Where Carpet Moth Larvae Hide in Reading Properties

Under the Landlord's Furniture

The single most likely place in a let property, and for a structural reason rather than a behavioural one. Furniture that belongs to the property does not move. It was there before this tenant and it will be there after.

• Divan beds, particularly those with drawers
• Wardrobes, and the carpet beneath and behind them
• Sofas and armchairs, including the hessian and webbing underneath
• Chests of drawers and sideboards
• Anything heavy enough that a tenant will not move it alone

The Carpet Edge Against the Skirting

All the way round every room, and especially the runs behind furniture. It is undisturbed, it collects fibre and debris, and a domestic vacuum head does not sit into it properly.

This is where most infestations in fitted-carpet properties actually start, and it is the strip that both DIY treatment and routine cleaning reliably miss.

Fitted Cupboards and Built-In Wardrobes

The base, the back corners, and the carpet underneath if the carpet runs into them. In a let property these frequently contain items left by previous occupants, which have been sitting undisturbed for longer than anyone knows.

Communal Areas in a Converted House

Reading has a great many houses converted into flats, and the hall, stairs and landing carpet in one is a specific problem: it is usually the oldest carpet in the building, it is never moved, and it belongs to the freeholder rather than to any resident.

It is also the route between every flat. An infestation there supplies the whole building and survives any number of individual flats being treated properly, which is a common reason a well-executed treatment does not hold.

The Places a Tenant Cannot Reach

Worth listing because they explain why a conscientious tenant can do everything right and still have a problem.

• Under fitted furniture that cannot be moved
• Communal carpet in a shared building
• Beneath the underlay, where the food source is the underlay itself
• Voids beneath a suspended floor
• The adjoining property, in a terrace or a conversion

If a property has been treated more than once and the problem returns, the answer is usually in that list rather than in anything the occupant is or is not doing.

The Rest of the Usual Places

• Under rugs, and on their undersides
• On stairs, at the outer ends of the treads
• In wardrobes, at the shoulders of hanging wool garments
• In the airing cupboard, among stored bedding
• In any room that is used less — a spare bedroom, a box room
• In a loft or storage area, among boxed textiles

How to Check Without Damaging Anything

1. Slide rather than drag furniture, and get help with anything heavy
2. Use a torch — larvae and cases are the colour of the carpet
3. Look at the carpet AND the underside of what was standing on it
4. Photograph what you find before moving anything further
5. Do not vacuum it away before it has been seen, if you intend to have it treated

Treatment starts from £220. Telling us which of the above you have checked, and what you found, is what makes the visit accurate.