Carpet Moths in Wool Rugs in Pangbourne: Signs and Treatment Options

Why These Rugs Never Move

• They sit on an uneven floor and have been positioned to lie flat, so moving them means finding that position again
• Furniture stands on them — often heavy, often old, often in an alcove it was made for
• They fill an awkward shape between a chimney breast and a wall, and there is only one way they fit
• They are held by their own weight rather than any fixing, and a large old rug is genuinely heavy
• There is no reason to move them, so nobody does

The Signs

1. Turn it over — or at least turn back a corner. Damage starts on the underside against the floor
2. Look at the covered sections — under the sofa, under a chest, the part in the alcove
3. Look for thinning rather than holes. On a hand-knotted rug the foundation is left standing, so a bald area shows the grid of the weave
4. Check the fringe and selvedge if wool
5. Look at the floor beneath, and into any board gaps under it

• Fine silky webbing on the backing
• A sandy debris the colour of the wool, often collected in the low spots of an uneven floor
• Larvae in cases the colour of what they are eating
• Bald areas with ragged edges rather than a worn fade

Lifting an Old Rug Without Damaging It

1. Take everything off it first. Do not drag furniture across it
2. Get help with anything large — one person lifting a heavy old rug by one corner puts the strain on a few threads
3. Roll it, pile side out, along the length. Never fold it: a fold creases permanently and can crack an old foundation
4. Use a torch held low and almost parallel to see the underside properly — raking light 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 reliably removes larvae
6. Vacuum gently, on low, no beater bar, and never over the fringe

Treatment Options

In place, with the floor

Usual for an ordinary wool rug. It is treated together with the floor beneath, because the two reinfect each other and doing one without the other is a common reason this recurs.

Out, to a specialist

For anything with real value, a natural dye, or silk. Bag it sealed where it stands and take it to a specialist rug cleaner or textile restorer. We treat properties — we do not clean, restore or value textiles, and a household product on an unstable natural dye is not reversible.

Replacement

An inexpensive rug with widespread damage is often not worth saving. Bag it before it travels through the house.

Afterwards

• Lift and vacuum under rugs a few times a year, both faces
• Rotate a rug occasionally, which changes which part is covered
• Do not put a rug back over an untreated floor
• Check anything inherited or bought at auction before it goes down

Treatment starts from £220. Tell us how long the rugs have been in position and whether anything stands on them — in an older property that is usually where this starts.