The Mechanism, and What Follows From It
The sticky card carries a synthetic copy of the female's scent. Males follow it and stick.
- It catches males only — females carry on laying
- It catches adults only — larvae, which do all the damage, are not attracted to anything
- It measures presence and rough intensity, which is real information
- It does not reduce an established population in any meaningful way
Why that is still worth having. The alternative to a trap in a room you rarely enter is finding out in eighteen months, when you open the boxes. A card and a date on it converts an unknown into a number.
The Job They Do Best: Watching a Space You Are Not In
- A spare room used for storage
- A garage or loft with boxes in it
- A house left empty for weeks at a time
- A room where textiles are stored between moves
- A rented storage unit, if you can reach it to check
Put one down, write the date on the card, and look at it whenever you next go in. An empty card after three months is genuinely reassuring. Six moths on it is a problem found a year earlier than it would otherwise have been.
Using Them Properly
- Floor level, not on a shelf — these moths stay low
- Away from draughts, sunlight and doorways in constant use
- One per room or per storage area, numbered, with the date on the card
- Leave at least two weeks before drawing a conclusion
- Replace when the card is dusty or the bait is spent — check the pack, but expect roughly eight to twelve weeks
- Write the counts down. The trend is what matters, not one number
One Thing To Be Careful Of
In a cold garage, loft or unheated room, the count will be low in winter and it does not mean the space is clear. Development slows in the cold and resumes when it warms, so a trap that catches nothing in January can catch steadily in May with nothing having changed except the temperature.
Compare like with like — this spring against last spring, rather than spring against winter.
What They Will Not Tell You
- How many larvae there are, or where
- Whether damage is still spreading
- Reliably which species it is
- Anything in the first fortnight after a treatment, when numbers are disturbed and rise before they fall
- Whether the item in the box next to the trap is affected — a trap is not a substitute for opening the box
Treatment starts from £220. If you have trap counts with dates on them, bring them to the call — for a storage space, they are usually better evidence than anything anyone has seen.
Carpet moths in Sandhurst? Pest Services Berkshire treats carpet moths from £220. Carpet Moth Control in Sandhurst has the full detail, or call 0118 336 1366.