What Causes Carpet Moth Infestations in Sandhurst?

The Three Conditions

1. Food. Keratin — wool, silk, feather, fur, hair, felt. Carpet, felt underlay, rugs, upholstery webbing, blankets, uniform, coats
2. Darkness and stillness. Under furniture, inside closed storage, in a room nobody enters
3. An arrival. Eggs or adults have to get in from somewhere

A move supplies all three at once, which is why the cycle matters more here than any individual cause.

The Moving and Storing Cycle

1. Packing. Wool goes into boxes and bags, often not freshly cleaned, often in a rush. Anything already present goes in with it
2. Storage. Months in the dark, undisturbed, at a temperature nobody controls. A generation completes without interruption
3. The empty house at the other end. Unheated, unvacuumed, nothing moved, sometimes for weeks before anyone arrives
4. Unpacking. Boxes opened into carpeted rooms, contents put straight into wardrobes and onto floors
5. The next move. Whatever was not found gets packed again

The Other Ordinary Causes

• Second-hand furniture, particularly upholstered items and rugs
• Items inherited with a property, or left by previous occupants
• Old felt underlay, which is animal fibre and was there before you were
• A rug bought abroad and rolled up in transit
• Birds nesting in the eaves or an unused chimney, feeding a population that then comes down

What Does Not Cause Them

• Not cleanliness of the house. They need stillness, not dirt
• Not food waste — that is a pantry moth, found near kitchen cupboards, and treating the floor for it does nothing
• Not pets in themselves, though shed hair in undisturbed corners is food, so the corners matter

Breaking the Cycle at Each Step

1. Wash or dry-clean wool before it goes into storage, never after it comes out
2. Store clean items sealed and dry, and label the date
3. Check anything coming out of storage before it goes into a wardrobe or onto a floor
4. Vacuum a house properly when you arrive, edges included, and empty the vacuum outside
5. Do not stack boxes on a carpet and leave them for years — put them on something, and move them occasionally
6. Look inside one stored box a year, even if nothing seems wrong

Treatment starts from £220. Tell us what has recently come out of storage and what is still in it — in a household that moves, that is usually where the answer is.