

cashferret

Thanks, Poppyoscar - but what is a dry steam cleaner?

POPPYOSCAR

cashferret wrote: »

Thanks, Poppyoscar - but what is a dry steam cleaner?

"Dry vapor steam cleaning is similar to traditional steam cleaning except that these machines use only a minute amount of water, which is heated to 240 degrees F (or above), producing a “dry” steam vapor. It's called dry because no water or dampness is left behind from the steam".


https://homesteady.com/info-12203141-dry-steam-vs-wet-steam-mop.html

cashferret

Thanks - that's very interesting! But the only one I can find online seems to be the Polti Climex and it's £600. Is it really the sort of thing you hire someone to come and do for you?

cybervic

Steaming cleaning may control the moth problem temporary at best but you will not be getting a moth-free environment.

We moved into a unfurnished flat that had 2 moth holes on the carpet, at the time we thought it was cigarette burns and the whole flat had been deep cleaned, carpet was shampooed and steam cleaned. A year later, we started to notice occasional moth in the flat and when the winter came, many of our wool clothes had holes moth dropping and the carpet started to have several bare spots.

Pest control came over and basically said the wool carpet is a perfect breeding ground for moth, it's impossible to get rid of them because pesticide has no effect on moth eggs and they are so tiny they went in under the carpet crawl out when they are an adult. There's no way to get rid of them unless their food pot is gone, i.e., the carpet. We then bought powerful steam cleaner, started to our steam clean battle with moth on a weekly basis. It got better but we were never moth-free. 2 years later we finally moved out, when we removed our bookcases and some fixed wardrobe, the carpet underneath were all gone, moth had eaten them all!

Change to a synthetic carpet is the only way really.

cashferret

Thanks! I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go synthetic.

Hummingbirdy

Synthetic... No… please don’t add to environmental pollutants simply to rid yourself of the dreadfully destructive carpet and clothes moth…mind you, sheep raised to supply wool to manufacture carpet and clothing products are little better: Given half a chance, they, along with cows, deer, and human lumbering would reduce forests and woodland to grassy pastures in no time; the former animals releasing gargantuan volumes of Co2, the latter animal belching and farting H while clinging to a misnomer that loadsamoney today is far, far better than a life depriving hypoxic atmosphere tomorrow.

jbondo

We're currently living in Rented accomodation, block of 6 flats, ALL of us had carpet moths. Discovered thousands of eggs all over the place!!


Found some stuff that kills them (And anything else that breaths it in it's that strong). Look for 'Pest Expert Formula C Moth Spray'

NeverTooLate

[FONT=&quot]We had moths in a wool carpet which we successfully got rid of, but it's hard work.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]It's the larvae that eat the carpet, they are easy to kill but the eggs they hatch from seem to be indestructible. So you have to stop them maturing to moth stage when they lay more eggs.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I found the best way was to steam clean the carpet once a week, then use the insecticide. I did this for about 3 months and that broke the cycle and no more eggs were laid.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]It was a large lounge, and moving the 3 sofas every week was really hard work, but it did the job.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]It’s the same process as getting rid of nits in children’s hair - actually no chemicals needed with nits if you comb every night (don’t steam clean them!!!!).[/FONT]