Carpet Moths Under Furniture in Slough: Why Hidden Areas Matter

Why Hidden Areas Are the Whole Problem

Carpet moth larvae need three things: animal fibre to eat, darkness, and to be left alone. Open floor gives them the first and neither of the others, which is why damage in the middle of a room you walk through daily is rare.

Every serious infestation is therefore living somewhere nobody goes. In a house that means under the wardrobe. In a converted building it can mean somewhere that is not yours.

Inside Your Flat: The Ordinary List

• Under divan beds, especially ones with drawers
• Under and behind wardrobes and chests
• Under sofas and armchairs, and the hessian and webbing beneath them
• The carpet edge against the skirting, all the way round
• The base and back corners of fitted cupboards
• Under rugs, and on their undersides
• Inside the airing cupboard, among stored bedding

Move one heavy item at a time, use a torch, and look at the floor and at the underside of whatever was standing on it. Ten minutes does the whole flat.

Outside Your Flat: The List That Matters More

This is where a flat differs from a house, and it is why a thoroughly treated flat can still have moths in it six months later.

• The communal hall, stairs and landing carpet. Usually the oldest carpet in the building, never lifted, and the route past every front door
• The void beneath a suspended floor, which in a converted house is often continuous between flats
• The ceiling void between your floor and the one below
• Riser and service cupboards on the landing
• The bin store, bike store or basement, where discarded carpet and furniture accumulate
• The flat next door or below, if it has the same problem and has not been treated

What You Can Actually Do About the Parts You Do Not Own

1. Look at the communal carpet yourself — you are allowed to look at it, and the edges and corners tell you most of it
2. Photograph what you find, with dates
3. Report it in writing to the managing agent or freeholder, not verbally
4. Ask specifically whether the common parts are being treated, not whether 'something is being done'
5. Ask your immediate neighbours whether they have seen moths — awkward, and it settles the question faster than anything else
6. Seal the gap under your own front door, which is cheap and stops the easiest route

A managing agent who has one written report from one flat has a query. One who has three has a building problem, which is a different item on a different budget.

What To Do Inside Your Own Flat Meanwhile

• Treat all of it rather than the one room where you saw them
• Include rugs, upholstery and stored textiles
• Vacuum the carpet edges, not just the middle, and empty the vacuum outside
• Check under one heavy item every couple of months afterwards
• Keep any dated photographs — they are what makes the building case

Treatment starts from £220. If you are in a converted building, say so when you call, and say whether the common parts are carpeted. It changes what we expect to find and it changes what we tell you afterwards.