Carpet Moth Eggs and Larvae in Henley-on-Thames: What Should You Look For?

What You Are Looking For

• Larvae. Cream to off-white, up to about a centimetre grown, darker head, slow moving, usually inside a silk case that takes the colour of what it is eating
• Cases. Small silk tubes or bundles with fibre worked in. Look for a slightly raised texture where the surface should be even — this is what you actually spot
• Webbing. Fine silky threads across the surface, often holding grains of debris
• Frass. A fine sandy debris the colour of the fibre being eaten
• Eggs. Under a millimetre. You will not find them, so do not plan around it

Inspecting a Rug Without Harming It

1. Take everything off it first. Do not drag furniture across a rug to get to the middle
2. Roll rather than fold, pile side out, and roll along the length rather than the width. Folding creases a rug permanently and can crack the foundation of an old one
3. Get help with anything large. A big rug lifted by one person at one corner takes the strain on a few threads
4. Look at the underside in raking light — a torch held low and almost parallel shows texture that overhead light flattens
5. Do not beat it, shake it hard or use a stiff brush. All three damage an old rug and none of them removes larvae reliably
6. Vacuum gently, on low, with no beater bar, and never over a fringe. A beater bar on a hand-knotted rug is destructive on its own

Inspecting Upholstery

• The underside, where the hessian and webbing are — this is where it starts on most upholstered pieces
• Under and behind loose cushions, in the crevices
• Along piping and seams
• Under the item, on the floor where it stands
• Behind a fixed back panel, which you should not attempt to remove on anything antique

On an antique or reupholstered piece with natural fillings — horsehair, feather, wool wadding — the food source is inside the furniture rather than on it. That is a real limitation and it is worth knowing before rather than after.

Inspecting Stored Textiles and Garments

1. Take items out one at a time rather than emptying everything onto a bed
2. Check shoulders, under collars, cuffs and folds — the parts that never move
3. Look at the bottom of the wardrobe and the carpet under it
4. Check anywhere a lining is layered or a badge is stitched
5. Bag anything suspect before it travels through the house

Being Straight About the Limits

A pest control treatment addresses an infestation in a property. It does not restore a textile, it does not clean one, and it does not put back what has been eaten.

• Us: the room, the flooring, the environment, and stopping it continuing
• A specialist rug cleaner: cleaning without damaging dye or foundation
• A textile restorer or conservator: reweaving and repairing damaged areas
• An upholsterer: anything requiring a piece to be opened up
• Your insurer: worth asking, though most household policies exclude both insect damage and gradual damage, so expect the exclusion

Treatment starts from £220. If valuable textiles are involved, tell us what they are and where they are — it changes what we do in the room and what we advise you to keep out of it.