Carpet Moths Under Furniture in Theale: Why Hidden Areas Matter

Stillness Is the Variable, Not Dirt

Larvae need keratin to eat, darkness, and to be left alone long enough to complete a generation. Of the three, the last one is what separates a minor problem from a large one.

A sofa in a living room is disturbed weekly by people sitting on it. The same sofa in a garage, under a dust sheet, waiting to go somewhere, is not disturbed at all — and it has hessian, webbing and often natural filling in it.

Stored Furniture: The Actual List

• Upholstered furniture under a dust sheet — the sheet keeps the light out as well as the dust
• Rolled carpet and underlay stood in a corner, which is the single most concentrated food source most houses contain
• Rugs, rolled or folded
• Mattresses stood against a wall
• Divan bases with fabric sides
• Chairs stacked with seat pads still on them
• Anything with a wool or felt underside, stood directly on a concrete floor

In the Rooms: The Ordinary List, Still Worth Doing

• Divan beds, especially with drawers
• Under and behind wardrobes and chests
• Under sofas and armchairs, including the underside
• The carpet edge against the skirting, all the way round
• Fitted cupboard bases and back corners
• Under rugs and on their undersides

The Route From One To the Other

An integral garage, a connecting door, a loft hatch on a landing, a back door used daily. Adults are poor fliers but they do not need to go far, and things get carried in and out constantly.

That is why an outbuilding population so often shows up first in the room next to the connecting door, and why treating that room and nothing else does not hold.

How To Check Stored Items Safely

1. Take the dust sheet off and look underneath, with a torch
2. Unroll a carpet offcut or rug at least partway — the damage is on the inside face
3. Turn upholstered items over and look at the hessian and webbing
4. Look at the floor where each item has been standing
5. For a loft, look from the hatch only. Roof spaces have unboarded joists and no light, and a ceiling will not take a person's weight
6. Bag anything you find before it comes through the house

What To Do With What You Find

• Bag it where it is, then decide — do not carry it through carpeted rooms first
• Old carpet and underlay with damage in it is worth disposing of rather than treating
• Wash or professionally clean anything you want to keep
• Do not put a suspect item into the house 'temporarily'
• Leave the webbing and debris on anything you want treated — it is what shows where to concentrate

Treatment starts from £220. If there is a garage, loft or outbuilding with textiles in it, say so on the call — it is regularly the part of the property that explains the rest.