Can Carpet Moths Spread From Room to Room in Newbury?

How They Travel

Adults are poor fliers. They run and flutter close to the floor, avoid open lit space, and cover short distances. Nothing about them is fast.

• Through a doorway at floor level, especially with a gap under the door
• Along a hallway, following the skirting line
• Up a staircase, using the treads
• Between floors through gaps around pipe runs and light fittings
• Carried, in a rug, a box, a piece of furniture or a vacuum cleaner

The Rough Timeline

Not a formula — houses differ enormously in warmth, layout and how much wool is in them. But the shape is consistent enough to be worth having.

1. Months one to six. One room, usually one part of one room, under something. Nothing visible. Nobody knows
2. Six to twelve months. Damage becoming visible in that spot. First adults seen and usually dismissed. Eggs now being laid in the adjacent room
3. One to two years. Two or three rooms involved, damage obvious in the first, beginning in the second. This is when most people call
4. Two to three years and beyond. Distributed through the house, including storage areas, stairs and landings. Multiple separate damaged areas. A carpet may now need replacing rather than treating

What Speeds It Up

• Consistent heating, which removes the winter pause and can double the number of generations in a year
• Continuous flooring — one carpet running through several rooms and a hall
• A lot of wool: carpet, felt underlay, rugs and upholstery in the same house
• Rooms that are used less, which are undisturbed
• Moving things between rooms, which is by far the fastest route and the only one you control

What Slows It Down

• Hard flooring or synthetic carpet in the rooms between
• Doors kept closed
• Cool rooms
• Regular movement of furniture and regular vacuuming of edges
• Emptying the vacuum outside after each room rather than at the end

What To Do With This

1. Work out roughly how long it has been going, honestly
2. Check every carpeted room, not the affected one — look under one heavy item in each
3. Include the stairs, landing and any storage area
4. Scope the treatment to what you found rather than to where you saw the moth
5. Do not move rugs, textiles or upholstery between rooms in the meantime

Treatment starts from £220. Tell us when you first noticed anything, including the thing you dismissed at the time — that date is usually the most useful number in the conversation.