How Long Can a Carpet Moth Infestation Go Unnoticed in Hungerford?

Why It Hides So Well

• The damage is under furniture, which a settled household almost never moves
• The larvae are camouflaged inside cases the colour of the carpet
• The adults are small, avoid light, and run rather than fly
• Nothing smells, bites, stains or makes a noise
• A few small moths a year is easy to attribute to an open window
• In a modern house with synthetic carpet there may be no damage at all — only moths

Which Is Exactly When It Surfaces

1. The house goes on the market
2. Furniture is moved to declutter, or the house is part-cleared
3. Rugs come up, wardrobes are emptied, the loft is sorted
4. The floor under the bed is seen for the first time in years
5. And everybody involved finds out on the same afternoon

That sequence explains most of what we are called to at this stage. It is not concealment. It is the first time anybody has looked.

Situations Where It Runs Longest

• A probate or long-empty property — unheated, undisturbed, sometimes for a year or more, with contents still in it
• A house owned by one household for decades, with furniture that has not moved in that time
• A property with fitted joinery — alcove cupboards, built-in wardrobes, window seats — where the floor beneath is not reachable at all
• A part-let or second home, warm enough for part of the year, unwatched for the rest
• Any house with a wool carpet and heavy furniture, which is most of the older stock around here

What This Means Practically For a Buyer

1. Assume nothing from an absence of evidence in a cleared house
2. Look at the skirting line, which survives presentation
3. Ask whether the furniture has been moved recently, which is a fair and unloaded question
4. Take the moving-in window seriously — the days between their furniture leaving and yours arriving are the best access the house will offer for years
5. If you find it, get a scope and a figure rather than an argument

What We Will Not Tell You

Whether the seller knew, what your position is, what the survey should have picked up, or what you can do about it contractually. Those are for your surveyor and your solicitor and we are neither. What we can give you is what is there, how far it has gone, and what it costs to deal with — which is usually the number the other conversations need anyway.

Treatment starts from £220. If you are between exchange and completion, or between contracts and moving day, say so — the timing changes what is worth doing first.