How to Spot Carpet Moth Damage in Crowthorne Before It Spreads

Why Upstairs Comes First

Carpet moth larvae eat keratin, the protein in animal fibre. A roof space usually contains more of it than a bedroom does: old bird nests, feathers, animal hair, dead insects, sometimes rodent remains, and whatever textiles have been stored up there.

A population can sustain itself in a loft for years without anybody noticing, and the first sign downstairs is adults appearing in an upstairs room — usually a landing or a bedroom below the hatch.

The Loft Check, Done Safely

From the hatch, with a torch. Nobody needs to be crawling through a roof space or going anywhere near the eaves to do this, and nobody should be on a roof at all.

• Old nesting material at the edges, where the roof meets the wall
• Feathers, or a scatter of fine debris on the insulation
• Small moths, particularly ones that run rather than fly
• Fine webbing on stored textiles or on the underside of boxes
• Droppings, which point to birds or rodents having been up there
• Daylight visible at the eaves, which is how anything got in

If you cannot see the edges from the hatch, do not go further. Report what you can see and leave the rest to somebody with the equipment for it.

What to Look At From the Ground

Ten minutes outside with a pair of binoculars tells you more than most people expect.

• Gaps at the eaves or under the barge boards
• Missing or slipped tiles near the roof edge
• Birds going in and out at the same point repeatedly
• Nesting material visible at a soffit or a gutter
• An unused chimney with no cowl
• Vents with damaged or missing mesh

Then the Rooms, In Order

1. The room directly below the loft hatch, and the landing
2. Any upstairs room used less than the others — a spare bedroom, a box room
3. Under the heaviest piece of furniture in each of those rooms
4. The carpet edge against the skirting, especially behind furniture
5. The airing cupboard, and stored bedding
6. Wardrobes, at the shoulders of wool garments

What Early Damage Looks Like

• Irregular thinning rather than clean holes
• Bare patches where the floor has been covered
• A strip of damage along the skirting
• Fine silky webbing, sometimes holding grains of debris
• Small cream larvae in a case the colour of what they are eating
• A sandy debris where something has been standing

Mark the edge of any bare patch in pencil with the date. If it has grown in a month, it is active.

If the Signs Are In the Loft and Not the Rooms

That is the best possible position to be in, and the thing to do is deal with it while it is still up there.

Treatment starts from £220. Tell us what you saw in the loft and what you saw from the ground — a source above the ceiling changes what needs doing, and it is much better to know before the visit than after it.